Ron Luce

Last week, Time's Amy Sullivan reported that dozens of Religious Right leaders gathered for "a conference call to discuss their dissatisfaction with the current GOP presidential field, and agreed that Rick Perry would be their preferred candidate if he entered the race."

Brian Kaylor of EthicsDaily.com had reported on the same thing a few weeks back, noting that the effort was being organized by James Robison.

Last Friday, Robison wrote a post on his blog in which explained that he had called these gatherings in September of 2010 and June of 2011 because "there is an insidious attack on God, faith, family and freedom" and that God was planning on using this group of "national leaders to help inspire a spiritual awakening, a return to sanity and a restoration of freedom’s foundation."

And he also conveniently posted a list of every person who had participated:

This June, Lou Engle will be pairing with other prophetic intercessors such as Ron Luce, Jim Garlow,* and Dutch Sheets for 5 days of Call-like prayer and fasting on a ranch near Poplar Bluff, Missouri called "Wilderness Outcry":

In September of 2009 Lou Engle (founder and leader of TheCall) and I stood on this property praying about the possibility of using it for just such a purpose. It is very hard to describe the feeling that overtakes a person as he or she steps onto this beautiful land—God’s presence is truly there. As Lou and I prayed, dreaming of thousands of people gathering there before the Lord, Lou, knowing nothing about Jerry’s prayers, suddenly began to exclaim, "this is Isaiah 44:4!"

God is indeed coming to Poplar Bluff, Missouri this summer to fulfill Isaiah 44:3-5, “I will pour out water on the thirsty…I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring…they will spring up like poplars by streams…one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’…and another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the Lord’…” I truly believe this has the potential to help launch the Third Great Awakening in America. Be a part of God recapturing His dream for America. I assure you this is His idea—and He will come! It’s not a camp, it’s a consecration!

Organizer Dutch Sheets explains that the nation must come together in prayer and repentance to ask God to forgive us for having elected President Obama and the Democrats ... and even then, "our only hope [is] for a reduced sentence. Judgment cannot be fully averted but it can be lessened":

If God brought corrective but serious judgment to Israel, we are horribly deceived if we think it will not happen to us. If something doesn’t happen to lessen this judgment—and it can be lessened–we are headed for very difficult times. The economy is going to be devastated. The stock market will go well below where it went a few months back—a crash is coming, and soon. More terrorism and violence will occur in our land, perhaps even war. In my spirit I’ve seen buildings crumbling and cities burning. Devastating natural disasters will take place. In general, hard times will be prevalent. Why is this so? Because we have turned from God and His ways. Consider the true condition of America. This assessment is bleak but accurate.

1) Our government is in decay. The current leaders of Congress promote homosexuality, abortion and socialism, while arrogantly ignoring God and the wishes of the people. They are proud, power-hungry, self- serving, career politicians, not the statesmen/women we so desperately need. Our President fits the same description. Along with the above, while honoring—in the White House—the Muslim day of prayer, homosexual activists and a coalition of atheists, he refused to honor the time-honored traditions surrounding the National Day of Prayer. And along with Congress and the President, we have many Judges with no regard for God’s word, the Constitution or our true history. The predictable verdict is in: America is in a moral and spiritual crisis of such magnitude that it is almost unbelievable.

...

It is not too late for America. Together we can release the transforming effect of a Third Great Awakening. If Woodstock 40 years ago could change a nation, what could thousands of believers crying out to God for several days accomplish?!

* UPDATE: Jim Garlow has informed us that he was in no way involved with this event.  Our apologies for mistakenly asserting that he was.

Last week, when it was first announced that variety of Religious Right groups were banding together under the moniker of the Freedom Federation, I wrote a post trying to figure out how this new effort was supposedly different from the previous or already existing right-wing coalitions that do promote many of the same issues and include many of the same groups.

Over the last few days, key figures of the member organizations have been granting interviews and explaining a little more about just what is the purpose of this new group.  We recently learned that one of the purposes of the coalition was to try and overcome the divisions within its own ranks in order to present a unified front.

And now we find out that, once this new unified front is in place, we can expect the Federation to weigh in on topics that extend beyond the Right's traditional cultural issues and, more importantly, use it to try and re-brand itself:

In the coming months, the federation will likely issue a position statement on health care reform, and express their opposition to federal funding of abortion and efforts to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. But participants said the group will address issues beyond those typically championed by Christian conservatives.

"[The federation] will have a biblical bent as its priority," said Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, a network of mostly African-American and Hispanic ministries. "The religious right has really, seemingly, specialized in dealing with a handful of issues and has not engaged in terms of political activism in issues that would be considered social justice issues."

"So the opportunity is for us to be relevant in terms of what's being decided now," he added, pointing to the environment, health care and immigration reform. "All of these issues have a biblical perspective that can unify us."

Jackson said the federation also hopes to change the "very severe image problem" that politically active Christians have in the culture. He said the federation's multiethnic membership will not only help change public perception but also provide more holistic policy recommendations.

Earlier this year, many of the Freedom Federation's members started complaining about being labeled as the "Religious Right" because the term has negative connotations.  This seems to be something of an attempt to accomplish that by building a larger coalition that includes African American and Hispanic groups as equal partners and speaks out on a wider variety of issues.

Of course, the fact that this new effort is made up entirely of Religious Right groups means its probably going to be rather difficult for them to distance themselves from the term "Religious Right."  After all, a coalition made up of a dozen or so Religious Right groups is itself a Religious Right group.

Beyond that, it is going to be even harder for them to change their image when Freedom Federation members are basically admitting that the effort is little more than an attempt to "put a new face" on their traditional agenda.

Teen Mania founder Ron Luce said the federation's broad participation may also help engage younger believers, who often see religious conservatives as harsh and condescending.

"Our interest is in trying to help shape the communication to the younger generation so they're more willing to embrace what the Bible says and live conservative values from the Scriptures," Luce said.

"The whole point of the federation is groups coming together saying, let us put a new face on and a new amiable stance in what we believe," he added. "Not changing what we believe, but a more amiable approach as well as a more thorough approach. It's not just two issues; we're talking about all kinds of issues and principles from Scriptures that we as believers ought to care about-not associating ourselves with a particular political party. It's about, let's live conservatively in our own personal lives and then let's make our voice known."