The Prayer Warriors

The Pray at the Pump group believes that there’s a solution for all of the nation’s problems.  Put politics aside, let go of silly policy ideas, and focus on a more powerful avenue of fixing the world: prayer.  It works with any religion, as long as you’re praying.  “It doesn’t matter to us.  It can be Muslim or whatever,”  says Rocky Twyman, the group’s founder.  

In fact, the members of the group are mostly Seventh-Day Adventists, a Protestant-like denomination that celebrates Saturday as the Sabbath, and their philosophy draws heavily on the Christian bible. “If you go to the Bible it says ‘God is a jealous god,’ and He wants us to give Him credit.”  Not doing so has brought about the collapse of kings and kingdoms time and time again, says Twyman.

While prayer is important for all, the group has recently set its focus on one man, whose prayers are, perhaps, closer to God’s ears.  Twyman believes that President Barack Obama could get a great deal more done if he were to only engage in public prayer, both to ask for help and give thanks.  “After all, God is the one who made it possible for him to even become President,” Twyman sermonizes, explaining that God went to great lengths to position Obama for the Presidency, bringing about, among other things, well-timed economic turmoil.

Twyman’s beliefs motivate him and several of his co-religionists toward numerous acts of protest, each aimed at raising awareness of faith, prayer, and its importance to public policy outcomes.  Before the Glenn Beck Rally in Washington, they gathered outside the White House to demand that Obama bring Beck and Al Sharpton, who was manning a counter-rally, together in prayer.  On Labor Day weekend, he and his self-proclaimed “Prayer Warriors” gathered at an unemployment center near Union Station to pray, sing, circulate a petition, and, according to their press release, “pass out candies of hope to help soften the blow” of unemployment.  They hope Obama is paying attention and will find some humility in the face of the great creator.  ”HARVARD WISDOM IS FOLLY TO THE RULER OF THE UNIVERSE,” their petition reads.

Unemployment and Glenn Beck are not the only problems prayer can tackle.  It can work on anything from war to natural disaster. The BP oil spill could have been cleaned up much sooner with a little help from God, says Twyman.  ”Cuz he made the Earth!  He knows, man!  He knows what to do!”

But Twyman isn’t just acting on faith.  He’s had confirmation from his previous experiences that prayer works.  The Pray at the Pump movement started, as its name indicates, by conducting prayer vigils at gas stations in the summer of 2008, when the price of oil hit a record high.  “We prayed and God blessed our efforts and the prices started coming down whenever we prayed!”  

Never mind that the price of oil came tumbling down due to reduced demand, caused by the fast deterioration of the American economy.  As you’ll recall, that was part of the plan to get Obama into power in the first place.

God works in mysterious ways.

-Niv Elis

Jews against Israel -or- Six Opinions

There is a saying that if you put two Jews in a room, you’ll get six opinions.  Today’s protest offers ample evidence.

It started with a tip from a friend: Loads of Orthodox Jews are protesting at the White House today.  Against Israel.

The organizers, called Neturei Karta, are a group of ultra-orthodox Jews who believe that the existence of Israel breaches Jewish law.  Rabbi Shaya Burke, from an affiliated group in Brooklyn, explained: “We as a group are not for the existence of a state of Israel.  We are waiting for the Messiah.”  Until he returns, they believe, Jews are meant to be in exile.  (This view was, in fact, the party line among most religious Jews a century ago, but that changed as the nascent Jewish state began to develop into more of a reality than a dream, and religious leaders were co-opted into the pre-state governing system.)

So on the occasion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, despite scorching 100 degree weather, fringe groups of Anti-Zionist Jews gathered in full force on the White House lawn to protest Israel.  They accused Israel, among other things, of desecrating Jewish graves in Jaffa.

But while the Neturei Karta wave Palestinian flags, officially advocate for a one state solution, and even participated in a holocaust denial conference in Teheran, Rabbi Burke identified himself as a member of the slightly different anti-Zionist Hassidic group Satmar.  “We don’t advocate any violence, god forbid, and we don’t support any Arabs or anything.”  Six opinions.

The good Rabbi was aware that protesting outside the White House, like so many of the letter writing and advocacy campaigns he participated in, would probably not yield results.  Yet for his group, protest was a religious mandate, a “cry to hashem [God].”  In their reading of the Torah, people must gather in the face of injustice and show their best effort in opposition.  “So we do what we can.  We have no guns, no police, no ammunition, I mean even this heat is too hard for us.  We’re exhausted!” 

Unlike some of his colleagues, who claimed to speak only Yiddish, the Rabbi was very amiable, and engaged in a conversation with a local, pro-Israel Jew.  Frustrated with the protest, the Washingtonian  admonished the Rabbi for not considering how soundbite media portrayals would miss his nuance and be used to perpetuate and justify violence.  “You’re holed up in Brooklyn with no Internet and no television.  You don’t understand how Israel’s enemies can use this against us!”  (Although for the Neturei Karta, that might be the goal.  Six opinions!)

Away from all the action, a young woman named Evie stood before the White House singing Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva [The Hope], over and over.  “I’m standing here because I want to cry when I hear these things, these lies,” she said.   An Israeli tourist in Washington to practice English, Evie found the protest horrifying.  Having served (and been injured) in the Israeli army,  she gave an impassioned defense of her motherland.  “We have a right to live in our country! We’re not murderers.  The fact that [Hamas] stands behind children and hide in hospitals to fire Kassam rockets, isn’t our problem, it’s their problem already.  I’m here to strengthen Israel, to support Bibi Netanyahu and the peace process, because that’s the path: to work for peace.”  (Glancing at the ever present, homeless protester Connie, she commented “I wanted to offer her some water, but then she called me a Nazi, so I prefer not to.  But I feel bad for her.”) 

For Evie, standing in the wake of the Neturei Karta protest was a way to show Netanyahu her support for the peace process, and remind him that there was a different Jewish perspective than the one on display.  More like six, if you ask me.

(Note: the pictures in this post were taken from http://palestinenote.com/cs/blogs/news/archive/2010/07/06/activists-demonstrate-against-netanyahu-meeting.aspx)

-Niv Elis