For anyone familiar with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, he is passionate about America and passionate about solutions. While he says much worries him about America, “$18 trillion in debt, Obamacare, a country that refuses to stand with Israel as it fights off terrorism,” a paramount concern is the secularization of American culture.
“Just electing the right candidate, just passing one more bill isn’t enough to get America on the right path. Repentance and prayer,” he claims, will be enough if America “turns back to God.”
Mr. Jindal has invited Americans to join him on Jan. 24 at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. If people cannot attend in person, they can watch online.
The Response, he asserts, is necessary for a nation in crisis that has “not honored God in our successes or humbly called on him in our struggles.” The Response: Louisiana is committed to “prayer above politics, to seeing the church moved to stand for righteousness, and to pray for God’s mercy for America.”
Dr. Doug Stringer, organizer of The Response and founder and president of Somebody Cares International, articulates that Christians must be ready at all times (1Timothy 4:2), recognizing urgency, being alert despite sorrow, anxiety, or fear (Luke 22:45, 1Thess. 5:6). Mr. Stringer says:
“We need courageous leaders, from the pulpit to the political offices of our nation, who will care more for the people they serve than for themselves… [or] … building their own legacies. Before we can point the finger at those around us, blaming the moral failure of our nation on all those we think are responsible, we must take a long, hard look at ourselves.”
Pointing to Charles Finney, a 19th century attorney-turned-minister who helped lead America’s Second Great Awakening, Mr. Stringer argues Finney’s message, “The Pulpit is Responsible,” is equally relevant today. Finney admonished:
“Our preaching will bear its legitimate fruit. If immorality prevails in the land, it is our responsibility to a great degree. The decay of the pulpit is responsible. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the nation loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.”
To clarify, the God to which Christians bow in repentance is not that to which the speaker of the House of Representatives bowed when Imam Chebli of the Islamic Center of Central Jersey praised Islam’s Allah from the House floor “as the God who reigns supreme.”
Christians will gather together to pray freely and openly in public, mindful of the millions of Christians being persecuted and killed worldwide. They are mindful that despite removal of prayer from schools, Islam is being taught in Common Core curriculum (a Massachusetts middle school parent told WHDH News that teaching children the Muslim prayer call, “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah,” is unacceptable.) Also, hundreds of millions of tax dollars are funding Gulen terrorist-backed charter schools, and the State Department is funding what is now more than $1 billion to renovate and rebuild mosques worldwide.
Christians will gather together to pray freely and openly in public, mindful of the planned protests by non-Christians but encouraged by Mr. Jindal’s invitation to include them and pray for them. Mr. Jindal asks, “Why not be able to have spiritual revival in this country? Why not be able to fill stadiums and arena’s the way that Billy Graham and so many others did?”
The Response will focus on the themes of reconciliation, revival, reform, repentance, and a time of refreshing through music, prayer, and talks given by a range of speakers.
Mr. Jindal’s invitation for Americans to join him in Baton Rouge is a profound example of his life coming full circle. His mother responded to a university’s offer to move from India to Louisiana; he was born and raised in Baton Rouge and later attended LSU. And he became a Christian in a chapel on LSU’s campus built by a man in response to becoming a Christian at a Billy Graham revival in a large arena.
“Twenty-seven years after becoming a Christian on the LSU campus I am blessed,” Mr. Jindal reflects, “especially as the Governor of Louisiana, to come back to the same campus to call the nation to prayer and repentance, with the hopes of sparking a spiritual revival in our country.”
Mr. Jindal remarks that there were many people who touched his life who he never met, who would have never known how their actions or comments positively influenced his life. He hopes The Response will provide the same opportunity, perhaps the beginning of a new circle for unknown others as well.
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