WASHINGTON — One after another, the women who gathered for a prayer rally on the Mall on Monday said that when they decided to travel to Washington for this event, they had in mind another assembly of women in the same place — the Women’s March on the day following the presidential inauguration, which drew massive crowds of protesters in pussycat hats.
Those women marchers didn’t stand for them, the Christian women said, on Monday.
“For years, the feminists lied to us,” Christian author Lisa Bevere shouted from the stage, as the women gathered on the Mall raised their hands in praise.
Many spoke about their reasons for coming to a women’s prayer rally on a muddy day on the Mall: their desire to bolster women in their God-given roles as wives and mothers, their belief that women’s activism should make outlawing abortions a priority, and their faith in the power of prayer to change the country’s culture.
Lou Engle, who has been organizing revivals and giant prayer rallies for decades, planned a day specifically for women to conclude his four-day event on the Mall this week. As the day dawned rainy and the gravel paths to the event turned to mud, the turnout was modest. All the women (and some men) gathered in front of the huge stage had ample room to form spontaneous dance circles, jump up and down to the amplified worship music, and twirl multicolored scarves.