ELECTION PRAYERS TO GO OUT NOV. 4; CHURCHES PLAN PRAYER VIGILS

Organized prayer vigils being planned for the Nov. 5 presidential election is about faith, not politics, say organizers.

"We're not Democrats praying to get Republicans out of office or vice-versa," said the Rev. William Burke, pastor of First Church of the Nazarene and president of the local Ministerial Alliance. "But we do believe prayer makes a difference."

On Nov. 4, the day before Election Day, people in Cape Girardeau will gather to pray.

The Ministerial Alliance, a multidenominational group of area church leaders, is planning prayer sessions all day at churches in the area, Burke said.

Most of the times and places are tentative, Burke said, and a complete will be available soon. A noon vigil is planned on the steps of City Hall or elsewhere, Burke said. Morning and night sessions at churches are also planned, he said.

Churches of all denominations have agreed to have their doors open for prayer at any time throughout the day, he said.

"Prayer is an avenue to talk to God," Burke said. "It really makes a difference in the world around us, and an election is no different."

"We're not to pray, 'Oh God, help the Democrats or Republicans win,'" Burke said. "It's not about what I want or what the church wants; it's about what God knows is best for our country."

He said the alliance is following God's law: Several scriptures indicate that this is the proper way to handle elections. People will be praying "that God's will be done in hopes that it will bring peace to the country, to heal our land from crime, drugs and other sin," Burke said.

And it isn't just happening locally.

Carolyn Sundseth is the executive director of Presidential Prayer '96, which is organizing a nationwide prayer campaign for the presidential election.

Sundseth served in Reagan's administration as a liaison to Christians and later worked on the senior staff of Pat Robertson's presidential campaign.

Sundseth has been traveling the country to get the word out that prayer for the election is important.

"I have been telling God for years what I thought he ought to do about elections," she said. "I am thrilled by the response I have had to the premise of just asking him to intervene any way he sees fit."

She said the purpose of Presidential Prayer '96 is to get unified prayer from across the nation to ask God to heal the country.

The nonpartisan group initiated fasts and prayer walks during both Republican and Democratic national conventions.

Sundseth said she has faith in the power of prayer and knows God is going to intervene in November's election. But that doesn't mean she knows who is going to win, she said.

"When I was asked to do this, they asked me if I could pray for Democrats," she said Wednesday. "I said I had been praying for them for 50 years."

God knows the end from the beginning, she said, adding that a leader can't rise without him.

"When election occurs we have to believe our prayers have been answered," she said.

She said that two-thirds of Christians didn't vote in the 1992 election and that is something that will have to change.

"We Christians need to get off our blessed assurances," she said. "We have to get out in our communities to be salt and light if we expect our country to eventually return to the biblical basis on which it was founded."