IHOP (prayer) youth conference invading Kansas City; homophobe Lou Engle speaking Friday

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The International House of Prayer’s latest takeover of downtown Kansas City started today around noon. They’re calling it Fascinate. It’s a conference for 300 high schoolers who will probably get to hear IHOP head honcho Mike Bickle talk about giant snakes falling from the sky during the Apocalypse, witness homophobic evangelical Lou Engle rock back-and-forth and proclaim that the Joplin tornado was God’s punishment for abortion, and listen to some really crappy Christian bands (I believe you can watch it all via live webcam).

The conference runs through Friday, when Engle will give a “teaching” at 7:30 p.m. This all comes on the heels of a Saturday story in The New York Times about Bickle’s 12-year-old 24/7 ministry in Grandview. Bickle claims in the story that IHOP doesn’t engage in partisan politics, which rings hollow when Engle remains a member of his leadership team and a featured speaker at IHOP events.