While both are men of genuine faith, Perry (life-long evangelical) is going to be more overtly Christian in his faith statements than the former president, who became a Methodist but was raised by New England Episcopalians

Many people assume Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a carbon copy of George W. Bush. Well, he isn’t. Those who either love or despise former president Bush need to understand that Perry should be neither accepted nor rejected based on their opinion of Bush.

Indeed, as the nation heads with full force into the 2012 election cycle, many of Perry’s opponents in and out of the news media will try to tear down the Texas governor as “Bush, continued.” To do so would be neither honest nor fair to either man.

As a sixth-generation Texan of similar age and life experiences, perhaps I can explain some differences between the two. Of course, it will be up to voters to decide whether these differences make a difference.

The same, only different
Bush moved to Texas as a toddler and eagerly embraced the Texas ethos. Texans love people who move to the state and embrace its “Don’t Mess With Texas” creed. They smile when they see bumper stickers proclaiming, “I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could.”

Perry, however, is the son of tenant farmers from the West Texas hamlet of Paint Creek, outside Abilene. Texas is his DNA. Perry has often said that while they did not have much financially, his family was rich in the things that mattered. He attended Texas A&M when it was permeated by an all-male, all-military culture, which Perry embraced, becoming a “yell leader” (A&M’s version of a cheerleader on steroids).

Bush, by contrast, was raised by wealthy New Englanders, summered in Maine and attended Yale and Harvard. In this case, parentage made more than just a stark economic difference.

In many ways, I have lived between George W.’s and Rick Perry’s worlds. Like Perry, I was raised in modest circumstances. Like Bush, I went to an Ivy League school. Like Perry, I had a Texan father, and like Bush, a New England mother. My father imparted to me the sheer sense of “anything is possible” that is the Texas heritage, but my Bostonian mother reminded me that biggest is not always best and loudest is not always wisest — Texas with perspective, a rare gift. All three of us had fathers who were World War II combat veterans. Their dads were pilots, my dad a Navy chief. We are all proud of our fathers’ patriotic service.

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Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville.