Prayerpalooza

Texas Governor Rick Perry scheduled a day of prayer, officially titled “The Response,” at Houston’s Reliant Stadium on August 6, 2011. About 30,000 people attended what many viewed as the first event of Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign.
 
The event had been nicknamed a “prayerpalooza” (“Parry’s Prayer Palooza”) since at least June 8, 2011. The term “prayerpalooza” (prayer + lollapalooza) can also be used for any large prayer gathering, perhaps similar to the spectacle of the Lollapalooza rock concerts.
       
 
The Response
Thank you for joining us for a day of fasting and praying for America. What a day it was.
God’s presence was in Reliant Stadium, and we know that He heard the cries of His people. We believe we will see the fruit in our nation because young and old, many races, many denominations gathered in unity to worship the name of Jesus.
 
There were over 30,000 people in attendance at Reliant Stadium, over 1,000 churches and groups gathered together and joined us via the live web stream, and over 80,000 individuals joined live web stream from their homes.
 
Leaving the Quet Room by Joe Zamecki
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Picket Planned for Perry’s Prayer Palooza - Aug 6
I’ll be at the picket against Texas Governor Rick Perry’s big prayer event at Reliant Stadium in Houston on August 6. Here is the protest page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177641222294542 It’s gonna be big!
 
Athena Post
Perry’s Prayer-Palooza
June 28, 2011
by Jim Hightower, OtherWords | Op-Ed, 27 June 2011 —
When Texas became a republic in 1836, its constitution banned “ministers of the gospel” from holding any political office.
 
Dallas (TX) Observer
IHOP To It: A Little More About the Prayer Warriors Behind Rick Perry’s “The Response”
By Anna Merlan Tue., Jul. 12 2011 at 11:05 AM
We’re sure that you’ve been shocked (shocked!) to hear that many of the leaders and endorsers of Rick Perry’s upcoming prayer-palooza, The Response, are people from organizations who really disapprove of both The Gays and The Abortion. Most of the protest against The Response so far has come from human rights groups unhappy that the American Family Association is such a big part of it, what with AFA founder Bryan Fischer’s novel argument that homosexuals caused the Holocaust. Now public attention is starting to shift to the other group that’s heavily involved in The Response: the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
 
Texas Tribune
Cloud of Controversy Hangs Over “Prayerpalooza”
by Jay Root
8/5/2011
Gov. Rick Perry is finally getting the national spotlight he’ll need to run for president, but this weekend’s “day of prayer and fasting” rally in Houston may not be the kind of attention he was looking for.
 
The Response — informally nicknamed “Prayerpalooza” — gets underway Saturday under a cloud of controversy. Its official sponsors and endorsers have been criticized as extremists and bigots
 
New York magazine—Daily Intel
Will Rick Perry’s Prayerpalooza Backfire?
8/5/11 at 09:07 AM
Tomorrow is the Texas governor’s long-planned and controversial Houston prayer festival, the Response. Perry has come under a great deal of fire already for the planned lineup of speakers at so-called “Prayerpalooza,” which draws from the extreme end of evangelicalism: One speaker compared Oprah to the “Harlot of Babylon”; another called the Statue of Liberty “demonic.” Still another thinks that bird deaths in Arkansas and elsewhere were God’s response to the repeal of DADT. The event’s co-sponsor, the American Family Association, is known for its anti-gay policies.