Last night, nearly two dozen members of Congress joined Religious Right activists in Washington, D.C., for the annual “Washington – A Man of Prayer” event, held in Statuary Hall inside the U.S. Capitol.
Organized by The Jefferson Gathering, which is a project of right-wing pastor Jim Garlow's Skyline Church in California, the prayer event was kicked off by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan while Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., served as honorary hosts.
Over the course of an hour and a half, 20 different members of Congress took to the podium to lead the gathering in prayer, including Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, who repeatedly choked up while begging God to forgive this nation for the "sins" of legal abortion and marriage equality.
Modifying the Lord's Prayer to declare that "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth here in the halls of Congress," Weber confessed the "sins our nation has been so emboldened to embark upon" and pleaded with God to forgive us.
"We have endeavored to try and kick your word out of public schools," Weber said. "Father, we have endeavored to take the Bible out of classrooms, the Ten Commandments off the walls. Oh, Lord, forgive us. Father, we think we're so smart, we have replaced your word and your precepts with drug-sniffing dogs, with metal detectors, with uniformed police officers in our schools. Oh, Lord, forgive us."
"Father, we have trampled on your holy institution of holy matrimony and tried to rewrite what it is and we've called it an alternate lifestyle," Weber continued, his voice cracking. "Father, oh Father, please forgive us."
"Lord, we have gone to killing the most innocent amongst us," he wept. "Your servant Moses warned in Deuteronomy 19 for us to choose life so that we and all our descendants might live. Father, we're killing our descendants and we're calling it a choice. Oh, God in heaven, forgive us, please."
