Last Friday prior to Kim Davis being presented with the “Cost of Discipleship” award by Tony Perkins at the Value Voters Summit, Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, showed a picture of thousands of people in Peru who gathered to pray for the Rowan County Clerk jailed for her religious beliefs. One constant critic has questioned whether the event occurred.
Julio Rosas, a member of the Peruvian Congress, met personally with Mat Staver and Kim Davis the day prior to the award, explained the prayer meeting, and presented the photograph. Congressman Rosas was involved in announcing the prayer gathering. This past Saturday Congressman Rosas again confirmed the event, and this morning he again reaffirmed the prayer meeting.
On September 6, the day prior to Labor Day while Kim Davis was in jail, Congressman Rosas was part of the call for the prayer meeting that occurred the following Sunday, September 13, the day prior to Kim’s return to work on September 14. Congressman Rosas left for the U.S. on September 10 to attend meetings in Washington, D.C., so he was not at the event. Until today when he returned to Peru in the early hours of the morning, he was in constant meetings. He is currently in session at the Peruvian Congress.
As noted above, Congressman Rosas flew to the U.S. on September 10. His media advisor, Reynaldo Aragon, a former CNN journalist, called Congressman Rosas on September 14, the day after the prayer meeting, to inform him that the prayer meeting had occurred and sent him a photograph of the event. Prayer meetings were held throughout Peru for Kim Davis and persecuted Christians around the world. The only mistake in the announcement at the Value Voters Summit was that Staver said the picture was taken in Lima, Peru, when the actual photograph was of a different soccer stadium in northern Peru on September 13, 2015. Many churches canceled their Sunday services to attend the prayer meeting in the soccer stadium.
Mat Staver was already known in Peru, as he spoke to Congress in November 2013, and that speech was broadcast on national Peruvian television. Staver also met with many other high-ranking government officials and actually attended a Christian event held in Lima, Peru, in which Staver was acknowledged to the large Christian gathering. That meeting was also broadcast on Bethel TV.
While meetings of 70,000 to 100,000 Christians in a soccer stadium may shock people in the United States, they are much more common in Peru. Oftentimes such gatherings do not appear on traditional media any more than the weekly church services in the United States appear on television.
Not only did people gather to pray in Peru on September 13, but Liberty Counsel has received reports of churches in other parts of the world gathering to pray for Kim Davis. For example, a church in Lagos, Nigeria, participated in fasting and prayer for Kim Davis.
“People underestimate the worldwide support expressed by Christians for Kim Davis. The conflict of her faith with a governmental policy on the matter of marriage has universal interest, because this conflict is not just in the United States. The matter of religious liberty is a human right that resonates with people around the world,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.
About Liberty Counsel
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
BCNN1 WP 