Texas Gov. Rick Perry received a standing ovation from the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., as he called on conservatives to reject picking a presidential candidate who would divide the electorate. Perry continued his not-so-subtle shot at GOP front-runner by saying Christians are primarily concerned with their citizenship status in God’s kingdom and that demeaning foreign people is antithetical to Christian teaching.
“Our anger must be put to constructive use,” Perry told the crowd. “We cannot make the mistake of replacing a liberal divider-in chief with a conservative divider-in-chief. The message has always been greater than the individual.”
Perry urged the crowd to avoid the cult of personality.
“In America, we don’t elect kings, we overthrow them,” he said. “Those of us who are voting in the Republican Primary, we’re not electing a king who will dictate to us, but a a leader that will listen to us. Those of us who are in Christ we already have a king.”
Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are the first two major presidential candidates to drop out of the GOP race for the White House. While Walker did not appear, Perry spoke to the largely Christian conservative crowd and received loud applause.
