Mike Huckabee and Tony Perkins featured
prominently in a prayer event held in Sacramento on Saturday.
The daylong event attracted thousands
of Christian conservatives to the California Capital to pray and fast
in protest of gay marriage, pornography and abortion.
A promotional video featuring former
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee rallied the faithful to Pastor Lou
Engle's seventeenth iteration in ten years of TheCall to
Conscience.
In the video, the 2012 presidential
hopeful urged followers to rally against gay marriage: “TheCall is
going to the mall … to build a wall for life and the sanctity of
marriage. With Judge Walker reversing the vote of millions of people
concerning traditional marriage, this is a perfect time together for
a solemn assembly to fast and pray and stand for the most critical
issues of our day.”
Tony Perkins, president of the anti-gay
Family Research Council, offered a similar message in person.
“If [the ruling] stands, in one
generation we will have gone from banning the Bible in public schools
to banning religious beliefs in society,” the told the crowd.
Both men were referring to a recent
federal judge's ruling that struck down California's gay marriage
ban, Proposition 8, as unconstitutional. The decision has been
placed on hold while it's being appealed.
Engle organized a similar 2008 event
held in San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium to pray for passage of
California's gay marriage ban.
The prayer event began with a four-hour
religious concert Friday night at Raley Field.