WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON - Standing alongside a row of gas pumps at a Shell station, Rocky Twyman joined hands with several cohorts, prayed to God for economic and social relief then sang "We Shall Overcome" - inserting the lyrics "We'll have lower gas prices" the second time around.
For nearly a month, Twyman, a Rockville resident who serves as music director for a Baltimore church, has been praying at gas pumps - and anywhere else he is welcome - asking God to lower prices. Of course, since he started his prayer campaign, or what he calls a movement, the price of gas just keep inching upwards.
"We've got a lot more praying to do, man," he said to a German television crew that came to film one of his recent prayer sessions at the Shell station.
The prayer may not yet have had a global impact on oil prices, but Twyman's modest effort has nonetheless drawn global attention. News outlets from around the world have called - he's brought his prayer to Australian radio, Arab television and (despite his personal penchant for classical and gospel) a Florida rock station. He's prayed on radio programs in Texas and Oregon and repeated his simple invocation - "Oh God, deliver us from these high gas prices" - and in person in San Francisco. Shortly after his interview on Auto Mobil, a popular German automotive show, someone from a Colombian radio program reached him on his cell phone. Then a Russian news outlet called.
"This has exploded," said Twyman, 59. "The big thing about this movement is that it's giving people hope."
He says that in Florida, gas prices fell after his radio appearance and some people, inspired by his example, have started praying at the pump on their own.
With prayer and more prayer, he believes prices will come tumbling down like the "walls of Jericho."
"It could be Buddha. It could be the Dalai Lama," said Twyman, himself a Seventh Day Adventist, who believes the spike in oil prices and natural disasters of late are a sign that the end of the world is nigh. "We just think there needs to be some divine intervention. Because man has become greedy. How much money do they have to make while all these people are struggling?"
But the attention prompts the question: Why, with complex, global, social, economic and political forces at work, do people care about one Maryland man and his godly mission?
