Three congressional Republicans joined activist groups that partner with Focus on the Family for a virtual Sunday evening get-out-the-vote prayer call that urged viewers to usher in a nationwide revival by voting for conservative candidates and issues.
“This is not a contest between two political parties,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the event’s “special guests,” who is running for reelection and said he spoke at five churches Sunday.
Mike Johnson
Johnson gave the standard culture war presentation, saying, “This is a competition between two competing visions”: Those who support America’s “Judeo-Christian heritage” and those of “another side” with a “different vision” based on Marxism and the belief that “there is no God.”
“God is not done with America yet,” said Johnson, who praised event organizers as part of God’s faithful “remnant” who could help set things right.
GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington joined the call, which started late due to technical problems that kept Jack Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, from opening the event.
Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, also participated in last Monday’s pro-Trump “National Faith Summit” in Atlanta, which was organized by Paula White, a longtime friend and faith advisor to the former president.
The event seamlessly mixed the spiritual and the political from the start, with host Bunni Pounds praying “that churches would come alive and Tuesday would be one of the biggest turnouts of your people in our history.”
The Zoom event was sponsored by two conservative Christian activist groups that merged this summer to “change the course of our nation.”
- The Colorado Springs-based Family Policy Alliance Foundation is a sister organization to the Family Policy Alliance, a little known activist organization founded by James Dobson at Focus on the Family in his “battle for righteousness” through politics and law, not the church. The Alliance heads a network of affiliated organizations in 41 states and led efforts to pass laws restricting transgender sports participation and medical treatments in 21 states.
- Christians Engaged was founded in Texas in 2019 by Bunni Pounds, a former political consultant who raised more than $10 million for Republican congressional candidates and lost her own run for a U.S. House seat.
Together, they’ve worked to mobilize a million voters for the 2024 election and “build a standing army of Christians ongoing.”
Participants focused on issues — abortion, transgender surgeries — rather than endorsing any candidates.
Rep. McMorris, who was introduced as a “prayer warrior,” raised her prayer: “Send your light, the outpouring of your Holy Spirit, in every state and every election.”
Jody Hice
Jody Hice, president of the Focus-aligned Family Research Council Action, portrayed the election as a “choice between two evils” before correcting himself and saying it was a battle between the “lesser” of two evils. Hice is a former congressman who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election results.
Nathan Winters, a former Baptist pastor, former state legislator, and current leader of the Focus-aligned Wyoming Family Alliance, was introduced as “a former pastor who leads the cause of liberty there.”
Stephanie Smith, president of Alabama Policy Institute, previously worked with the Alabama Federation of Republican Women and the Mighty Alabama Strikeforce. Smith’s prayer mixed confession of national sins with grievance over “those that don’t love you and demand that we keep our faith silent.”
Sen. Tim Scott, who campaigned against Trump before endorsing the former president, stuck to a simple gospel message of evangelism and said he was praying that “the people of God would make people hungry, not angry.”
Christians can celebrate on Tuesday, not because “our side wins,” but because Christ never loses, Johnson said.
Technical problems reportedly kept Michael Brown, a radio host and author (Donald Trump Is Not My Savior) from participating.
Promo materials for the Nationwide Prayer Call seamlessly mixed religious and political language:
- “We are believing for an awakening within the Body of Christ, which will compel Christians to show up at the polls.”
- “If more Christians got engaged by praying and voting to protect life, religious liberty, educational freedom, parental rights and free speech, they could easily change the course of our nation.”
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