Georgia Prayer March to take place ahead of Senate runoffs
With the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff elections just days away, a prayer march is set to take place in the state’s capital and largest city of Atlanta on Saturday.
Chaired by Bishop Wellington Boone of Atlanta and Jim and Rosemary Schindler Garlow of San Diego, California, the Georgia Prayer March will take place at the Georgia Statehouse on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It will also be streamed live online for those who want to attend virtually.
The event is open to all followers of Jesus Christ who care “deeply about biblical values including the sanctity of life in the womb, the sacredness of one man-one woman marriage, the scripturally-based free market system and supporting Israel.”
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The march comes as two Senate runoff elections that will determine which party has control of the Senate for the next two years are scheduled to take place on Tuesday. Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will face off against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
The goals of the march are to “get people to pray for the election" and to fast Jan. 3-5 until polls close on Tuesday.
Should Republicans win one or both of the races, they will maintain control of the Senate. Democrats winning both races would result in a 50-50 tie in the upper chamber, meaning that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast any tie-breaking votes, thereby giving the Democrats the majority.
While partisan interests have invested heavily in the races on behalf of their preferred candidates, the organizers of the Georgia Prayer March insist that the event is non-partisan. “We do not tell anyone for whom to vote,” said Dr. Garlow. “We do, however, pray for Georgians to vote for candidates with distinctly biblical values. Our prayer is for biblical values to be followed in our nation.”
“This election in Georgia is important in the sense that God wants us to do something,” asserted Bishop Boone. “I would never vote for anyone who stands against the Bible, and the two main issues of the Bible are life and family. I am voting the Bible, and on January 2, I will be praying down Heaven’s will for this election.”
The march is designed to resemble the Jericho March in the Bible: “Like the scriptural story when the walls came down, we will march around the Georgia State House, praying that any unbiblical policies come down and God’s Ways are exalted.”
Participants will march around the Georgia Capitol seven times. Each trip around the Capitol will represent an issue of importance identified by Well Versed, the nonprofit organization that is putting on the march.
“It is recommended that as we circle the Capitol Building seven times like the Ancient Israelites circled Jericho, we pray that candidates will be elected who will help tear down the walls of: abortion, unbiblical definitions of marriage, racial prejudice, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, socialism and communism, rioting, burning, looting, stealing, chaos, and lawlessness and fraud, corruption and dishonesty in elections.”
While the Georgia Prayer March will not endorse specific candidates, a guide is available on its website that compares the candidates’ positions on issues of importance.
Throughout the march, participants will engage in “prayer walking,” described as “praying onsite with insight.” The organizers stress that “This is not a rally, a conference, or a concert. This is not even a worship service, although there likely will be times of worship. This is a prayer meeting. We will not have speeches or sermons. We will all be praying.”
In order to keep the spirit of the event nonpartisan, in-person attendees are asked to refrain from wearing or bringing any explicitly political apparel to the march. However, attendees are welcome to bring shofars, an instrument that dates back to biblical times. Marchers can only blow the shofar when the “Chief Sounder” at the event, Robert Weinger who lives near Jericho, Israel, sounds the instrument. Additionally, gospel singer Alma Rivera will serve as the worship leader for the Georgia Prayer March.
All who are interested in attending the Georgia Prayer March must register online, regardless of whether they want to attend in-person or virtually. The event is scheduled to take place rain or shine. Although, the march might be shortened “if it is raining severely hard.” Currently, the forecast calls for rain.
