November 16, 1996
We the members of the Body of Christ gathered at the Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, on the 16th of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, recognizing the lack of revival and spiritual awakening in our nation hereby solemnly agree in prayer and resolve the following, that
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness for Southern bitterness and resentment about the War, Sherman's March, and Reconstruction, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness for Northern war atrocities, especially those along Sherman's Path through Georgia and the Carolinas, which sought vengeance and punitive destruction, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness for slavery, Reconstruction politics which used African-Americans rather than help them get on their feet as citizens, Jim Crow laws, burned churches, segregation, and the rabid racism which pervades our neighborhoods, our churches, and our minds, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness for the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, the massacre and liquidation of entire nations, the mistreatment of these peoples in breaking covenant through broken treaties, the robbery of ancestral lands to fuel our lust for expansion, and our misappropriation of the essence of the Gospel in their midst, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness for bowing at the altars of pagan deities in our pre-Columbian past as well as sanctioning and participating in such worship in our own day through New Age philosophy, freemasonry, and witchcraft, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness as men for abdicating our roles of servant leadership as fathers, husbands, and in our churches to bring our families into the fullness of God's will and purpose, and we further repent and ask forgiveness for our mistreatment and dishonor of women politically, socially, and in the church, and
WHEREAS, We the Body of Christ repent and ask forgiveness as women for our mistreatment of men in rebellion against their God-given authority, our disrespect for the place God has given men, for the lack of having gentle and quiet spirits, and for not coming alongside men to help them with all of our hearts to fulfill their destiny and purpose in God, and
WHEREAS, we ask that the Lord Jesus Christ cover all the foregoing sins with the Blood He shed on the cross,
NOW THEREFORE, we do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that we do Unconditionally Surrender ourselves and our nation to the Lord Jesus Christ, that the War for the Land is over, and that Peace has dawned afresh in this Land.
FURTHER, we ask for blessings on this Land in the name of Jesus Christ of Life, Prosperity, Peace in our homes and in our cities, a New Song of worship, Unity in our churches and our nation, Renewal and Spiritual Awakening in our country, and
FURTHER, we ask the Lord to Restore the Land, to Reassign its Desolate Inheritances, to Call to the captives, "Come forth," and to those in darkness, "Be free!" (Isaiah 49:8-9).
IN AGREEMENT with the foregoing, we do here below Affix our names as a Sign of Covenant and Corporate Repentance before our Lord Jesus Christ this day.
(Several hundred signatures)
