Group prays for lower gas prices

WASHINGTON — The price of regular at a Shell gas station in the Petworth neighborhood gleamed in the midday sun: $3.91 a gallon.

But unlike the customers rolling up to the station's pumps two weeks ago, resigned to the fact that their wallets were about to take a beating, Rocky Twyman and company had a plan to bring that number tumbling down.

They would ask God to do it.

"Our pockets are empty, but we're going to hold onto God!" Twyman, a community organizer from Rockville, Md., said as he and seven other people formed a semicircle, held hands and sang, pleading for divine intervention to lower fuel prices.

It was the latest demonstration by Twyman's movement, Pray at the Pump, which began in April. Since then, he has held group prayers at gas stations as far away as San Francisco, garnering international media attention and claiming success in at least a few cases.

Some would say the proof of whether Twyman has the ear of the Almighty is in the result. On the first day of the movement, April 23, the national average price of a gallon of unleaded was $3.53, according to AAA. As of Saturday, it was $3.97, and $4.15 in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metropolitan area.

But Twyman said true faith does not demand instant gratification, and he plans to keep his pump-side prayers going "until God tells us to stop."

"This whole thing is a wake-up call from God to Americans, because we idolize men so much," said Twyman, 59, a Seventh-day Adventist who believes that high gas prices are a sign of the Apocalypse drawing nigh.

For the past several weeks, Twyman has assembled a group at a soup kitchen in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., where he volunteers. They have driven to a gas station, locked hands, said a prayer, purchased gas and sung the civil-rights anthem "We Shall Overcome," with an added verse: "We'll have lower gas prices."

Reactions, and results, have been mixed.

After he gave an interview to a Tampa, Fla., radio station, the station received calls from listeners saying the price at their pumps had dropped. (According to AAA's Fuel Price Finder, regular gas at Tampa-area stations averaged $3.90 a gallon Saturday, up from $3.59 a month ago).

On Thursday, onlookers included the amused, the inspired and the skeptical.

Sylvester Shorter, 61, of Southeast Washington, was pumping $20 worth of regular as the group sang.

"They're praying," he said dismissively. "Do I still have to pay $20?"

Twyman, a public-relations consultant, is experienced at garnering publicity and has staged campaigns over the years for various causes, from tsunami relief to bone-marrow donations for minorities.

He began a movement in 2005 to get Oprah Winfrey the Nobel Peace Prize. (She did not win.) He led prayers for rain in drought-afflicted Georgia last year. (Rain did eventually fall.)

To some, the idea of praying in public for cheaper gas is "uniquely American."

Johannes Wiebus, an independent producer who recently filmed one of Twyman's demonstrations for a German TV network, said: "You've got this issue — high gas prices — which is an economic issue, a political issue, but no one in their wildest dreams would make it a religious issue in Germany."

But to some local drivers feeling the pinch, frustrated at the inability of politicians to solve the problem, the question isn't, "Why pray for cheap gas?" It's, "Why not?"

"I think it's a wonderful thing," said customer Mirrine Thorne, of Northwest Washington.

After a few minutes of song and appeals to customers to join the movement, Twyman and his group began their departure, their hope and faith replenished.

The price of regular? $3.91.

Washington Post researcher Meg Smith and Seattle Times staff contributed to this report.