Christians, Churches Gathering for National Day of Fasting, Prayer on Election Eve Before 'Wretched Choice'
Conservative group the American Family Association is calling on churches and Christians across America to gather in unity on Monday for a national day of prayer and fasting on Election eve, the night before America faces what many have described as a "wretched" choice.
"It is time that we, as Christians, recognize our need to repent of our own wickedness and cry out to the Lord for forgiveness — and that He might heal our broken land (2 Chronicles 7:14)," AFA said in a Facebook post on Sunday ahead of Election Eve.
"We should heed the voice of President Lincoln. He was the man who steered our nation through its greatest crisis, and he knew that God was the only one who could save us," the group added.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
AFA President Tim Wildmon encouraged believers around the country to join in Monday's prayers, and participate in whatever way they can, be it skipping one or two meals, or in all-day fasting.
"Encourage your church's clergy, your fellow church family members, neighbors, friends, and relatives to join in," Wildmon urged.
Americans have one more day to make up their minds before Election Day on Tuesday, where the two front-runners for president, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump, have not inspired much hope in the nation's Christians.
AFA Digital Media Editor Dr. Ray Rooney Jr. reflected on the dilemma in an article earlier in October, arguing that Christians are facing a "wretched choice" on Tuesday.
Some Christian commentators, such as Julie Roys, host of a national radio program on the Moody Radio Network, have argued that evangelicals who are defending Trump despite his controversial comments toward women are "destroying the church's witness."
"I never thought I'd see the day when leading evangelicals would publicly espouse that character doesn't matter — and that promoting sexual assault is simply 'bad boy talk,'" Roys wrote in an Op-ed for The Christian Post in October.
"Yet, that's precisely what's happening in the wake of a newly released video showing Donald Trump gloating over his sexual exploits with married women," she added.
Rooney Jr. shot down suggestions that voting for Trump is akin to a Christian selling "their soul to the devil," however, and pointed out that many other presidential nominees in the past that Christians have voted for have also had problematic and sinful backgrounds.
"It is truly a lamentable choice we have to make as Christians this election. But choose we must. There can be no watching from the sidelines this time by Christians as there was in the last couple of presidential elections," he argued, asking believers to consider which candidate would do more long-term damage to the country than the other if elected president.
