(CNSNews.com) – GOP presidential candidate and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said Friday that “if people are looking for government to be their savior, they’re looking in the wrong place.”
When asked if there was a spiritual crisis in the country now, Perry said, “I can only speak for myself, and I know where my hope for the future is, is in my Lord and savior. Everybody else is going to find that place for them too.”
“If people are looking for government to be their savior, they’re looking at the wrong place. The things we have in this country, they were given to us by God, not by government,” he said.
“And now if you call a spiritual crisis relying on government as a crisis, I will suggest to you we have a spiritual crisis if you’re looking for government to be your savior,” Perry added.
Perry, who ran for president four years ago, admitted that he wasn’t prepared during his first presidential run. He admitted that he had to recast himself in part because of the gaffe he made when he failed to name the third government agency he would eliminate if he were president during a GOP presidential debate in Rochester, Mich., in 2011.
“Anyone who’s done this more than once is recasting themselves,” Perry told “Morning Joe.”
“We’ve spent a lot of time and preparation for this moment. I knew that if I was going to be a legitimate candidate, give myself an opportunity to be successful, I had to spend substantial time and preparation on monetary policy, domestic policy, on foreign policy. We’ve done that,” he said.