We noted on Friday that a bunch of Religious Right figures were planning a seven-hour prayer rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, while a 15-hour rally organized by dominionist Lou Engle was scheduled for Los Angeles. In advance of the event, organizers of United Cry DC16 called it a gathering of “30,000+ pastors and Christian leaders.” According to the event’s website, “Each time thousands of Christians gathered to pray in Washington, DC, our nation encountered significant events and God intervened.”
The “crowd” at the Lincoln Memorial was far, far short of organizers’ hope that 30,000 “pastors and Christian leaders” would “be led to this historic event.” A few hundred attendees — at best — fit comfortably in the small plaza between the stage and the reflecting pool, the dozens of unnecessary porta-potties standing in silent testimony to the organizers’ unfulfilled hopes. The organizers of the D.C. event had sent an email on Thursday asking people to pray away the rain; those prayers were also not successful.
The gatherings in DC and Los Angeles were covered by GodTV, and WorldNetDaily wrote an upbeat article about the Lincoln Memorial event. The article never offered a description of the size of the crowd, and the headline — “Christians Occupy Washington in ‘Sacred Assembly’” — seems laughably overblown.
WND included video clips of a couple of the speakers praying for a spiritual revival and praying for God to put the right man in the White House next year. Of course, for Rafael Cruz, father of and campaign surrogate for Ted Cruz, there is no question who God’s choice is, even if he didn’t mention Ted by name. Rafael Cruz’s remarks were heavy on the David Barton and David Lane style Christian-nation rhetoric that also fills his recent book:
Father, you raised up America as a beacon of light throughout the world, a country that you set up on the word of God for the propagation of the gospel throughout the world. Father, Lord God, you command us to raise up righteous leaders…Lord God, you tell us to select able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, Father. Lord God, you have given us the prescription on who you want to lead our nation, Father. Father, Lord God, open our eyes….We have been asleep. We’ve been away from the political process, and we’ve allowed the unrighteous to govern us, Father….Father, because the righteous have not exercised their right to vote, the righteous have stayed at home, we’ve allowed the wicked to be elected and impose their wickedness upon We, the people….
Lord God, we have a responsibility before you, to preserve the freedom to worship you, to preserve the freedom to share the gospel unashamedly, Father, and we will fight against the forces of evil that are trying to impose upon us, Lord God, restrictions where our freedom of religion is being trampled upon, where our freedom to protect life is trampled upon….
Father we must shout it from the housetop that Jesus Christ is still Lord of this great nation!
The event closed with remarks from bestselling doomsday author and Messianic Jewish rabbi Jonathan Cahn, who also prayed for revival and asked participants to turn and lift their hands toward the Capitol two miles away, where he noted that in nine months, someone would be standing on the balcony being sworn in as the next president. Cahn’s remarks were also heavy on Christian-nation themes as well as the Religious Right’s defiance against the evils of the country. From Cahn’s remarks:
The answer lies in the name of Y’shua Ha Mashiach, the name by which America came into existence and the only name by which America can be saved…We resolve we will not yield to the darkness…We will not compromise. We will not desist. We will not step down. We will not be silent…
