WorldPeace comes to Palestine

Dear Reporters and other Democratic Party Leaders

I just wanted you all to know that the race for governor was just decided with Perry's latest prayer wobble. WorldPeace wins.

For the last few weeks several of you have wrongly touted how Tricky Rick Perrry had made an issue of school prayer. You did this knowing that Perry was only reacting to the prayer in school issue that I had put out several weeks prior to Perry making his stand. He was reacting because of his fear that I would cut into his Christian constituency. In the interim, none of you made any comment as to the truth of what was really going on.

Then several of you made things worse by quoting Don Sanchez on the school prayer issue and again refused as part of those articles to reference me. You did this knowing that Don Sanchez is the premier poster person for corruption and immoral, unethical and criminal behavior; and knowing the depth of my personal religious research which I have posted on my WorldPeace Peace Page over the last 6 years.

Now the Reverend David Johnson has been inspired by God to call a meeting in Palestine to rally support for returning prayer to the schools and teaching our children that this nation is a nation under God. A date was set for December 17 for the governor to come to Palestine and speak out for God. And yet when he was put to the test, Tricky Rick, just like with his 82 vetoes where he abandoned the desires of the people, abandoned God as he feared the loss of votes that would come with taking a stand on the wrong side of a volatile issue like prayer in the schools.

Tricky Rick is just a Coca Cola Cowboy posing as governor. He is a man who is led by the people instead of leading in these terroristic times. He is a man who will not stand up for God because he thinks the people may vote him out of office. He is a man who has been tested by the fire and has come up wanting. A man who wants the trappings of leadership but not the responsibility of leading.

A man who will not stand up for God, when the money in his pocket says "In God we Trust", a man who cannot acknowledge God even as he pledges allegiance to "one nation under God", and a man who lacks an understanding of this nation even as he sings "God Bless America." This man is Rick Perry, our hollow man governor.

And then there is Tony Sanchez the drug using, Mafia friendly, draft dodging, money laundering, corrupt banker and choice for governor of the majority of the Democratic Party leadership. Do you really think that Tony Sanchez is going to come to Palestine and stand up for God? Do you really think that Tony Sanchez is going to come to Palestine and face WorldPeace? Never! The darkness that is corruption and evil can never stand up against the light of truth and justice much less acknowledge the light of God. 

WorldPeace is coming to Palestine to help lead the people back to an understanding that our democratic Constitution embraces God even as it prohibits promoting any particular religion. WorldPeace is coming to Palestine to stand with all those people who have felt a calling to right a misinterpretation of the law of the land. WorldPeace is coming to Palestine to do the right thing even as some citizens try to keep this nation's God out of this state's schools.

In these terroristic times, when a loud and clear message has been sent to the people of this nation, WorldPeace is coming to Palestine to affirm that he has heard that message and he is coming to affirm his belief that this is still one nation under one God which has and always will embody the light of truth, justice and equality for all religions, all races, all nations, and women as well as men. 

The pace of things has undeniably increased. Events are taking place which necessitate strong, unwavering leadership, committed to equality and justice for all. Leadership which is devoid of corruption, lacking in the insatiable desire for money accumulated at the expense of society as a whole and at the sacrifice of our children who are lured to the deadly pleasures of illegal drugs.

Everyday now people are praying to God for help in these troubled times even as our children are denied the right to pray as a group at school to that same God in whom virtually all Americans place their faith and under whom the founding fathers manifested our democracy. It is time to return this nation to coherent thinking where the God in our pocket is acknowledged in our schools as everywhere else.

The twentieth century is gone, and it is time to jettison the dinosaurs like Tricky Rick Perry who will sell out Texas for campaign dollars and it is time to indict those like Tony Sanchez who embraces the drug lords who are enslaving our children.

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

November 21, 2001

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Nov. 20, 2001, 8:03PM

Perry modifies stance on prayer 
Supports `moment of silence' in schools, spokeswoman says 

By POLLY ROSS HUGHES 

Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau 

AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry apparently has backed away from a controversial position endorsing organized prayer in public schools, although it had won praise in conservative circles. 

"He supports measures like the moment of silence that gives Texans the opportunity to experience the comfort and strength that their faith can provide," the governor's spokeswoman, Kathy Walt, said Tuesday. 

Last month, the governor championed organized religious invocations at public school events after bowing his head "in Jesus' name" at an East Texas middle school assembly. 

"Why can't we say a prayer at a football game or a patriotic event like we held at Palestine Middle School?" Perry later asked at a news conference. "I don't understand the logic of that. I happen to think it was appropriate." 

This week, the Palestinian Ministerial Alliance invited the governor to return and be the keynote speaker for a "Restore Prayer in School Rally" Dec. 17. 

"We feel it necessary to take action while emotions are fervent," David F. Johnson, pastor of Christ Community Church, wrote in a letter inviting the governor to speak. Johnson pointed specifically to the school assembly where the governor had prayed with students. 

"We unanimously agree that God was the author of the events that day and that he is ordaining our actions now," he said. 

Perry -- who earlier said he'd campaign for school prayer in his re-election bid -- might find his schedule too crowded to accept an opportunity to do so, Walt said. 

"It arrived awfully late for trying to get the governor to attend," she said. "He's booked for months in advance most of the time. He already has some events scheduled for that day." 

A spokeswoman for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez, who supports legally sanctioned moments of "neutral" silence, said she was not aware whether the group had invited Sanchez. 

Democratic contender John WorldPeace said he will be at the evening rally at Palestine's Southside Baptist Church. 

"For me, school prayers to God are legal but praying in the name of Jesus or Buddha violates the Constitution," he said. 

The rally will include a petition drive to bring back organized prayers at school functions. Unlike a moment of silence, which appears legal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that organized prayer at schools violates the separation of church and state. Subsequent rulings have upheld the ban. 

The prayer and school assembly last month was organized by Republican state Sen. Todd Staples of Palestine, a Perry backer. 

"I intend to attend," he said of the new pro-prayer rally. "I think a clear difference exists between promoting a government mandated religion and hearing a prayer at a school assembly or football game." 

Staples and Johnson both called for "tolerance" of a majority religion to express its prayers at school or elsewhere. 

Staples said he sees little difference between the prayers that open each session of the Texas Senate and the prayers some parents believe their children should learn at school. 

Johnson, who describes himself as a fundamentalist Christian, said minorities of Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist faiths should have the right to say their prayers, too. But he called for "tolerance" of the majority culture. 

Samantha Smoot of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors the activities of religious groups in schools, said she doesn't think Americans are ready to abandon the separation of church and state. 

"Parents should not have to worry when they put their child on a bus in the morning that a teacher or a school official is going to pray in a way that may not be in the family's tradition," she said.