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Tennessee legislators have passed HJR803, declaring July a month of statewide prayer, fasting, repentance and seeking God’s mercy for social issues plaguing the southern state.

Tennessee lawmakers have created history by passing House Joint Resolution 803 — titled “A Resolution to seek God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee” — which calls on people across the state to set aside the month of July for prayer, fasting and repentance.

Introduced by Representative Monty Fritts and Senator Mark Pody, both Republicans, HJR803 passed both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly and was signed into law by Republican Governor Bill Lee.

Thirty other representatives joined Rep. Fritts in co-sponsoring the bill.

The resolution highlights the grave social ills faced by Tennesseans, including violence, drug addiction, human trafficking, DUI-related harms, the significant number of children in foster care, America’s open southern border, and federal corruption.

As reported by The Daily Declaration, the state of Tennessee experienced the worst mass shooting in its history last year when a transgender shooter killed six people at a Christian school, in a case that federal authorities sought to hide from the public.

“We, as public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, seek God’s Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us,” the resolution declares.

“We recognise our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness… [and] “we ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence, human-trafficking, addiction, and corruption”.

The resolution also includes a petition for “the Holy Spirit [to] fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy”.

“All those who are physically able and spiritually inclined” are invited to take part in the month-long observance.

According to Intercessors for America, while state governors have often issued similar proclamations in the past, it is “rare to have a state Congress petition a sincere cry to God to intervene in the affairs of human beings”.

Tennessee is the 16th most populous state in the U.S., and its capital Nashville, often referred to as the “buckle of the Bible belt”, is home to the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.

Nashville also plays host to Christian publishers Thomas Nelson and LifeWay Christian Resources, and is a hub for a large number of contemporary Christian music (CCM) labels.

‘Ask for His Forgiveness and Mercy’

In a letter addressed to Christian residents of Tennessee, Representative Monty Fritts and Senator Mark Pody described the bill’s historic passage as “a bipartisan recognition that the issues we are facing cannot be effectively addressed without the intervention and favour of our Lord”.

“We are respectfully inviting you to join with us in leading the people of God across Tennessee into a time of humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God’s Face, and repentance during July,” they wrote.

“Let us model for those who are not called by His Name a better way to bring about the positive changes we so desperately need.”

In their correspondence, the two lawmakers urged all churches across the state to read the resolution during Sunday services on 30 June.

They invited believers to “examine our lives in light of God’s Word” and to “acknowledge that we, as the Church, have failed to stand for the principles of God, ask for His Forgiveness and Mercy, and commit to stand firmly on those principles going forward”.

“For those who are able,” they concluded, “join in prayer and intermittent fasting as a means of demonstrating our desire for repentance”.

Convinced that “this Resolution must be more than a legislative act and piece of paper,” the pair plan to visit all 95 counties in the state to visit courthouses and places of worship to read the resolution and call on Tennesseans to repent and pray for God’s mercy.

The Tennessee Resolution

A copy of the resolution appears below.

A RESOLUTION to seek God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.

WHEREAS, our State and Nation suffer from violence committed upon our citizens by our citizens; and

WHEREAS, our State and Nation suffer from violence committed upon our citizens by non-citizens; and

WHEREAS, acts of violent crime in our schools are unacceptable; and

WHEREAS, human trafficking is an unacceptable and violent evil in our State, enslaving lives and violating the core values of our Creator-endowed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and

WHEREAS, drug addiction overwhelms our families, our government finances, our workforce productivity, as well as our healthcare and our law enforcement resources; and

WHEREAS, deadly fentanyl flows uncontrollably across our southern U.S. border resulting in the deaths of Tennesseans; and

WHEREAS, Driving Under the Influence, drunk driving, results in great pain and injury for Tennessee families; and

WHEREAS, we have approximately 9,000 children in need of foster care, indicating a brokenness in many Tennessee homes; and

WHEREAS, evidence of corruption in our federal government stands to impact every Tennessean; and

WHEREAS, our National and State Founders trusted in the omnipotent hand of Providence to guide and bless our land; and

WHEREAS, over decades, these leaders called our people to seek out the Creator’s favor by issuing proclamations like the one from John Adams on April 15, 1799:

[This day] be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private; that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible that “righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” [Proverbs 14:34]; and

WHEREAS, we hold that our Founders correctly acknowledged Truth in their words; and

WHEREAS, we hold that “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1); now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, that the period of July 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024, be recognized as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we, as public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, seek God’s Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence, human-trafficking, addiction, and corruption.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask that the Holy Spirit fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we call upon all those who are physically able and spiritually inclined to do so to join in a thirty-day season of prayer and intermittent fasting as we begin a new fiscal year as a means of seeking God’s blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His Grace and Mercy, transforming ourselves, our communities, our State, and our Nation.

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Image courtesy of The Tennessean.