Texas Gov. Rick Perry really seems comfortable around some rather apocalyptic types these days. Case in point: FOX News commentator Glenn Beck.
Beck is an admirer of James Dobson, who founded the religious-right group Focus on the Family. Beck brought Dobson on to his show a while back to talk about prayer in schools, declaring that some people “want to remove God from America entirely.” Across the bottom of the screen was a caption reading, “Progressives want to remove God from America.” (That surely must come as a shock to the tens of millions of people of faith in America whose political views are, in fact, progressive.)
Beck also seems to buy into the End Times theology of the fringes of the fundamentalist right. He was recently interviewed by Newsmax Magazine for a sidebar accompanying an article called “Will He Return?” The main article explores the beliefs of those who see Jesus Christ’s return and the destruction of the world as imminent. Beck tells Newsmax that he sees signs of the coming apocalypse in President Obama’s administration. (Scroll to the bottom of the Newmax page for the short interview with Beck.)
Then this past week Beck went after President Obama on immigration reform and other perceived sins, suggesting that the president might as well “just set us on fire.” He doused a colleague with liquid from a gasoline can (Beck apparently assured viewers later that it was only water) and held up a match as if he were about to set the poor fellow aflame. Entertaining, yes?
After Beck finished with that display of unhinged paranoia, Alex Koppelman notes, he brought on to his show none other than Gov. Perry. Beck asked: “Governor, you’re regretting being on this program at this point, are you not, sir?” Gov. Perry responded: “Not at all, Glenn Beck. I’m proud to be with you.”
Really?
