The morning of the 2022 March for Life,  Intercessors for America and my organization Christians Engaged hosted a casual Congressional Prayer Breakfast in connection with America First Policy Institute‘s Center for American Values. The breakfast brought intercessors and pro-life activists together across denominational lines.

It was also a meet-and-greet and prayer gathering with a few pro-life Members of Congress from Texas — Congressman Michael Cloud, Congressman Van Taylor, Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, Congressman Chip Roy. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., the President of Intercessors for America Dave Kubal and his wife Kris also joined me and more of our key Christians Engaged leaders.

Also in attendance was Paula White-Cain, the Chair of the Center for American Values, Paul Teller, the executive director for Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom and Former DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.

Held at the America First Policy Institute’s Capitol Hall room, it was also live streamed on Facebook.

Christians Engaged originally scheduled the event to highlight our national expansion out from Texas — as we move to a national grassroots ministry connecting believers to habits of prayer, voting and engagement for the wellbeing of America.

Prayer, Worship and Action

National recording artist Natasha Owens led a powerful time of worship, as we prayed for our nation and the ending of abortion in America. 

Many high-profile guests spoke at the event:

Congressman Michael Cloud (TX-27), representing the coastal bend of Texas is a former media director at Faith Family Church in Victoria, Texas and is on the advisory board for Christians Engaged.

He spoke on the importance of the church to be involved in the wellbeing of our republic and how the clergy made all the difference during the Revolutionary War and beyond in our nation. He powerfully called for us as Christians to all play our part.

Congressman Van Taylor (TX-03), represents Collin County in Texas — one of the most influential places in Texas for economic growth and corporate development. He has always been on the cutting edge of the pro-life movement crafting legislation when he served in the Texas Legislature and now as a Member of Congress.

Congressman Taylor thanked the pro-lifers for their sacrifice in coming to the March, for their commitment to the cause, and reiterated his strong support for the pro-life movement.

Protecting the Unborn and False Prenatal Test Results

Congressman Chip Roy (TX-21) stands strong as a social and fiscal conservative leader in the U.S. House. He has been very outspoken about government overreach and the importance to protect the unborn in our nation.

He spoke about his letter released on 1/21/22 with over 97 other colleagues in the U.S House to the Food and Drug Administration along pressing for answers about its involvement with, and authority over, noninvasive prenatal testing. Congressman Roy’s letter comes after The New York Times released a scathing report highlighting the appallingly high false-positive rate of noninvasive prenatal genetic screenings (85%) for rare genetic disorders. Unfortunately, these positive test results can lead to parents resorting to abortion.

Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (TX-24), representing many suburbs in North Texas from her hometown of Irving where she previously served as a mayor, has not been afraid to take hard stands for what is right. She is vocal in her support of life and protecting the unborn.

Beth spoke about her past miscarriage and the pain of that loss and her conviction that life begins at conception. She gave stirring heartfelt remarks that impacted so many.

Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and daughter of slain civil rights activist Rev. A.D. King, Alveda is an author, minister and former state legislator in Georgia. Currently she serves currently with America First Policy Institute as Chairman of the Center for the American Dream.

Alveda led the group in “How Great Thou Art” and the Lord’s Prayer and encouraged the worshippers to pray for America.

Pennsylvania State Representative Stephanie Borowicz is the first woman to represent the 76th district of Pennsylvania. Her husband is an associate pastor, and she is a woman of faith, prayer, and steadfastness being bold in her public life to speak the name of Jesus.

Stephanie spoke about the power of the states in the fight for life and how we can all make a difference within our state legislatures.

Bethany Kozma, current Executive Director of the Center for American Values at America First Policy Institute received a golden bowl — the IFA Champion for Life award — for her work in the Trump administration standing for the protection for life at the United Nations. She bravely stated the Trump administration’s position to a hostile UN general assembly, “The United States is a pro-life nation.” This award symbolized the prayers of the saints for Bethany as we all committed to pray for her ongoing work at AFPI.

Gathering People of Prayer to Act

I mention all these speakers to make a point: This event demonstrated how prayer and action are converging in America.

I believe we are seeing in our lifetime the prayer movement and government movements converging like never before. We are interacting not in an unholy alliance as some Christian leaders lament, but as a powerful force for change.

As individual Christians come to realize that God is calling us to take ownership of being light and salt in our culture — we must interact with government. We can’t hide under a rock and wait for Jesus to come back — we must interact within the halls of power — but in the right, godly spirit.

We are not just called to prayer, but to action. At the same time we have to do it knowing the gospel is preeminent, God is our ultimate King, and operating in the spirit of the Beatitudes knowing that is truly where our power comes from. It is a fine balance, but I am convinced after walking in government for 18 years that it can be done.

As I said at the breakfast event, the Church is awakening and the importance for the wellbeing of our republic of us being on the front lines of the battle — praying, voting, and engaging — cannot be underestimated. It was important that we met together as a prayer movement before the March for Life at this crucial point in our nation’s history.

I don’t want to be on the porch of my East Texas home (that I will have one day) — telling my future grandchildren that I wasn’t there when Roe v. Wade was overturned. I will be able to say — I was there in D.C. in the most important year for the pro-life movement — gathering people of prayer to act. You can read my motivation for why I went to the March this year here.

It is important for these mountains of influence in the Church and government to come together. But it must be through individual relationships by people of faith within government and politics mixing with ministry leaders and intercessors.

The walls are coming down, and it is about time for us to work together as people of faith. We saw that strongly on January 21st, and for the sake of our beloved nation we hope to grow this movement and this unity in the years to come.

 

Bunni Pounds is president of Christians Engaged. She is a former congressional candidate, 15-year political consultant and motivational speaker. Her previous article was her account of the March for Life: “The Energetic, Powerful 2022 March for Life.”