Don’t Eat, Pray, Act

Charisma reports:

More than 80 prominent Christian leaders are endorsing a 40-day fast leading up to the midterm elections that kicks off Sunday with a simulcast event from Washington, D.C.

Organized by California pastor Jim Garlow and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, Pray & Act has gained support from a cross-section of Christians, including Bible teacher Kenneth Copeland, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Generals International co-founder Cindy Jacobs, Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land, Atlanta pastor Creflo Dollar and Campus Crusade for Christ co-founder Vonette Bright.

…participants are being asked to fast and pray from Monday at 7:14 a.m. Eastern until Oct. 30 at 7:14 a.m.

…Conservative Christians for months have lamented the state of the nation, pointing to mounting national debt, the controversial health care overhaul and most recently a federal judge’s decision to overturn California’s gay marriage ban.

However, we’re assured – with a straight face – that this is not about getting the Republican vote out in November:

But noting that Republican leaders did not plan to include family values in their legislative blueprint, Pray & Act supporters insist neither political party can save the day.

“We’re not seeking a political party,” Colson said last Sunday at a preliminary Pray & Act event in Washington. “We’re not taking a partisan position. We are seeking God’s intervention in the affairs of our state and to give us hope that comes only from God.”

“I don’t put my faith in political parties,” he added. “I have one King.”

Jim Garlow is also Chairman of Renewing American Leadership (ReAL), which exists to facilitate the preposterous and shameless sanctification of Newt Gingrich. Right Wing Watch recently reviewed a Pray & Act event broadcast on GodTV:

Most of event was standard Religious Right fare, with leaders discussing the paramount importance of fighting abortion and saving marriage as people like Colson marveled at that we are now celebrating homosexuality which, just a few decades ago, was “shameful and embarrassing”…

(A bit like Colson himself, then)

…And then, of course, there was Lou Engle just being Lou Engle as he got revved up about how fasting and prayer can finally reverse the forty year rebellion set off in 1969 with the release of “the Stonewall homosexual movement”

According to Engle:

Moses fasted forty days and the law of God was released into the Earth.

Elijah fasted forty days at a time when they had legalized child sacrifice and homosexual and heterosexual prostitution in the days of Ahab and Jezebel.

And just last March, a woman from Polk County fasted for more than three weeks… and was found dead. However, I doubt that is what Pray & Act have in mind – rather, according to a supportive notice on Gingrich’s ReAL site, “persons can fast as God directs them during this 40-day span”, and “a liquid diet” is suggested. We are also cautioned that “If needed, consult a physician before fasting”.

Meanwhile, Gingrich will be speaking at a special dinner at the Convocation on Critical Issues at Missouri Western State University on 6 October. Presumably, since ReAL is endorsing the fast, Gingrich’s own plate will remain empty…