Back in 2012, the first “Washington: A Man Of Prayer” event was held in the U.S. Capitol. The prayer gathering eventually became an annual event at which dozens of members of Congress gathered with Religious Right activists in Statuary Hall to pray that God would not destroy America for legalizing gay marriage, declare that 9/11 and the 2012 Benghazi attack were instances of God’s judgment on this nation, and tearfully beg God to forgive this country’s multitude of sins.
Out of these prayer gatherings grew a missionary organization called The Jefferson Gathering, which was a project of right-wing pastor Jim Garlow’s Skyline Church through which Pastor Dan Cummings preached to and prayed with members of Congress in an effort to drive Satan out of the Capitol.
Last September, The Jefferson Gathering suddenly and mysteriously folded, as Garlow tersely announced that “Dan Cummins has resigned and the Skyline Church board has accepted his resignation.”
But yesterday, Garlow announced that The Jefferson Gathering will soon resume under the leadership of radical right-wing pastor Rick Scarborough:
Dr. Jim Garlow and Skyline Church in San Diego are pleased to announce that Pastor Rick Scarborough has just accepted the appointment as Pastor of SkylineDC, the church’s ministry to Washington, DC. Scarborough has pastored vigorous and rapidly growing churches in Texas, and then founded and led a nationwide ministry called Vision America which impacted thousands of pastors and millions of voters, urging them to vote biblical.
He and his wife Tommye will be moving to Skyline’s condo near the US Supreme Court in the next few weeks to begin a ministry of worship and the Word – known as the “Jefferson Gathering” – which will include not merely Members of the US Congress, but persons in the various agencies such as the State Department and the Department of Justice.
As the founder of the Religious Right organization Vision America, Scarborough was notorious for his virulent opposition to and attacks on the “sodomites,” as Miranda noted back in 2016:
Scarborough has declared that AIDS, “a homosexual disease,” is God’s “judgment as a result of an immoral act.” Just last year, he repeated his belief that AIDS is “God’s judgment on a sinful generation, adding that “God would probably give us the cure for AIDS today” if the U.S. stopped supporting gay rights:
He also said last year that marriage equality is part of Satan’s effort to “destroy this country,” warning that gay parents will lead their children “into an early grave called hell”:
Scarborough is so concerned about gay people that back in 2013 he brought up the idea of issuing a “class action lawsuit” against homosexuality, much like actions taken against the tobacco industry:
In 2014, Scarborough agreed with Islamic fundamentalists who call America the “Great Satan,” saying that God would be perfectly justified in sending a nuclear bomb to destroy the country because of such sins as President Obama’s appointments of a handful of gay ambassadors:
Since then, Scarborough has repeatedly claimed that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling has made it illegal for Christians to hold elected office or serve as judges, said again that given America’s acceptance of LGBTQ rights, it is no wonder that other nations see us as “the Great Satan,” and predicted that pedophilia will soon be legalized and that ministers who refuse to perform same-sex weddings will be jailed:
This is the man who has been tapped by Garlow to serve as a minister to members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, D.C., while former Rep. Michele Bachmann serves in a similar capacity as Garlow’s “Pastor to the United Nations.”
