This single line from one of the Old Testament prophets has spawned a movement of sorts aimed at US Highway 35 which cuts the country right down the middle from Deluth, MN to Laredo, TX.
Many evangelicals have begun holding prayer vigils on the side of the highway as well as "purity seiges" in the neighborhoods nearby.
In this NBC article, the author makes it pretty clear how he/she feels about this:
The article continues:People drive on it every day, sometimes cursing along the way, but thousands of people consider Interstate 35 to be a holy road.
Christians said the Old Testament's book of Isaiah prophesizes I-35 will be the United States' "Highway of Holiness."I'm quite sure that it's only a small group of Christians who actually believe Isaiah was looking ahead to a federal highway in the future US. For most, this has become a sort of rallying point for prayer and for evangelism.
In an NPR report recently, one Christian leader in TX asked which we'd prefer: young people praying along the highway or young people taking drugs along the highway. It's a reasonable question.
Unfortunately, another arm of this particular drive is the witnessing going on in a TX night-spot with lots of gay bars. Dubbed "purity seiges" these attacks involve small groups of "fired up" young people challenging local sinners to change their deviant ways.
It's one thing to offer unsolicited prayer for the community or for the nation. It's another to send two dozen 16-year-olds into a rainbow district and challenge the locals to repent.
I give the NBC report 2 of 5 stars for making the Christians seem unreasonable. But I also give only 2 stars to the local Christian groups for not confining their work to prayer and instead challenging people to change their wicked ways. Jesus would have been haging out at those bars, too, but when he said, "Go and sin no more," he had a little more credibility.
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