The Prayer March
By Helen Man
On September 26, 2020, a very significant “Prayer March”, led by Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, took place in Washington, D.C. In the morning, “The Return” Prayer Meeting started at the Lincoln Memorial. At noon, the march took off on a long journey of 1.8 miles to 7 different prayer stations:
1st Station: Lincoln Memorial
Our Vice President Mike Pence joined the event with his wife Karen Pence and gave a speech at the Memorial. He cited examples of presidential prayers of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In addition, Pence quoted Lincoln’s words: “I have to kneel for prayers many times because there’s no other way out.” He pointed out that our nation is more divided now, even 6 weeks before the Election, and thus needs us to pray more fervently! (*Note 1)
2nd Station: WWII Memorial
Rev. Franklin Graham prayed for God’s protection of military force and civilians.
3rd Station: Washington Monument
He prayed for the solution to the coronavirus pandemic.
4th Station: White House
Both Rev. Paula Michelle White-Cain and Rev. F. Graham prayed for the President and the Vice President and their teams.
5th Station: National Museum of African American History & Culture
Darryl Eugene Strawberry, an American former professional baseball player, prayed for racial harmony.
6th Station: National Archives
Rev. Robert Morris prayed for the anointing of God’s Spirit on American clergymen.
7th Station: U.S. Capitol
Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, prayed for the Congressmen and government leaders to know God. (*Note 2)
Many Christians from various states joined the Prayer March with singing despite the pandemic. More than 3.8 million people also participated on Facebook or YouTube. (*Note 3)
Let’s pray for our country in crises:
1. Presidential Election
The two political parties are on two extremes. Trump’s political platform is conservative and he has been carrying out his promises from day 1.
External: He has made tremendous impact internationally such as NAFTA with North America, trading with China and dealing with China stealing American intellectual property, resuming the leadership of breaking down ISIS, withdrawing from Iran’s nuclear agreement, admitting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel where he had successfully moved the American Embassy. (*Note 4)
Internal: Trump has strengthened the U.S. by:
— Increasing new weapons and nuclear power, making use of national defense funding of 686 billion dollars.
— Enabling the U.S. to become independent of resources with programs such as Keystone XL and fossil energy mining.
— Empowering conservatives in the Supreme Court (Trump has nominated 2 Justices at the Supreme Court and more than 200 conservative judges at different levels of courts)
— Trump has terminated the separation of church and politics from 54 years ago. (*Note 5)
— Biden, the opponent of Trump, is a professional politician who has been in his political career for 47 years and the Vice President of Obama. Very likely Biden would do similar things as Obama did to match up with the socialists, including extending the limits of abortion and LGBT, opening the borders, providing free medical plans for illegal immigrants, raising taxes, and nominating atheists or left-wing forces at various levels of courts. (*Note 6)
In addition, our upcoming election might be affected by the pandemic since the Democrats have been promoting mail-in voting which increases the chance of cheating.
2. President tested positive & the crisis of COVID-19
Up to September 30, COVID-19 has been affecting over 200 countries and 34.7 million confirmed cases, 1.03 million people died (7.36 million confirmed and 209,000 deaths in the USA). Even President Trump and his wife were tested positive on October 2. As we are getting closer to Election Day, more and more slandering about Trump is widely spread.(*Note 7)
3. Crisis of economic reopening
The pandemic has also severely damaged the economy of the United States and the world, even worse than the financial tsunami of 1983. In May, the unemployment rate in the United States rose from its lowest point in half a century (before the virus outbreak) to 12% (*Note 8). When the pandemic has gradually stabilized, the Trump administration made the United States slowly open up to revive the economy. The unemployment rate has fallen sharply today. The unemployment rate in July was 10.2%, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4% for the first time in August. Will the resumption of the economy lead to a second wave of the pandemic? It is inevitably worrying. We need God’s protection and mercy to get rid of the virus. May God give us peace.
4. The fight of nomination for justices of the Supreme Court
After the death of the 87-year old Associate Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump boldly nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a 48-year old conservative justice to replace her post. If Barrett got approved by the Congress, the conservatives will have a 6:3 advantage for the first time in the U.S. Supreme Court. This will bring a great impact on our society for the next 10 years (such as laws about abortion, gun possession, gay rights etc.).
5. Crises of law & order and racial disputes
White police officers’ violent abuses against blacks have led to massive “Black Lives Matter” protests across the nation. The most furious protests within the last 6 years have broken out. Along with the protests, ferocious attacks, robberies, and arson by the “Antifa” group which has been identified as domestic terrorists by the Trump administration. (*Note 9) Protesters even occupied some areas as their “autonomous region”. In order to cooperate with the protesters, the far-left media and Democratic leaders did not even accuse them. On the contrary, they have proposed to abolish the police department or to cut its budgets. Biden moved on to say that the police are the enemy of the Americans and the government must largely shrink their budgets. The candidate of Biden’s Vice President even donated a lump sum of money to bail out the arrested thugs. (*Note 10) That’s why they continued to cause unrest in many Democratic cities for more than 5 months. The entrepreneurs and civilians have suffered tremendously! Finally, Biden has just changed his tone of voice to criticize the thugs solely because of people’s complaints.
6. Crisis of religious beliefs
All the churches had to conduct virtual worshiping and many Christians began suffering from spiritual depression and even stopped attending church. Even when the pandemic has slowed down now, their faith is not as strong as before since they have developed the habit of watching TV or YouTube most of the time at home during the Lock-down period. Several ministers in the U.S. have experienced severe depression and committed suicide while someone from church even committed adultery. That’s very shameful and heartbreaking!
7. Crisis of Sino-American relationship
The controversy over the source of the coronavirus has worsened the relationship between the U.S. and China to the lowest point in 40 years. The two countries have ordered each other to close the consulates, and they started verbal battles over intellectual property theft, the pandemic, Hong Kong’s National Security Law, human rights in Xinjiang, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The Sino-U.S. relationship and the suspension of trade negotiations have caused further damage to the economies of the two countries. Moreover, Obama and Biden were completely incompetent dealing with China. During her visit to China, Hillary, the Secretary of State did admit that she couldn’t deal with human rights in China, “South China Sea Territory” and “Intellectual Property Theft” and other tough issues. Also, when Vice President Biden visited China, his son Hunter went with him. Soon after he got off the plane, Hunter received a certain contract of up to 150 million US dollars from the Chinese government. (*Note 12) On what basis did Hunter get such benefits from China?
Would God really hear our prayers in the midst of all these crises? Are miracles possible? The Bible says:
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27)
“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Our merciful God will heed our prayers of repentance! He will heal us. Let’s strive for spiritual growth and share the good news.
Don’t forget to pray and vote!
(*Notes 1-12 from various websites)
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