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Yep, this is a real thing.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s fitting that it\u2019s happening in my old hometown,\u00a0the Protestant Mecca,\u00a0Nashville, TN.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t believe me that Nashville is the Protestant Mecca, then make a pilgrimage sometime and try to walk 50 feet without seeing\u2026..<\/p>\n
a church<\/em> (Nashville has one of the highest church densities in the country)\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n a Christian bookstore or publisher<\/em> (home to publishing giant Thomas Nelson and Lifeway; also more Bibles are published there than anywhere in the world)\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n a denominational headquarters<\/em> (Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church)\u2026..<\/p>\n or a Christian music artist<\/em> (Nashville isn\u2019t just the home of country music, it\u2019s the home of Christian music too).<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t make the trip, then just make sure you face Nashville whenever you pray. Pretty sure that will get you partial credit for a religious pilgrimage.<\/p>\n By Bob Smietana John Stefanski\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0blame Wall Street for the nation\u2019s economic woes.<\/p>\n Instead, he says the crisis is spiritual, not\u00a0financial.<\/p>\n Rather than protest, he wants people to pray.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s pray to the Lord for our problems,\u201d said Stefanksi, while standing near the steps to Legislative Plaza along Sixth Avenue South in downtown Nashville.<\/p>\n Stefanski, from Murfreesboro, wants to start a new movement, Occupy the Altar, to get churchgoers to come out to downtown Nashville to ask for divine intervention to solve the economic crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cSociety is in the bind that it is because we got away from \u2018one nation under God,\u2019 \u201d he said.<\/p>\n So far, the movement has two members: Stefanski and his friend Tyler Parcha, also from Murfreesboro.<\/p>\n For the past three days they\u2019ve been holding up signs containing Bible verses and the words \u201cOccupy the Altar.\u201d They spend two to three hours a day near Legislative Plaza.<\/p>\nOccupy Nashville has company as spinoff group preaches power of prayer<\/h1>\n
\nThe Tennessean\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n