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NEWS DESKSeptember 28, 2012 15:32
Grassroots campaign urges Mormons to fast for Romney in debates
A Utah woman's personal email starts a grassroots campaign to pray and fast for Mitt Romney.
A Utah woman's personal email starts a grassroots campaign to pray and fast for Mitt Romney.
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US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a fundraiser in Atlanta on September 19, 2012. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
A Utah woman's personal email has sparked a grassroots campaign urging Mormons to fast and pray for Mitt Romney to improve his performance in the upcoming debates.
CNN reports that Mona Williams, a member of the LDS Church from Price, Utah, started the email chain, which was originally intended for only 10 close family and friends.
The email has since gone viral and supporters are organizing a fast for Sunday to make sure that Romney "will be blessed in the debates" with President Obama.
"I know that fasting and praying brings about miracles," Williams wrote in the email. "I also know of no power greater than our Father in Heaven."
The LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter told the Salt Lake City Tribune that the political fast was not sanctioned by the church.
"The fast was apparently organized by a handful of individuals, not the church," Trotter said Wednesday. "The church is neutral in matters of party politics."
Buzzfeed, which first reported the email, said that the email had reached Latter-day Saints in Utah, California, Nevada and Colorado at least.
Mormon believers often participate in 24-hour fasts without food or water to show gratitude and ask God for special blessings though Buzzfeed notes that the fasts aren't generally political.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the call for prayer might reflect anxiety among Romney supporters as his standing in the polls slips.
Some fast supporters have also suggested putting Romney's name on the "temple prayer roll," "which is typically reserved for those who are sick", notes the Salt Lake City Tribune.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/120928/grassroots-campaign-urges-mormons-fast-romney-debates
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