Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, announcing he was quitting the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
I began this race with a sense of calling — I felt led into the arena to fight for the future of this country. I feel no different than I did then, knowing the calling never represents a particular outcome.
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Jerry Polinard, a University of Texas-Pan American professor, on Rick Perry’s presidential campaign.
Bluntly, some of his supporters asked me, ‘Is he really that stupid?’ . . . You’d rather be laughed at for shooting a coyote, not for saying, ‘Oops.’
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, comparing himself to Moses as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in South Carolina.
Moses, he tried to talk god out of making him go lead the people. He wasn’t a good speaker. Now, from time to time I can relate to that.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts, on Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s opposition to gay marriage.
There is an absolute historical pattern to the bigotry of social conservatives. They rally using terms of moral Armageddon against the freedoms sought by some despised or condescended to Other, whether that be a woman wanting to work outside the home, a Jew seeking to join the country club, an African American trying to get home on a city bus. Then the freedoms are won, and people — even socially conservative ones — realize the world kept spinning after all. Armageddon did not come. Only change.
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Jill “J.R.” Labbe, editorial director of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, on religion and politics.
It’s baffling that so many Christians allow themselves to succumb to the ‘us vs. them’ mindset ignited by politics. Jesus didn’t care one nit about creating a Christian nation. He was about creating Christians, although that label would have meant nothing to the devout Jew. He neither asked nor expected government to help him in that mission.
