The One Voice Prayer Movement, launched by White House aide Paula White and a group of dominionist religious-right leaders one year ago, held an Election Day prayer call at noon Tuesday. As Right Wing Watch has reported, the movement serves as an unofficial public relations and political outreach arm of the Trump campaign and has promoted voices of Christian nationalism..
“It’s a definite do-or-die situation,” White’s chief of staff and the call’s emcee Todd Lamphere said about Election Day. “It’s a definite fork in the road for America.”
During the call, Lamphere praised God for the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, adding, “I think that was just God saying to America, ‘P.S. I love you.’”
Lamphere introduced other religious-right leaders and asked them to pray about some aspect of the election and government. Lamphere’s first guest speakers were former congressman Randy Forbes and Summer Ingram of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation. Forbes prayed that God would bless the election and that the U.S. would continue to be “a light to the world for your kingdom.”
Ingram was more specific, praying by name for representatives who are in tight races and are members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus—and more generally for a conservative majority:
We’ve agreed for your plans and purposes to prevail in these elections over their elections. We pray strength for them, favor. We pray energy. We pray for the finances. We declare that every work against them that would undermine your plans and purposes are thwarted in Jesus name. We also pray, Father, for, in general, we pray for a majority—for the righteous to win the majority by a large margin in the House of Representatives. God ,that we would see you move the hearts of voters to choose righteousness, the righteous platforms, the righteous leaders, God, in their district as their member of Congress. God, we are looking to you to literally intervene to do whatever it takes to ensure that we see righteousness prevail in this election in every election related to the House of Representatives.
Lamphere next turned the microphone over to Yolanda McCune of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, asking her to pray that the church would understand its role in the voting process and in the nation’s healing. McCune talked about the church as the ekklesia, a biblical term that dominionists use to define the church as “the legislative arm of God,” and prayed that Christians would understand that “they are to be an influence into the whole world.” She prayed that God would understand that “this is the spiritual warfare we’re in” and asked that God would “supernaturally and spiritually, break up the deep waters of any evil that have come in Jesus name.
Lamphere introduced Intercessors for America’s Dave Kubal, noting that the two of them have been traveling across the country in a series of “Faith in America” rallies. Kubal said they had seen “a combination of intercession and action” that he found “remarkable.”
Jason Yates of My Faith Votes also joined the call. My Faith Votes is one of several major religious-right political operations that work to identify and turn out conservative Christian voters and get them to vote according to a “biblical worldview.” Lamphere asked Yates to pray that God would change people’s votes at the last minute:
I’d like you to pray that, that God’s people ,that the Spirit of God would so move upon the people of God, that even if they were going into the booth, and were going to vote against biblical values, that God’s Spirit would just really grab them at that moment. And that they would, that they would turn their vote.
Yates said that he thinks a lot of the Christians who don’t vote, or don’t vote “biblically,” are “just lazy.” Others are discouraged or weary or fearful, he said. And some are “self-righteous”—a label he put on Christians who don’t think they can vote for Trump. “And lastly, I think people are just deceived—deceived around biblical issues and deceived that there’s a separation of church and state and that maybe they shouldn’t go to the polls because of this or that their faith shouldn’t matter when they cast their vote. And so we need to pray against off of these things.”
Lamphere engaged Yates in a conversation about voters “getting hung up on personality” rather than policy. The “problem with most Christians,” Lamphere said, is that “they’re biblically illiterate.”
Sara Ballenger of Capitol Hill Prayer Partners was asked to pray for the Senate, with Lamphere noting that there could be more vacancies on the Supreme Court over the next four years. “God will save us if he moves upon the hearts of our people as they go to the polls today,” Ballenger prayed.
She said that during a prayer event the night before, “many of us” prayed that God would visit people in their dreams and “seal their instruction” regarding the election. She said she found it “phenomenal” the pundits were predicting that Democrats would take control of the Senate, adding, “we want to come against that.”
Lamphere asked Jon Hammill, who runs Lamplighter Ministries and was part of One Voice Prayer Movement’s founding, to pray. Hamill, who was stationed outside the White House, cited the Mayflower Compact, a document signed by that ship’s passengers 400 years ago when they were blown off course and landed in what is now Massachusetts rather than in Virginia. Christian nationalists often cite the language of the compact in claiming that the U.S. has a national mission and covenant with God to advance the Christian faith. Here’s Hamill’s version:
One week and one day from today marks the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims’ arrival in this new world in the signing of the Mayflower Compact, committing our land and government for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. We can either slide into challenging times in open defiance of God or we can align with God’s heart and his covenant to life in this hour. We choose life. We choose a sweep for life. …
Father, we approach the highest court of the kingdom of God. And we ask very simply for a verdict of justice in favor of the saints that glorifies the name of Jesus Christ. We ask you, Father God to restrain the forces of darkness that would try to take over our nation, even a hostile takeover, threatening America ,trying to hold our nation hostage. We asked Father God for you to grant us a sweep for life across the spectrum of government, in a way that secures our covenant long term.
Kubal ended the call on a decidedly “spiritual warfare” note:
The Lord put on my heart this morning, as I got up a little bit early on Election Day to pray for the nation. Psalm 68. And here it is: ‘May God arise. May his enemies be scattered. May his foes flee before him. As smoke is blown away by the wind, may you blow them away. As wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God. But may the righteous be glad.
…
Father, we just rejoice for the promises of your scripture that we have relied upon in prayer time after prayer time. And we do once again Lord, we ask you to arise, we ask Lord that your enemies would be scattered before us. Father God, we pray for righteousness to reign, for your ways to be known, for the freedom of the church, for the protection of life, for the protection of traditional marriage, Lord, for all of the biblical values that we hold dear to our hearts, because we know they are dear to your hearts. So Father, may those that oppose you blow away like smoke. And, Lord, may today be a day that we decide and we see before us reasons that the righteous may be glad, the righteous before God that we may be happy and joyful.
