Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) is organizing a giant prayer-fest to help tackle the nation’s problems, but some of its celebrated participants have unusual ideas about exactly what’s wrong in America today. For example: mass pagan worship of the demonic Statue of Liberty.
The website for Perry’s “The Response” lists Dr. John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network prominently on its website as one of the event’s endorsers, but Benefiel’s vision of America is one that excludes Lady Liberty and her evil, secular, French Freemason agenda. Right Wing Watch recently posted video of a Benefiel sermon in which he condemned the famed Statue of Liberty, one of the nation’s most beloved icons and a symbol of hope to incoming immigrants for over a century, as a “demonic idol” and “false goddess” sent to turn Americans away from God.
Here’s a partial transcript:
BENEFIEL: You know there’s a statue in New York harbor called the Statue of Liberty.You know where we got it from? French Freemasons. Listen folks that is an idol, a demonic idol, right there in New York harbor. People say, ‘well no it’s patriotic.’ What makes it patriotic? Why is it? It’s a statue of a false goddess, the Queen of Heaven. We don’t get liberty from a false goddess folks, we get our liberty from Jesus Christ and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no connection whatsoever. So I’m just telling you we practice idolatry in America in ways that we don’t even recognize.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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