Rick Perry roared into the presidential race to great acclaim, but he hasn’t exactly been without detractors. His entrance has inspired a rhetorical war about what it means to “vet” candidates and about whether conservatives should vet their own or leave it to the MSM to do that dirty work, as they undoubtedly will.

Multimedia powerhouse Glenn Beck weighed in on that debate this week, saying sources he trusts implicitly have convinced him Rick Perry had a come-to-Jesus moment at some point in his governorship and the problematic Perry of past years has given way to Rick “the Real Deal” Perry, a conservative’s conservative. The Right Scoop reports:

Glenn Beck and his beloved sidekick Pat Gray, who used to live in Texas, recently had a conversation with some people very close to Rick Perry with regard to their concerns about him as a candidate. These are people who Beck, without divulging their identities, says that he trusts and that if he could tell you who they were it would only add credibility to their words. What they told him was that in the last four years Rick Perry has had a God-moment:

Beck: Here’s what I was told and I believe these people because they’re not just bandwagon fans by any stretch of the imagination. … And they said to me ‘Here’s the thing. This guy had a God-moment, if you will, an awakening of something inside of him.’ … I mean he’s always been a spiritual guy but he has had something that has changed in him fundamentally where he’s like ‘OK, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Do I believe this or not? Do I apply this or not?’ And that’s what’s happened to him in the last four years that has put his feet in cement.

Beck said his words weren’t an endorsement of Perry, but were meant as push-back to concerns about Perry as a candidate.