The Politics of a Praying Nation: The Presidential Prayer Team and Christian Right Sexual Morality

Many contemporary Christian conservative projects provide a context for and invitation to believers to engage in intercessory prayer or to serve as “prayer warriors” for causes and public policies that organizations and institutions advocate. One of these is the Presidential Prayer Team, a project that encourages prayer for the president and for public officials. Because the Presidential Prayer Team is a delivery system for Christian conservative political commitments and goals, analyzing it provides information about the variety of quotidian ways in which Christian conservative political values and goals are rhetorically packaged and delivered to followers and those who are likely converts to the conservative theology and politics of the Christian right. In this article I focus on the ways in which the Presidential Prayer Team engages in priming with regard to issues of sexual morality, and particularly political issues related to LGBTQ rights and issues.