The Detroit Free Press reports that the football stadium drew fewer than the 50,000 to 70,000 people organizers had hoped for, and the crowd was mostly white despite the IHOP crew's hopes of attracting a large contingent of black worshippers. The paper also notes that more than 100 people showed up outside the stadium to protest TheCall and Engle's hate-spreading ways.
This hate-fest didn't produce any particularly noteworthy Engle gems, but he did make some odd comments about gospel music, saying it will be "a new worship sound out of Detroit." And he reportedly devoted three hours of the 24-hour rally to "defeating Islam in Dearborn and eventually around the world." If you're jonesing for a new Engle video, there's one after the jump.
It's kind of a dumb exercise because, like a list of the worst Beatles songs, it suggests that the church does worthwhile things when it's not thanking God for AIDS and improvised explosive devices.
In July, nutbag Kansas City preacher Lou Engle claimed that the May 22 EF5 tornado that ripped through Joplin "was a sign that God's redemptive judgments are beginning to be manifest concerning the shedding of innocent blood and abortion."
Not so fast, as college football analyst Lee Corso would say. A prophet named Chuck Pierce is claiming that the tornado that killed 159 was God's response to a speech by President Obama on the Middle East. Pierce also claimed that the speech will cause racism to return to 1967 levels. Actually, didn't that happen around 2009?
H/t: Right Wing Report.
"I heard that actually the day that Gov. Perry announced that he’s running for president, and this is not an endorsement I’m giving here, it simply it rained I believe he said for five hours, it poured," Engle said during a conference call with Ministry Today (via Right Wing Watch). "And people think that that could’ve been a sign, I don’t know. I think that was a historic prayer gathering for a governor to call a true Joel:2 solemn assembly. You don’t always see an immediate answer to these kinds of prayers but God does, God sees and responds and I believe we’ll look back at that gathering as a historic moment in American history and that’s what I’ve got to believe."
Rick Perry makes it rain! Except the drought isn't over. And Texas is burning.
Oh, and that "historic prayer gathering" that Engle mentioned was Perry's The Response prayer rally, which Engle's BFF Mike Bickle of IHOP (prayer, not pancakes) fame had a big hand in.
Talk of First Family facing foreclosure began in January with the megachurch owing more than $14 million on its mortgage to Regions Bank. Word that the church was losing its home base along with everything in the church came Sunday, with its final service at its current location taking place September 11. The church's board of elders said in a statement that "after exhausting every option with Regions Bank, we have no alternative."
But church leaders vowed to "rebuild."
Engle also believes that prayer will convert Muslims to Christianity. There's a large Muslim population near Detroit, where Engle will be holding one of his TheCall events on November 11. Get ready to watch Engle rock back and forth with his hands in his pockets.
International House of Prayer leader Mike Bickle says he has seen demons with his own eyes. At least once. But it wasn't the first time he'd been attacked by demons. He has been assaulted at least 10 times in the last 30 years. Really, this isn't a surprise. This is a man who has dreamed of 100-foot snakes raining from the sky.
Bickle offers a tip for those who find themselves attacked by demons: Just tell them to leave, and they'll be on their way.
The prayer rally that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is leading in Houston on Saturday is looking more like a cautionary tale than a great awakening. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, the one governor who planned to attend the arena-sized day of fasting and prayer, now appears to be waffling in his commitment to the event -- perhaps out of recognition that it's creepy with homophobes.
Rick Perry, the governor of Texas and a potential presidential candidate, is going to pray and fast for America on August 6. He's not kidding around, either. He has booked a football stadium in Houston for the event.
Perry invited the nation's governors to join him at what's being called "the Response." But to date, only one has accepted the offer: Sam Brownback of Kansas.
Surprising no one, the Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket the SlutWalk march in Kansas City on July 30. The mere mention of the word "slut" sent church officials reaching for the finger grease-stained pages of the Old Testament. Leviticus! Deuteronomy! Some other book of the Bible that only sex-obsessed fundamentalists read!
SlutWalk is an international response to a Canadian policeman's advice that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" to maintain their safety. The marches make the point that it's rapists who commit rape and that blaming the victims of sex crimes is unacceptable.
Courtney Cole, Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus executive director, answers The Pitch's questionnaire
Big Rip Brewing Co. expands the Northland's beer universe
A consultant tells KC that big retail could save Citadel Plaza
Yo La Tengo is at Grinders tonight
Which out-of-town restaurant would you lobby to bring to KC?
WWE's Monday Night Raw returns to Kansas City October 14
DelHi Soul Food Buffet closes in KCK
The Gaf has closed in Waldo