Final UPDATE (10:08 PM CST): The Restoring Honor purple hearts will be awarded to three people. He did NOT announce who would get them, or who his special guests will be tomorrow.
John Hagee is offering the closing prayer. He is one of the few to even mention Jesus, but not in his prayer. America’s heroes are not rock stars or athletes. It is the soldiers. In His prayer he spoke against pluralism, and mentioned the Only God. Her prayed for those in authority. America must have spiritual renewal. The Lord is God and there is no other. However, he said something strange about “blending our faith”. What does that mean?
UPDATE 18 (9:51 PM CST) Glenn Beck: “We are 12 hours away from fundamentally transforming the United States” One more song: God Bless America, J E McKissic, Miniser of Music at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. (What a Voice! – God Save America! From the White House to my own house” WOW!!!) UPDATE 17 (9:25 PM CST)
Dave Roever has been introduced. Roever was badly injured when a hand grenade exploded near his head during the Vietnam war. He is sharing his testimony. Though he was badly disfigured, his young wife stayed with him (going on 44 years!). He often makes trips to visit the troops.
But will any of these evangelicals preach the cross and resurrection? Here is more evidence that the evangelical church is anything but evangelical. Can there be a revival without the gospel? Can there be revival if Christians act like Mormonism is Christian? When professing Christian ministers like Roever call Glenn Beck a voice crying in the wilderness?
UPDATE 16 (9:14 PM CST) Gloria Copeland, a speaker in the charismatic movement is speaking about faith. She is giving the standard “name it and claim it” line listeners to her and Kenneth Copeland are used to hearing.
UPDATE 15 (9:02 PM CST) Summary of Rabbi’s speech given: Make lots of money so you can be generous. Study your Bibles. A flower cannot be separated from its roots and survive.
UPDATE 14 (8:45 PM CST) They are taking a short break.
UPDATE 13: (8:33 PM CST): Another serious disappointment: Chuck Norris and his wife were just introduced. He is reading from the inaugural and finals addresses by George Washington speaking of religion and virtue. He also quotes Bemjamin Franklin.
UPDATE 12: (8:18 PM CST) Glenn Beck attacks George Whitefield for owning slaves, but there is more to the story Beck leaves out.
Miles McPherson from Rock Church in San Diego is speaking. Why is faith up, and church attendance down? Hypocrite is someone who believes one thing and does another.
UPDATE 11: (8:10 PM CST) Twila Paris sings a song called “True North”.
UPDATE 10: (8:00 PM CST) Barton is talking about preachers from the 1600s-1700s, including John Hancock, Israel Evans, John Wise that preached about rights, economic systems, etc. Dr. Patrick Lee of Steubenville, Ohio is introduced. He takes a shot about those who don’t value life, but promote both homosexual marriage and polygamy. He also emphasizes that “Men are endowed by their Creator” and owe him thanks for his many blessings. VERY strong defense of life.
UPDATE 9: (7:50 PM CST) Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Seattle, Washington (Alliance of Jews & Christians) is touted by David Barton as a uniter of Christians and Jews. He prays without the aid of a microphone, to honor, I assume the beginning of the Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath). So far, 11 minutes of silence on the broadcast. He is getting lots of applause, however.
UPDATE 8: (7:31 PM CST) Congressman is leading in prayer. He is thankful for freedom and the priviledge of living in the US and asks God to heal our land. He closes prayer with in “In Your Name, Amen”.
Glenn encourages us not to treat the soldiers today like they did in the 1960s. Choir sings “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord”. BEAUTIFUL!
UPDATE 7: (7:18 PM CST) Tomorrow will be the introduction of the “Black Robe Regiment”, and Beck mentions “George Whitefield again.
UPDATE 6: (7:16 PM CST) Keith Olbermann had to pay to watch on Beck’s website, Beck humorously said. Beck added that we are at the beginning of the end of darkness.
UPDATE 5: (7:13 PM CST) Pat Gray is introducing Glenn Beck and among other things calls him “America’s History Professor”. (see Below)
UPDATE 4: (7:08 PM CST) The National Anthem is Being sung by… (??) All of the music features choreography or dancing.
UPDATE 2 (6:39 PM CST): A black gospel group is singing “How Great is Our God”. David Barton announced that prayer was held before the rally with Beck and leaders from all branches. All branches of “what” he did not say. The announcer considers this “A United Nations of Faith” with Baptists, Pentecostals, and Mormons or a “Family Reunion”
Glenn Beck is hosting his Divine Destiny program tonight at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Center which will feature a huge number of evangelical preachers from around the country. Beck is also expected to announce a special guest for tomorrow’s Restoring Honor Rally. Among the possibilities are Andrae Crouch, T D Jakes, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, or James Dobson.
Beck has also been raising money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The rally will be patriotic and also features Sarah Palin, Alveda King (niece of slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King), David Barton. Beck has taken a lot of heat for having the event on the anniversary of the MLK “I Have a Dream” speech and at the same location in Washingrton DC. Al Sharpton is hosting a smaller rally tomorrow across town to hnor King.
We will offer a first on Caffeinated Thoughts: Live Blogging.
Thought for the day: If this is not an opportunity for Mormon evangelism, why has Beck gone out on a limb and featured segments on history that support Mormonism and are completely contrary to the facts of history.
Last week he featured an attack on Trinitarian Christians by claiming that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by people fleeing the persecution of the Church after they wrote the Nicene Creed. He is off by about 250 years; the Essenes were gone that long before the Creed was even written.
Several weeks he ago he claimed there was a lost civilization found in St. Louis and other parts of this country. No reputable archeologists or anthropologists support this notion but it fits the Mormon idea that Jesus visited America to preach to the Jews (Indian, Native Americans) that lived here at the time.