Texas Governor Rick Perry has been flirting with a Presidential run for 2012 for the last several months, hitting the right states, calling up special interests like The Family Leader (remember the "Marriage Vow" Pledge?) and courting all of the right people to put himself in the race. Most recently Perry has announced his intention to hold a religious revival of prayer and fasting for our troubled nation, to be held in the 71,000 seat Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. In doing this, however, he's touched off a storm of criticism; calling it blatant exploitation of religion for political purposes, "Jesus-centered" religious-exclusion, and bald-faced pandering to conservative evangelicals. In a way, it's all of those things, and at it's center doesn't seem to be all that Christian at all.

     Tomorrow, an estimated 8,000 Christians from all over the country are expected to descend on Houston for a day of prayer, praise music, and inspirational messages, no doubt with a side of right-wing sermonizing and political stumping, to help heal our nation. In Perry's words, ""With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis, people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God's help, and that's why I'm calling on Americans to pray and fast like Jesus did." What is really raising eyebrows are some of the individuals and organizations that are sponsoring or attending the 7-hour event.

     The Mississippi-based American Family Association is funding the event. The group holds a strict social conservative platform; condemning homosexuality, opposes abortion rights, and has campaigned on the notion that First Amendment rights only apply to Christian Americans. In fact, the organization has so vehemently attacked homosexuals, even spreading misinformation, that they have been labeled a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Perry has received criticism for his involvement with the group of late, as reported by The Houston Chronicle.

     Other participants include, according to National Public Radio;

— John Hagee, a San Antonio evangelist whose endorsement was rejected by John McCain in 2008 because of Hagee's anti-Catholic statements.

— Mike Bickle, a founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo., who has called Oprah Winfrey a "pastor of the harlot of Babylon."

— Alice Patterson, founder of Justice at the Gate, in San Antonio, who has written that there is "a demonic structure behind the Democratic Party."

— And then there's John Benefiel, head of the Oklahoma-based Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, who once said this about 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 the middle of New York Harbor."

     It's clear that Rick Perry is further disenfranchising himself from the middle and swing votes if he were to seek a Presidential nomination. This is clearly a fringe event, and though it may endear him to a high evangelical turn-out, it won't win him any favors in the long run. In fact, Perry is expected to announce before the Iowa Straw Poll, which will have a high showing of Christian evangelicals in that state. However, soon after we'll likely see a precipitous decline as his right-wing fringe credentials fizzle in the face of more moderate debate.