Bartholomew's Notes

This one’s a few days old; RightWingWatch has an eyewitness report from the unofficial “Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast“, which took place at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel. Big names such as Michele Bachmann and Eric Cantor failed to show up, while Joseph Farah, who had made a big fuss about reports that he had been excluded from the event, sent a message that was read out. Further:

Pastor Wiley Drake – infamous for his devotion to “imprecatory prayers” against his political opponents, and his admission that he regularly prays for President Obama’s death, was recognized, applauded, and called up to the stage.

However, there was apparently a token effort to appear to appeal to a broader base:

The Chaplain of the House of Representatives, Patrick Conroy, did briefly lend an air of officialdom. Perhaps with the pre-event controversy in mind, Conroy led a prayer for President Obama and reminded attendees pointedly that Obama was reelected by a clear majority of Americans. Former Democratic Rep. Diane Watson brought a bit of bipartisanship, and while her belief that President Obama has been anointed for our time got a smattering of affirmation from Obama supporters in attendance, that was a minority view, to put it lightly.

Other speakers included Sid Roth and State Senator Stewart Greenleaf, who both reportedly spoke against “dividing up the land of Israel”, but the highlight was keynote speaker Jonathan Cahn, whose unusual form of Christianity (he claims special knowledge of “Hebrew mysteries”) has become popular since he published a paperback explaining how the USA is under God’s judgement and headed for disaster. Inevitably, gay people are among those to blame:

Keynoter Jonathan Cahn decried the withdrawal of Rev. Louie Giglio from the inaugural program over anti-gay-rights comments, portraying it as evidence of anti-Christian persecution: “…it is a new America in which one can be banned from the public square simply for believing the Bible, where profanity is treated as holy, and the holy is profane. A new America where the Bible is treated as contraband and nativity scenes are seen as dangerous.”

Cahn is a Messianic Rabbi, and the event also involved the use of a chuppah – there’s a growing trend in American evangelicalism to express the “Hebrew Roots” of their religion by appropriating Jewish cultural objects and ritual forms.

(H/T Ed Brayton)

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