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You’ll hear a lot of different stories regarding today’s “political” rally in Washington, DC. You’ll hear things like “Thousands gather for rally” (Washington Post) or, “Glenn Beck Rally Has People Seeing Red” (NPR) or, “Glenn Beck Rally “Blatantly Political,” Says Top Democrat” (CBS News). There are some media reporting tens of thousands, but many are simply saying that “thousands” gathered for this event.

Interesting…

As you’ll see from the photos below, there were upwards of 100,000 computers tuned into the rally via UStream, and crowd estimates from people who were there were in the hundreds of thousands, not just thousands.

The main point is that the two-day event was much more a Christian convention (minus the exhibitors) than anything political. And not just Christian (though that was the primary viewpoint expressed) but all “brands” of Christians, Jews, Muslims … anyone who places their faith and trust in God as a core of who they are, and how they live.

There were three main emphases: Faith, Hope, and Charity. Awards were given to three Americans who exemplified those three attributes. The call to everyone (in attendance, or watching, and just to all Americans in general) was to restore honor to our country by first turning to God and getting ourselves right with him (faith, hope) – then living that out in our charity toward others.

Not sure that’s how it will be reported, but that’s how I saw it (admittedly, only via the UStream feed, not in person).

Someday I hope we can stop immediately discrediting people based on political party affiliation, or religion, economic status, skin color, and whatever else we categorize and judge each other by. Then we can listen to a people who are different than us, and find our commonality, rather than exaggerate our differences.

Perhaps that falls under the “I have a dream” category? Appropriate on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech…

Perhaps someday the dream will be reality. We live in a broken world, so I don’t know that it ever will be, but Beck is right: it starts with a heart changed by the grace of God. He is our source of peace, and joy, and hope.

Not any man, or political party or ideology.

PHOTOS FROM RESTORING HONOR RALLY
(screen shots of Ustream feed)
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