Dancing with the Devil

Well, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a bill into law this week; in the gymnasium of a Christian church school. Not that you would know that from the Governor's own website or press release. Speaking as someone who grew up in an East Texas town with both a Catholic church and a Jewish synagogue (but dominated by Southern Baptists), I have to say that's just a bit beyond the pale.

And a sign of Perry's political desperation.

Non-Texans do have to understand that the office of Governor in Texas is largely a ceremonial post. This is the entire list of duties of the Texas Governor:

Signing or vetoing bills passed by the Legislature.

Serving as commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.

Convening special sessions of the Legislature for specific purposes.

Delivering a report on the condition of the state to the Legislature at the beginning of each regular session.

Estimating of the amounts of money required to be raised by taxation.

Accounting for all public moneys received and paid out by him and recommending a budget for the next two years.

Granting reprieves and commutations of punishment and pardons upon the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and revoking conditional pardons.

Declaring special elections to fill vacancies in certain elected offices.

Appointing qualified Texans to state offices that carry out the laws and direct the policies of state government. Some of these offices are filled by appointment only. Others are ordinarily elected by the people, but the Governor must occasionally appoint individuals to fill vacancies in those offices. The Governor also appoints Texans to a wide range of advisory bodies and task forces that assist him with specific issues.

Not much room there to actually "govern," you understand. Indeed, the post has always been understood to be largely ceremonial, and until Ann Richards turned it into a national platform, was certainly never seen as a springboard to higher office. Now Perry has made it so ceremonial that he's "signed" a proposed constitutional amendment, which, even under Texas' arcane Reconstruction-era Constitution, has no effect at all. Still, Perry has to reach for whatever attention he can get, especially since the Texas Legislature failed to pass a law reforming school finance. Texas schools face a takeover by a state judge in October if the current school finance laws are not changed. And since the Texas legislature meets only for six months every two years (I told you it was an arcane Constitution), he'll have to call a special session quickly, to fix that "little problem."

Perry's "ceremony" is precisely why Baptist ministers in the 19th century argued against mixing politics and religion: because the state is powerful, and eventually bends even the church to its will. Their idea of "reform" extended not just to church doctrine, but to the separation of church and state so that the concerns of the state would not corrupt the moral imperatives of the church. They saw such corruption as inevitable. Campaigning in church may be acceptable (if, to me, distasteful), but that's politics. As Bill Schneider said on CNN, signing laws is governmental. Of course, the churches which align themselves with government now have lost almost all claim to moral authority. I want to say that if they dance with the devil, the devil will call the tune.

But when I consider the "morality" of Pat Robertson's diamond mine investments, or Jerry Falwell's pronouncements on social issues, or mega churches that put up billboards screaming: "We Believe In You!", then I know that, whatever else they are, they are no longer churches. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and Joel Osteen are not concerned with being pastors, with covenants with God and obligations given with promises: they are only concerned with the material well-being of the institutions they have shaped around themselves. Church can only be concerned with corruption from associating too closely with government, when church is concerned first with doing God's will. The churches that align themselves with the politics of the GOP have gone so far in forgetting their purpose it's almost impossible to chastise them as churches anymore; and the only recourse left, is to chastise the politicians.