Rick Perry, the outgoing U.S. energy secretary and former longtime governor of Texas, stirred up a pre-Thanksgiving social media storm with his comments on Fox News about God’s role — as Perry sees it — in choosing the president.
Not surprisingly, some major media reports boiled down Perry’s perspective to say that Donald Trump was “ordained by God” to lead America:
That is an accurate but wholly incomplete assessment of Perry’s words.
“How media misinformation spreads...” is how one Twitter user — Steve Krakauer — characterized CNN Politics’ tweet:
Others chimed in:
The thing is, for those who bothered to click the CNN link, the actual headline and story (by religion editor Daniel Burke) were pretty good. The headline mentioned Trump and Obama, and Burke put Perry’s words — all of them — into a helpful context:
(CNN) Like a lot of evangelical Christians, Energy Secretary Rick Perry believes in a God who gets involved in every aspect of our lives -- including the election of Donald Trump as President.
"I'm a big believer that the God of our universe is still very active in the details of the day-to-day lives of government," Perry told Fox News in remarks aired on Sunday.
"You know, Barack Obama doesn't get to be the President of the United States without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump."
Perry went on to say that being God's instrument on Earth doesn't mean that Trump is a perfect person. Echoing the argument of other white evangelical Christians, the Texas Republican went on to cite several biblical figures, including King David, whose private lives didn't always align with biblical standards.
Perry is just the latest evangelical Christian in the Trump administration to say they believe the President is divinely ordained.
Washington Post religion writer Julie Zauzmer also offered insightful coverage.
Meanwhile, a one-column headline on the front page of today’s Dallas Morning News, a major newspaper in Perry’s home state of Texas, declared:
God chose
president,
Perry says
Outgoing Energy chief
draws parallels between
Trump, Old Testament kings
Hey, fitting all the important context and details into a small amount of space in a print newspaper is difficult. Trust me.
The Dallas newspaper’s online headlines were much better:
Rick Perry says God chose both Trump and Obama to be president; says great leaders have flaws
The outgoing Energy secretary said God has worked through “imperfect” individuals throughout history, drawing parallels to Trump and Old Testament kings in a Fox & Friends interview.
The newspaper’s lede included both Trump and Obama:
WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Rick Perry declared that God chose Donald Trump — and Barack Obama — to lead the United States. In an interview on Fox, the former Texas governor also said he’s assured the president that some of the greatest biblical leaders were flawed as part of an effort to “minister” to Trump.
As several news reports note, this isn’t the first time comments concerning Trump and God have been thrust into the headlines. Remember Secretary of State Mike Pompeo likening Trump to a modern-day Queen Esther earlier this year?
Want more context?
Check out this analysis piece at Religion News Service.
P.S. It looks like RNS has a new design for its website. I like it. The previous site used a format that included mugshots with writers’ names, and too often, RNS didn’t have mugshots in those spaces. This new design eliminates that annoyance.