There's a new campaign that puts Election Day 2012 in the bull's-eye, but organizers say it's not about a political or social issue, or about who gets in Congress or the White House. It's not even, really, about people.
It seeks to turn God loose on the nation.
The "40 Days to Save America" campaign has been launched by a who's who list of Christian leaders who say the Bible explains in simple terms the solution to whatever troubles a nation, from social turmoil to financial stress to a failure of faith.
The foundation for the campaign is 2nd Chronicles, 7:14: "If my people who are called by me name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Rick Scarborough of Vision America says America is in crisis, and he's being joined by thousands of Americans in the national campaign of prayer, fasting and repentance.
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More than 100 ministries have joined the effort to seek God's help with "pending economic collapse, moral disintegration, and international terrorism."
All of those troubles have spiritual underpinnings, organizers say, and are even more daunting than what Americans confronted in 1776, 1863 and 1941.
Those dates were when the nation's leaders, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, respectively, "declared national seasons of prayer, fasting and repentance."
"Now as then, our destiny rests in God's hands. The crises confronting us are beyond the power of human beings to resolve without Divine guidance," organizers explain.
Scarborough says: "All around us, we see economic decline, immorality, corruption, growing secular humanism and attacks on religious liberty. Our call to action is clear."
The group is asking citizens, their pastors and their churches to gather in one accord and commit to "40 days of prayer, fasting, and action" from September 28 through Election Day, Nov. 6."
"The political problems which beset us are symptoms of a deeper spiritual malaise," the team's mission statement affirms. "The place to start isn't with primaries, platforms and conventions, but rather through prayer, fasting and repentance."
Scarborough says that he had had enough back in 1992 when he witnessed firsthand the secular attacks on "our Godly heritage."
It was then that he realized how "aggressive the secularists were being in their quest to redefine America."
"In our local high school where my children were being prepared for adulthood, or so I assumed, I sat in the back of a crowded auditorium and listened to a speaker advocating sexual licentiousness and making a mockery of the very moral underpinnings my children were receiving both at home and at church," he writes. "So I stood up and confronted the speaker and her remarks. I also confronted our local school system…and I got involved as a father, citizen and pastor."
Soon he founded Vision America to "inform and mobilize pastors and their congregations to become salt and light, becoming pro-active in restoring Judeo-Christian values in America."
The "40 Days" campaign rejects the limitations of a political environment.
"We are calling for Christian and Jewish voters to make informed choices, voting not as Republicans or Democrats, but as followers of the living God," the mission statement says. "We are calling for our leaders to have the wisdom and discernment to act according to His will and not based on personal or partisan considerations."
Unlike "40 Days to Save America," Vision America is all about getting Americans involved in the political process.
It's about "empowering the 'shepherds' to lead their 'flocks' back into being salt in our nation."
According to the Barna Group there are more than 324,000 Protestant churches in America, with an average Sunday worship of 100 adults. They cites studies showing that three quarters of regular church attenders do not vote regularly or at all.
"If only 66 percent are not voting, that means there are over 21 million adults who are absent from the political playing field," the report said. "In addition, thousands of local, state and federal offices lack the influence of God-fearing, Bible-believing citizens who do not step up to run for those positions."
Scarborough explains such circumstances mean Christians "are not losing the war by being 'outgunned,' we are losing by forfeit."
Seeking God's will isn't new in America, the organizers note.
"During the American Revolution, in the darkest days of the Civil War, at the outset of our involvement in World War II, leaders as different as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared national seasons of prayer, fasting and repentance," the organizers report. "Today, our nation faces multiple crises – pending economic collapse, moral disintegration, and international terrorism – but all have spiritual underpinnings."
The organizers state bluntly that America's "national survival is at stake."
But counting on a political name, or party, won't help, they warn.
"Our destiny rests in God's hands."
The campaign asks church leaders and churches to commit to observing the 40 days of prayer, fasting and action, encouraging congregation members to participate and then formally observe the events with a program or sermon.
Among the members of the board of governors are David Bereit of "40 Days for Life," Gen. Jerry Boykin of "Kingdom Warriors," Dave Butts of "Harvest Prayer Ministries," Jim Garlow of "Renewing American Leadership," Bishop Anne Gimenez of Rock Church, Virginia Beach, Va., Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church, Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Janet Porter of Faith2Action, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Scarborough, Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Institute, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Tim Wildmon of American Family Association.
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