From worship to prayer, thousands joined together on the campus of Louisiana State University for a weekend faith gathering called, “The Response: Louisiana.”
The event, led by Gov. Bobby Jindal, was designed as a way for Christians to come together and seek spiritual revival for America.
“It always starts in one place and we’re just praying that the prayers we send out today are going to spread to our nation,” attendee Angel Heath said.
Jindal asked all of his fellow U.S. governors to join him in Baton Rouge.
“Our God is an awesome God, amen!” Jindal declared before the crowd. “We’re going to plea for Him to send His Spirit, His healing Spirit, a Spirit of revival in this place, all across this state, all across this blessed land.”
The night before the event, Jindal told a group of pastors how the Lord had been orchestrating this moment for decades.
“Twenty-seven years ago I accepted Christ as my lord and savior on the LSU campus,” Jindal shared.
“I was a 16-year-old teenager, and if you had gone back in time and said, ‘One day, son, you’re going to be governor of this great state and as governor you’re going to call and host a time of prayer and renewal on that same campus,’ it shows you that we worship an all-powerful God,” he said.
This weekend, many prayed and repented while others in intercessory prayer rooms asked God to intervene in America’s affairs and rescue its people.
“Father, we say we need you,” one person prayed. “We’re poor in spirit. We can’t do this on our own.”
David Lane, an organizer with the American Renewal Project, says there is only one answer and one ultimate goal.
“Only the Lord could restore America to its Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture. Only the Lord could do that,” Lane said.
The vibe inside LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center was one of peace, of praise and of worship to God.
Outside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, however, there was a different vibe—one of anger.
A hundred or so protesters marched against the rally, with one of their concerns being that Jindal held a religious event on a state-funded campus.
“He shouldn’t be doing it on a state campus. If they want to do that, go somewhere else,” prayer rally protester Phyllis Nowak said.
The protesters were also displeased that the American Family Association, a group that unashamedly promotes traditional values, was involved with the event.
Jindal thinks the protesters need to calm down.
“You’ve got a group of Christians who say we want to pay money to rent a hall on LSU’s campus so we can come together and pray. Do we really live in a society where that’s controversial?” Jindal said.
Apparently so, but Christians here soldier on, praying for revival.
“This has been a positive seed in the direction of getting the nation to turn its eyes back on the Lord,” Paul Abram, a Louisiana resident who attended the weekend prayer gathering, said.
It is a divine appeal that’s brought many to their knees.
