
Mississippians amassed around the Capitol on Monday wearing red and blue stickers that said “State Capitol Prayer Statement,” “Jesus is Lord” and “Prayer Matters.”
Polls for the presidential election would open in less than 24-hours, and many participants admitted that nerves over the outcome had inspired them to pile onto buses or into carpools and travel to the state Capitol for the prayer rally.
But no one mentioned either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. The event organizers, Mississippi Baptists Convention Board and First Baptist Church in Jackson, had asked that the focus be on prayers, not politics
But for many people the focus of their prayers was still clear.
“We’ve got to get Christian values back in the White House. And get rid of gays’ and lesbians’ rights to marry … and abortion,” said Wilbur McCurdy of New Liberty Baptist Church in Morton.
“People are tired of having Christian values trampled on,” said Betty McCurdy, the wife of Wilbur. “Liberals are trying to push Christian values back.”
Gov. Phil Bryant, who spoke to the crowd from the steps of First Baptist Church across the street, even got in on the “wink-nod” method of talking politics. He didn’t endorse anyone specifically, even though over the past few months he has become a well-known surrogate for Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“So tomorrow will be a time of choosing for this nation,” Bryant said. “It will be Election Day. We will go and have our voices heard through the greatest process that this country has ever known. I will ask you to go and vote. I’m going to be careful here, I won’t go and tell you who.”
At this point, the audience laughed and cheered.
“But I will be careful here to go and ask you to vote for the unborn,” Bryant said as the audience erupted in applause and several participants shouted “Amen.” “Go and vote for families tomorrow, that have held this nation together since its very founding.”
More than anything, some ralliers said they were hoping that America would get back on track. When asked about Tuesday’s election, some participants said they were hopeful that this day of prayer could sway things.
“Oh yes, absolutely,” said Bruce Chamberlain, who had traveled from Brookhaven with his wife, Shirley. “Where God is in it, anything can change.”
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.