Local Christians Gather To Pray
Area residents gathered at Penn Central Mall at noon on Thursday for National Day of Prayer.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – There were more than 75 chairs lined up in two sections inside Penn Central Mall on Thursday. Local clergy talked amongst themselves as they finalized the program they were to present, all they needed now was some attendees.
As the 12:15 pm start time approached, those participants taking part in the National Day of Prayer continued to file in.
The National Day of Prayer is observed on the first Thursday of May, as designated by the United States Congress, “to turn to God in prayer and meditation.”
During the noon-time prayer, participants were praying for: government, civil institutions, marriage and family, and then the church. Participants in the prayer service were also going to be praying for the top 150 leaders, as outlined on the National Day of Prayer website.
Bill Tvedt, Pastor at Jubilee Family Church in Oskaloosa, said that, “National Day of Prayer is a time for the nation to come together, as a historical precedent has been set in that.”
Praying for those in leadership, “some key issues would be the definition of marriage being decided upon by our Supreme Court. Religious liberty in general. Just different things that are happening in the culture.”
Tvedt said he thinks “that we really need to pray as a Christian community because we stand the possibility of losing a lot of our religious liberty if we don’t pray and see God really instituted back into the public.”
Tvedt, who has been asked to pray at several political gatherings that featured Republican presidential hopefuls, says that we need to pray for those candidates and potential candidates. “There’s a lot of good candidates, but no one can do it without God, and I think that’s why the Bible says to pray for those who are authority.”
Left leaning MSNBC headlined the National Day of Prayer with “Another Day of Prayer?” in which their author, Steve Benen, questions “why the nation needs a National Day of Prayer in the first place.”
Benen goes on to say, “I’ve never fully understood why the day exists. For one thing, there doesn’t seem to be any great public demand for the occasion.”
“We are to pray for our leaders so we won’t be persecuted as Christians,” added Tvedt.
In the Christian community, the conversation has turned towards their faith being a persecuted class. Muslim groups such as ISIS often release videos of them beheading Christians. Tvedt agrees, and says that has been the case since the days of the Roman Empire, “Christians have been persecuted, it’s nothing new,” says Tvedt.
“In America, it’s more of a cultural marginalization; that’s our persecution in America,” says Tvedt. “I think that is by the government encroaching on churches turf. Clearly, when they start defining marriage, and they start defining when life begins… it’s clearly a persecution,” adds Tvedt.
A concern for Christians has been what is perceived as protected class status being giving to those in the Muslim community and those in the LGBT community. “Anti-Christian bigotry is really the spirit of anti-Christ. Anti-Christian bigotry is unexplainable, other than it be a spiritual issue,” says Tvedt.
