On Friday, the night before Gov. Bobby Jindal's "The Response" prayer rally, Rachel Maddow took a look at the "questionable characters" who were helping him organize and promote the event, prompting Jindal to send a statement to Maddow insisting that his rally would be "a prayer event, not a political rally."
Participants in the rally, of course, did not particularly see it that way. In addition to a segment dedicated to praying for an end to legal abortion in America, several speakers noted how getting right-wing Christians elected to public office was key to bringing reformation and revival to America.
Pastor Jim Garlow, who spoke right before Jindal shared his personal testimony and call for revival, spent most of his time railing against IRS regulations that prohibit pastors from endorsing political candidates from their tax-exempt pulpits. Garlow closed out his remarks by suggesting that America may be in the midst of another great religious revival, judging by the number of members of Congress "who really know Christ as Savior."
"We have more freshman members of the House of Representatives who understand biblical truth than we have had for decades," Garlow proclaimed excitedly, noting that the same thing is happening in state legislative chambers all over the nation.
"We are a generation that has a vision of reformation," he said. "We can see it. We can hear the sounds of it and in our lifetimes, we are going to experience it. Let's join together in prayer for the great reformation. Jesus as king of our land!"
Later in the event, Pastor Jacob Aranza of Our Savior's Church in Lafayette, Louisiana, prayed explicitly for conservative Christians to run for and win political office. Aranza even brought three members of his own church who had all been elected to public office out onto the stage as examples, including Louisiana state Sen. Jonathan Perry, who audibly heard the voice of God tell him to run for office "while giving the largest tithe check he'd ever given" to Aranza's church.
"Father, today we know that you are raising up men and women of God across this nation," Aranza prayed. "And Father now, in the name of Jesus, we pray for the elected officials. We pray for every elected city councilman, we pray for mayors. We pray for senators. We pray for state representatives. We pray for the marshals, the sheriffs, the school board officials. Lord, we ask you in the name of Jesus, send revival to every elected official we have, oh God. We know that when revival is when you get so sick of being misrepresented that you just show up yourself. Show up in every elected official, Lord, all throughout our state, may the glory of God come ... Maybe it be known because now righteous leaders are in authority and when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice!"
