For God’s sake, don’t rock the vote. Pray it. According to its Web site, the Presidential Prayer Team has set June 21 as the launch date to “stimulate prayer for the fall elections” and “open a door for God to work in our nation.” With a lengthy red, white, and blue tribute to Ronald Reagan’s undying piety on its opening page, the site doesn’t exactly shy away from insinuating that worshippers will be damned into fiery balls of hellish doom should they leave out Dubya’s name before dropping any amens.
The divine right of kings was once a dangerous concept. When a king believed God gave him his crown, he answered only to God. He became a tyrant. He got away with murder. Even after all the history lessons, Web sites like the Presidential Prayer Team’s aren’t news today. We live in a country where the attorney general anoints himself with ceremonious oil and may have spent a purported $8,000 on curtains to cover up a statue’s breasts at the Department of Justice. We’ve become comfortably numb to the “Jesus Factor” in politics. Boobs are bad. War is good. God says so.
Not Neal Pollack and Ben Brown’s God. The Austin book-punks’ new Web site, PrayForReason.org, is a direct reaction to Pray the Vote. Unlike the Presidential Prayer Team, PrayForReason.org is not a political action group, nor does it collect money. Still, it takes a taste-of-your-own-medicine approach, welcoming all sorts of religious and unreligious folk to heighten their political awareness and join mental forces on a daily basis to take Bush and his distorting of an entire religion out of Washington.
A virtual prayer circle, PrayForReason.org keeps a log of submitted prayers alongside some extra goodies, including a church-and-state news page and a portal into DeclareYourself.org, since praying and praying alone probably won’t start an earthquake.
This article appears in June 18 • 2004.