Family Research Council Advises Day of Prayer for America’s Healing

The president of the Family Research Council (FRC) is advising President Donald Trump to call the nation to prayer and reconciliation in the wake of the deadly clash between white supremacists and radical leftist protesters in Charlottesville.

“We are a divided nation that is in crisis,” said Tony Perkins in a statement. “We are no longer talking to each other – only screaming at one another. We are like a married couple in crisis.”

“I know there are some who will squawk at the idea of a Day of Prayer and Reconciliation — let them instead have a Day of Silence,” he continued. “Nothing good can come from the current shouting match that the Left and Right is engaged in – we are bitterly divided and the fissure is only getting deeper by the day.”

“Tearing down statues and inciting violence is not the way forward,” FRC’s president added.

Perkins’ words come as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) called for the removal of Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol.

“The Confederate statues in the halls of Congress have always been reprehensible,” Pelosi said in a statement. “If Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy, I call upon Speaker Ryan to join Democrats to remove the Confederate statues from the Capitol immediately.”

Booker announced he would sponsor legislation to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol.

“This is just one step,” Booker said. “We have much work to do.”

Perkins, however, says he notices inconsistencies in the way the media is handling the current crisis.

“Where are the media’s calls to civility that they issued immediately after James Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter and volunteer who came to Washington with a hit list and shot my friend Steve Scalise?” he asks.

“I echo the media’s message after Steve Scalise was shot: ratchet down the rhetoric,” Perkins concluded. “But I add that we should go a step further this time and let us take a day to seek God and pray for him to bring healing to our nation.”