BUSH URGED TO 'PULL A REAGAN' AT INAUGURATION
By Mike Evans
 Bush urged to 'pull a Reagan' at inauguration
Group wants president sworn in with Bible verse on repentance
Citing ongoing and mounting threats to the nation's security, a Christian group wants to enlist 1 million Americans to appeal to President Bush to be sworn in with his hand on a Bible opened to a verse that calls the nation to repentance.
President Bush is being asked to follow the example of President Reagan, who had his family Bible opened to II Chronicles 7:14 when he was inaugurated Jan. 20, 1981.
"America needs God's blessing and protection more than ever," says Mike Evans, the spokesperson for If My People. "The truth is, we have a God-fearing President, but he cannot save this nation if God does not 'heal our land.' We elected George Bush for another term; now, we must appeal to him to lead our great nation into a 'Great Awakening' by seeking God's sovereign intervention."
The verse reads:
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Evans has asked more than 300 national leaders, including James Dobson, T. D. Jakes and Tim LaHaye, to back a petition asking Bush to declare a II Chronicles 7:14 National Day of Prayer, Repentance, and Fasting.
Groups in the 1980s -- Washington for Jesus and the American Coalition for Traditional Values -- successfully appealed to Reagan to highlight the verse at his first inauguration.
"I don't think anyone can say that communism fell without the firing of a shot because of the brilliance of the State Department," Evans said. "God intervened then; He can now. It is no coincidence that after 444 days of the Iran hostage crisis, the captives were released as President Reagan placed his hand on II Chronicles 7:14."
The petition to President Bush asks the he use his family Bible, opened to II Chronicles 7:14, because for his first inauguration in 2001, the president requested the use of George Washington's Masonic Bible.
The President’s father, George H. W. Bush, had used the Washington Bible during his inauguration in 1989. But in 2001, due to a snowstorm, the Bible could not be delivered in time for the ceremony, and the 43rd president was sworn in with a closed family Bible.
It's important that President Bush takes this step and declare a day of repentance because of the challenges the U.S. faces, i.e., Iran's development of nuclear weapons, an elusive Osama bin Laden with a stated aim to kill 4 million Americans, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the Iraq war and Syria's support of terrorism in that country.
Please go to www.ifmypeople.net to sign the petition to President Bush.
|
