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Last Stop For Prophetic Tour: White House

After the Rev. Flip Benham had thoroughly infuriated abortionist Earl McLeod’s neighbors on the morning of August 28, his 11-man Operation Save America group left the Bethesda suburb for the White House.

They promptly got lost in the capital’s logic-free maze of construction-clogged and one-way streets and ubiquitous “circles.”

“Where are you?” asked Washington, D.C., pro-lifer Missy Smith by cell phone.  “Stay there.  We’ll come and get you.”

Six local pro-lifers, jammed into Grace Sims’ Subaru Outback Wagon, found Flip and his entourage near the Naval Observatory and led them without further mishap to Lafayette Park, directly in front of the White House.

Miraculously, they found parking space adjacent to the park ample enough for their huge white horse trailer and the three other vehicles.

They quickly unloaded the two horses and donkey, formed a tableau in the park with the White House as a backdrop, and delivered their message over loudspeakers.

It was the same message that they had been giving since they began their Walk Across America Prophetic Tour March 2 in San Clemente, Calif.:  America has broken all of God’s laws, and as a result, we are suffering God’s judgment.  But the Lord will be merciful if we repent.

“We have walked the entire length of America with a warning from Almighty God,” said the Rev. Rusty Thomas.

“Either the legalizing of child-killing and homosexuality comes to an end, or America as we know it will come to an end.

“When you see great calamities come upon America, know this for certain – that these things have come upon us because of the shedding of innocent blood, the acceptance of homosexuality, and the calling of good, evil and evil, good.”

Reverend Benham spoke of a previous warning he had given in front of the White House on September 8, 2001, in which he predicted disaster for the nation if it did not protect “the most innocent among us.”

Three days later, he said, “nineteen men with box cutters brought this nation to her knees.”

For six months Benham, Thomas and their small group had walked up to 7 hours a day, covering 15 miles a day to spread their message.

“This is simply obedience to God,” Thomas explained.  “He called us to walk across America and deliver this message:  Repent or perish.”

The Evangelical group describes their walk, using animals representing judgment, justice and mercy; a broken set of the Ten Commandments, and a small coffin representing the babies killed by abortion, as a living parable that speaks to people just as Jesus spoke in parables.

Each night during their travels, the group stayed on the grounds of churches (usually Baptist), where they created temporary pens for their livestock and preached their message.

They also delivered their message in front of abortion mills at each stop.

Clashes with homosexual and abortion advocates and confrontations with police were frequent.  Members of the group were arrested in Mesquite, Nev.; Rifle, Colo.; St. Louis, Mo.; Hayes, Kan.; and Columbus, Ohio.

“In Columbus the whole homosexual community was out at every prayer service we had in front of City Hall,” said Benham.  

“They surrounded us, drowning us out by banging on pots and pans and yelling, ‘Stop the hate!’”

Flip said he was stunned by “how deeply the homosexual lie has been accepted across the country” – not just in big cities but in small towns.

“Now, every behavior, no matter how perverse, is out of the closet,” he said.  “They parade their sin like Sodom.  

“But Christianity has been shoved into the closet.  Christianity is being marginalized.  You’re still free to worship inside the church; it’s just when you come out that you’re not tolerated.”

Reflecting on the hostile reception his group often received, Flip mused, “Why did the world hate Jesus?  Because he told them that the way they were behaving was evil.”

Still, some people who saw them appreciated their message, he said.  “They ran up to us and hugged us.  They said, ‘I understand!’  I was surprised at how grateful they were.”

Overall, however, Reverend Benham  believes that cataclysmic punishments are coming if we do not repent as a nation.

“We’ve gotten away with the murder of unborn children for 32 years.  Somehow, we think that we’re not going to be punished.  After 9/11, we all just wanted to get back to normal; there was no repentance.

“If there is true repentance, there will be justice.”