I never thought that there could be a potential Republican candidate for the upcoming election that I despised as much as Mitt Romney. While I don’t care for the Federal Reserve puppet strings on Herman Cain, or the bible thumping blank stare of Palin, or the shameless homophobia of Rick Santorum, there is another candidate that I despise to the same point of shaking that I do with Mitt Romney. Can you guess who? I’ll give you some hints: He’s from Texas, His initials are RP, and a lot of people don’t think he has a snowballs chance in hell for the nomination.

No, it’s not Ron Paul (how dare you even think that, blasphemy!) it’s Texas Governor Rick Perry, who some think might be the next George W. Bush. But Rick Perry isn’t just another pro-war, anti-freedom, Christ crazed neo-con from Texas, he’s a game changer, he’s breaking down walls. Specifically the wall that separates the church and state. This year Governor Perry will be participating in an all day Christian prayer event on August 6th and has even been thoughtful enough to invite every governor in the country to join him and remind the American people which God their country is under.

The prayer day meeting is being hosted by the American Family Association and will take place at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The promoters of the event have stressed that this is an apolitical gathering. They stressed this point on their website which is linked from the governors. For those who aren’t familiar with the American Family Association, it’s a fundamentalist evangelical right-wing Christian group whose activities include lobbying for the criminalization of pornography and homosexuality and spreading the belief that gays caused the Holocaust.

In addition to consisting entirely of self-righteous f***heads, the AFA is notoriously political, having started dozens of boycotts against businesses which support causes or endorse events and entertainment which they feel to be immoral and there fore unsuitable for them and the rest of us. How generous of them. I’m not surprised that Governor Perry has no problem being linked with such a group, if anything it merely gathers him more favor from his inbred voter base, however regardless of how many Confederate flag waving Jesus freaks nod their head in approval of the governors actions there is no escaping the fact that his promotion on the event is a clear violation of the separation of church and state.

Governor Perry is an elected official, and his promotion of this “Prayer Day” implies that evangelical Christianity has a preferential status to other religions in the state of Texas, which it does, however this is due to cultural factors and doesn’t need a governors mandate. As a proud Texan and heathen I can honestly say that I don’t want the governor of my state to promote an event organized by the equivalent of the Christian Mob. While I can accept through gritted teeth that Texas will be a largely evangelical state for the rest of my life, I refuse to allow the governor to promote Christianity using his position as governor of the great state of Texas. It’s an insult to the governors office, it’s an insult to the Constitution and it’s an insult to Texas. A state with that much balls should be recognized for Pantera and BBQ, not George W. Bush and prayer days.