When politics became a prayer

More than 25,000 people rallied in Phoenix to protest Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law. A highlight of the rally was its emphasis on prayer.

By Jim Perdue Burke

PHOENIX, Ariz. — People began to gather at the Arizona state capitol around noon on a beautiful May first day. It was partly cloudy and around 85 degrees.

By 2 p.m., about 2,000 people were milling around various groups gathered on the front of the capitol lawn. It was more like the atmosphere of a state fair, only the overwhelming majority of the people were Latinos.

A peaceful protest of Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law brought more ethan 25,000 people to the state’s capitol.

By 4 p.m. more like 3,000 were there, the number bolstered by people beginning to arrive after work. Most Latinos in the United States do work on Saturday, too.

By 6 p.m., when a lot of the national press had wrapped up and the counter demonstrators along with them, about 8,000 had arrived. Religious music was being played by a local Pentecostal band.

By 6:30 p.m. approximately 15,000 had gathered. The music and prayers continued, punctuated by cheers and chants of “Sí se puede” (“Yes we can”), “un pueblo unido nunca será vencido” (“a people united will never be defeated”), and “Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha” (“Listen, Obama, we have entered the struggle”).

Prayer service and spiritual pilgrimage

By 7 p.m., the street along the east side of the capitol grounds and the sidewalks and grass farther on were covered by a sea of people: more than 20,000 were there. That’s when the prayer service and the prelude to a spiritual pilgrimage around the capitol grounds began.

At 7:30 p.m., the pilgrimage itself began, led by the small group of youths, now leaders of this great sea of witnesses. These youths had begun a simple prayer vigil with sleeping bags and snacks more than two weeks ago: There were seven of them.

Nobody paid any attention to them then, but things have a way of changing. They were among the reasons why many times during the day, we all sang “Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza” (“If you had faith like a mustard seed”).

Most of those youth leaders will have a hard time going on to college. Ironically, that may be a blessing in disguise for this beleaguered Latino community: Fifty of them this week began intense training in organizing under the direction of Arizona Reform Immigration for America and local evangelical youth pastors. What a winning combination!

Sí se puede

The spiritual procession began along the sidewalk, but it quickly spilled into one lane of the five-lane streets. A parade of cars accompanied the procession of pilgrims and honked their horns in cadence to “sí se puede.”

By the time the pilgrims were halfway around the perimeter of the three city blocks of the capitol complex, police had barricaded all streets adjoining it. The people began to gather in the street for the home stretch of the pilgrimage, where they waded through another 5,000 people that had gathered. They processed together to the stage.

What may go down in history as the largest prayer meeting ever in Arizona.

The band was playing celebratory religious music. More than 25,000 people sang their hearts out. Afterwards, they entered into a closing time of prayer and blessing. Then, even more miraculously, they peacefully gathered up their children and loved ones, and they went home.

Two colleagues and I laughed and wished the local sheriff well on his most recent “crime spree” because he found no one at home to arrest or harass. They were all at the capitol singing, praying, and conducting a spiritual pilgrimage focused around faith, hope and the vote.

How ironic: The people the Arizona legislature and governor were so afraid of chose to respond by conducting what may go down in history as the largest prayer meeting ever in Arizona. Talk about “heaping coals on the heads of your persecutors.”

‘Today, we are all Arizona.’

The other special joy of the day was to listen to the cheers of religious excitement when this great congregation heard that they were not just 25,000 Arizonans gathered for the day. Over half a million people throughout the nation and around the world were in the streets with one single message, “Today, we are all Arizona.”

Cheers went out again as they heard that over 6,500 United Methodist Women in St Louis had prayed, sung and marched with them this day. They, too, were Arizona this day.

Cheers went up once more when they heard that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., was arrested in Washington, D.C., in a protest outside the White House. He was reputed to have said to the crowd as he was taken away, “I am Arizona.”

One more time they cheered wildly as they learned that six religious leaders, representing a broad cross-section of the Arizona faith community, would represent them on May 13 before the Arizona congressional and senate delegations and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

How will the political world deal now with this strong and gentle people who, while being oppressed by new laws and administrative practices every day, had a golden chance to demonstrate, but instead choose to pray? How can Arizonans continue to call a people on its knees before God a bunch of rapists and murderers?

One day, perhaps we will be mature enough to thank our creator for this people that on the first day of May in 2010 taught us once more what we never should have forgotten: Let us pray, Maranatha, even so come Lord.