Religious Right wingnuts evidently had high hopes for yesterday’s event at the Lincoln Memorial called “May Day 2010: A Cry To God For A Nation In Distress.” It apparently cost $70,000 to put together and was lined with evangelical stars – from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council to Pete LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality to right-wing favorite and former Presidential candidate Alan Keyes. The purpose of the event? To “reach the heart of God” and repent of America’s wicked ways (AKA voting a pro-gay, pro-choice Democrat into the White House). Here’s a description of the event, lifted from May Day 2010’s website:
Join with Christian leaders of all denominations who love God to humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from our wicked ways—individually and as a nation.
This event is not to impress the media or those in Washington, but to reach the heart of God. Publicly repenting and crying out to God for His mercy instead of the judgment our many sins deserve. Repentance in personal and corporate prayer to God and remembrance of His work throughout our nation's history will be major parts of the day as we seek God to do a great work of revival or reformation in our time. The tentative plan is to begin the day with an hour of worship and praise.
May Day 2010 was conceived by Religious Right radio host (and member of Mike Huckabee’s inner circle) Janet Porter, who believes that America “made the choice of death” in the 2008 election. This was highly endorsed and publicized in Religious Right circles. The event is closely tied to the American Family Association, and James Dobson himself of Focus on the Family urged participation:
Our nation faces what is perhaps the most serious moral crisis since the Civil War as we've turned our backs on God and have clearly displeased him. May Day 2010 is a time to come together and proclaim what God has done in the past, to pray for forgiveness and to plead for God's mercy on all of us.
According to Right Wing Watch:
May Day 2010 has been organized around the “Seven Mountains” theology, which advocates the complete takeover of every aspect of contemporary culture by modern day “apostles” of Christ. The theology is rooted in the belief that Christians are meant to have dominion over literally everything and is focused on spiritually “invading” seven specific facets of modern life in order to wrest control away from Satan and his demonic spirits so that Christians can put them to use in bringing about God’s kingdom on Earth: (1) Business; (2) Government; (3) Media; (4) Arts and Entertainment; (5) Education; (6) Family; and (7) Religion.
Well, it looks like “God’s kingdom on Earth” has a long way to go, because based on reports by Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen, only about 300 people showed up. Can somebody say “fail”?
Just think of what that $70,000 could have been used for. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, perhaps? You know, things that real Christians do. Things that Jesus advocated for. But the Religious Right has never been concerned about those things. They’d rather spend $70,000 publicly lambasting what grown adults do in their own bedrooms and lamenting over the fact that children in public schools are learning science.
Here’s a video of Peter Labarbera asking God for forgiveness for our tolerance of teh gay…followed by a video of a series of speakers, one of which asks for forgiveness for America allowing a Muslim to serve in Congress. (If the second speaker in the second video doesn’t make you LOL, I don’t know what will.)
