Skip to content

Congress Gets Prayer, Maybe Exorcism

If Congress can’t figure its way out of the partisan shoals that bedevil it, it won’t be for lack of prayer — or an exorcism later this year.

As the coda to the 57th inauguration, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., attended the prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday and received well wishes from a full house of faith leaders. The good feelings were extended to Congress, who could use the help, what with its rock-bottom approval ratings.

“Give courage to the senators and members of the House of Representatives to hear the people’s voice and to provide for the common good,” said Kathryn Lohre, president of the National Council of Churches.

“Bless our Congress and our Courts,” said Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr.’s old church.

And if that doesn’t do it, another man of the cloth has a solution: exorcisms of political partisanship. Rocky Twyman, the founder of the Pray at the Pump Movement, has panned Obama for not extending an “olive branch” to the GOP and will take matters into his own hands. “After Obama’s inaugural speech, the Pray at the Pump Movement has no choice but to continue our pickets for bipartisanship on Capitol Hill and in front of the White House. We are planning another exorcism on Capitol Hill about February 1 to drive out the demons possessing the White House and Congress,” Twyman said in a statement released before the prayer service. His last partisanship exorcism was Dec. 19, on the East Front of the Capitol. We’re waiting for the results.

Recent Stories

Food, and Nazis, for thought — Congressional Hits and Misses

The pro wrestlers the Democratic Party needs to emulate

Judge orders temporary end to freeze on foreign aid spending

Photos of the week ending February 14, 2025

GOP budget framework gets over initial hurdle in House

Takeaways: White House visit by India’s Modi becomes mini trade summit