Fasting For Romney

Since Romney is having trouble in the polls and troubles with his mouth, loyal Romney supporters are queuing up to ask Heavenly Father for an intervention.

According to McCay Coppins of Buzzfeed, an email is being distributed among Mormons encouraging them to fast and pray for Romney’s performance in the debates, because it “brings about miracles.”

Mormons won’t be the only ones fasting and praying this weekend. The America for Jesus Rally will be held September 28 and 29 on Independence Mall. The Rally—part youth rally, part “Solemn assembly”— is being called to “pray for the nation.” Bishop Harry Jackson, Cindy Jacobs, and Samuel Rodriguez will be in attendance at several events, along with thousands of others bussed in to pray in proximity to Independence Hall.

I wonder how the Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson impersonators onsite will work this crowd!

No one, least of all RD readers, should be surprised by any of this. There have been rallies going on since Rick Perry’s “The Response,” and every presidential election some groups get together to pray for their candidates in order to seek “divine guidance” or favor. 2012 is no exception.

What is different, however, is the sense of apocalyptic urgency about the 2012 presidential election that has conservative religious groups in a tizzy. Back in 2008, prayer groups sprang up around Sarah Palin’s VP nomination, and when it looked as though then-candidate Barack Obama would win the election, James Dobson and others began to give out dire predictions about what would happen in America.

Since 2008, the narrative of declension, destruction, and decline has gripped conservatives, and has not only narrated their political stance, but their religious leanings as well. With Mitt Romney’s poll numbers declining, the next few weeks are going to look like a Left Behind novel on many religious right websites.

Fasts will be called, pulpits pounded, and angst-ridden doomsday purveyors will fundraise off the anxiety of having President Obama for another four years. Who knew that the prospect of another four years of an African American president could call so many faithful to prayer? Revival indeed.