{"id":966,"date":"2011-08-08T14:46:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T18:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=966"},"modified":"2011-08-08T14:51:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T18:51:28","slug":"rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html","title":{"rendered":"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Gov. Rick Perry held his much-publicized &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/2011\/08\/breaking-news-rick-perry-prays\/\" target=\"_blank\">some say too publicized<\/a>, but I strongly disagree &#8212; daylong prayer rally in Houston on Saturday. Check out coverage of &#8220;The Response&#8221; from <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com\/2011\/08\/06\/perry-mixes-political-script-with-scripture\/\" target=\"_blank\">CNN<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/old.news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20110807\/ap_on_el_pr\/us_perry_s_prayer_rally\" target=\"_blank\">AP<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritual-politics.org\/2011\/08\/the_significance_of_perrys_response.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Silk&#8217;s Spiritual Politics blog<\/a>.\u00a0Let&#8217;s see if this does better than the prospective presidential candidate&#8217;s prayers<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/metropolitan\/7677620.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Flrel+%28HoustonChronicle.com+--+Religion%29\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a>for rain\u00a0to end the Texas drought (see the seventh paragraph of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/metropolitan\/7677620.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Flrel+%28HoustonChronicle.com+--+Religion%29\" target=\"_blank\">the Houston Chronicle&#8217;s<\/a> story).<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, atheists in the U.S. Army have won the right to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/08\/05\/fort-bragg-atheist-concert_n_919800.html\" target=\"_blank\">hold a &#8220;Rock Beyond Belief&#8221; concert for nonbelievers<\/a>. See, there are <em>some<\/em> atheists in foxholes &#8212; though presumably if Perry becomes commander in chief, he&#8217;ll pray for their salvation.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the U.S. economy and our troops &#8212; especially the Navy Seals, who<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/08\/07\/world\/asia\/07afghanistan.html?scp=2&amp;sq=afghanistan+and+SEALs+and+crash+and+Bin+Laden&amp;st=cse\" target=\"_blank\"> suffered an awful loss in Afghanistan<\/a> over the weekend (not the same guys who killed Osama bin Laden) &#8212; prayers are going out for the people of Japan, who are <a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/ncr-today\/scenes-nagasakis-prayer-atomic-victims\" target=\"_blank\">commemorating the 66th anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,<\/a> and of course still recovering from this year&#8217;s nuclear disaster.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p>*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to\u00a0<strong>subscribe to Belief Beat\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to\u00a0<\/a><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Gov. Rick Perry held his much-publicized &#8212; some say too publicized, but I strongly disagree &#8212; daylong prayer rally in Houston on Saturday. Check out coverage of &#8220;The Response&#8221; from CNN, AP and Mark Silk&#8217;s Spiritual Politics blog.\u00a0Let&#8217;s see if this does better than the prospective presidential candidate&#8217;s prayers\u00a0for rain\u00a0to end the Texas drought&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[399,396,137,305,304,14,13,395,115,397,400,134,64,398,401],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-afghanistan","tag-agnostics","tag-al-qaeda","tag-atheism","tag-atheists","tag-christianity","tag-evangelical-christians","tag-gov-rick-perry","tag-japan","tag-military-religious-freedom","tag-nuclear-disaster","tag-osama-bin-laden","tag-religious-freedom","tag-seal-team-6","tag-taliban"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas Gov. Rick Perry held his much-publicized &#8212; some say too publicized, but I strongly disagree &#8212; daylong prayer rally in Houston on Saturday. Check out coverage of &#8220;The Response&#8221; from CNN, AP and Mark Silk&#8217;s Spiritual Politics blog.\u00a0Let&#8217;s see if this does better than the prospective presidential candidate&#8217;s prayers\u00a0for rain\u00a0to end the Texas drought&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-08T18:46:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-08T18:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along - Belief Beat","og_description":"Texas Gov. Rick Perry held his much-publicized &#8212; some say too publicized, but I strongly disagree &#8212; daylong prayer rally in Houston on Saturday. Check out coverage of &#8220;The Response&#8221; from CNN, AP and Mark Silk&#8217;s Spiritual Politics blog.\u00a0Let&#8217;s see if this does better than the prospective presidential candidate&#8217;s prayers\u00a0for rain\u00a0to end the Texas drought&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2011-08-08T18:46:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-08T18:51:28+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html","name":"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-08T18:46:19+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-08T18:51:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/08\/rick-perry-prays-for-america-while-army-atheists-go-marching-along.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rick Perry Prays for America, While Army Atheists Go Marching Along"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}