TVC Calls Upon Citizens To Encourage A National Day Of Repentance And Reconciliation

Traditional Values Coalition ^ | September 12, 2001 | Rev. Louis P. Sheldon

[simicyber]

T R A D I T I O N A L V A L U E S C O A L I T I O N

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release

September 12, 2001

For more information contact:
Steve Aiken, 202-547-8570

TVC Calls Upon Citizens To Encourage

A National Day Of Repentance And Reconciliation

STATEMENT BY REV. LOUIS P. SHELDON:

With the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, this is a time for Americans—regardless of their political beliefs—to come together in unity to pray for the thousands of innocent victims who died in planes, in buildings, and in rescue attempts.

We grieve for the families who have lost moms, dads, and children in this terrible holocaust. We grieve for the families of policemen and firefighters who lost their lives yesterday as they attempted to rescue others. They died so that others might live. We honor the paramedics, the surgeons, and other hospital workers throughout New York, New Jersey, and the Washington, DC area who are overwhelmed at this hour by the enormous challenge of tending to the wounded.

It is our hope that millions of Americans will gather in their houses of worship this week to join together in a Solemn Assembly to pray and fast for this nation and for the victims of yesterday’s 21^st Century Pearl Harbor.

A Solemn Assembly is a Bible-based practice that brings men, women, and children together for a time of repentance and fasting to turn God’s judgment away from a nation. This practice is based upon a declaration in the book of Joel: "Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD... Even now, declares the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity." Joel 1:14, 2:12-13

We must not only call upon God to comfort those who lost their loved ones yesterday, we must ask God to forgive us for our own sins against him.

• We must repent of our greed, idolatry, and adulteries.
• We should repent of our nation’s epidemic of child abuse—more than 300,000 children each year are sexually abused, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania study.
• We must repent of our killing of an estimated 4,000 unborn children a day through abortion. More unborn children die each week than died yesterday in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.

I am calling upon Congress this day to gather for a Solemn Assembly and to repent of playing politics instead of considering the morality of the legislation they pass.

This year, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX) have introduced a congressional resolution calling the establishment of a National Day of Repentance and Reconciliation (a Solemn Assembly). I have been working on this resolution with these legislators and am urging that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) seriously consider passage of this resolution in view of yesterday’s horrific events. I am also calling upon all Americans to urge their U.S. legislators to support the National Day of Repentance and Reconciliation resolution!

Yesterday is a day that will live forever in my heart and mind—and I pray that the United States will do whatever it takes militarily to see that justice is done for the thousands of men and women who lie dead beneath the rubble in New York City and the Pentagon!

--30--

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The Traditional Values Coalition is an interdenominational public policy organization comprising more than 43,000 churches across the continental United States and Puerto Rico. For more information, contact Steve Aiken at 202-547-8570. TVC's Web site is: www.traditionalvalues.org.

[RLK]

Repentence and reconciliation my ass. Reverand, take your guilt-ridden crap somewhere else. This is the day when we begin to hunt down every disciple who had anything to do with this and chop off their God damned heads.

[IVote2]

Thank you for saying what I was thinking!