Repent America

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Repent America (RA) is a Christian evangelistic organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. According to their website, RA "desires to be in the full Will of God and to adhere entirely to the teachings of the Bible. We have a passion to serve the Lord and are devoted to reaching the lost, so that they might come unto the knowledge of the truth and be saved."

RA's founder and director, Michael Marcavage, is a born-again Christian and outspoken opponent of homosexuality, abortion, and evolution.

On October 10, 2004, eleven members of Repent America were arrested and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law while protesting at Outfest, a gay pride event in Philadelphia. The charges assessed to the members of the group could have resulted in up to 47 years in prison each. All the charges were later dismissed by Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Dembe as being without merit. [1] [2] Repent America has since filed a federal lawsuit against the city and its officials over the incident.

On November 15, 2007, following a legal action brought by Repent America, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in a 4-to-1 decision struck down amendments to the state's "hate crimes" law, formally known as the Ethnic Intimidation Statute, in which the members had been charged in 2004. The published opinion, Marcavage, et al. v. Rendell, et al. [3], declared that the amendments enacted in 2002, protecting people based upon "actual or perceived . . . ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity," were "unconstitutional and therefore null and void" due to the process in which the law was passed. Repent America also conducted a press conference [4] against a similarly proposed federal "hate crimes" bill known as S.B. 1585 (Amendment 2067) [5], formally S.B. 1105, stating that such laws are proliferating the "criminalization of Christianity." [6]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (late summer of 2005), the group issued a press release urging prayer and help for the refugees, describing New Orleans as a "wicked city" for tolerating things such as the homosexual-oriented Southern Decadence, the Girls Gone Wild video series, abortions, and for having a murder rate "ten times the national average," and expressing hope that "from the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge."[7]

Following the fallout over the intelligent design trial (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District) where a judge decided that it was unconstitutional for Dover Area High School's school board to require teachers to inform students that Darwin's theory evolution is "not a fact," members of Repent America went door-to-door. The group visited thousands of homes to proselytize and invite residents to a creation seminar that it was sponsoring in the Dover Area High School auditorium. The event attracted much media attention and residents were overwhelmingly supportive of the effort, however, some were not so welcoming with one homeowner posting a "CREATIONISTS GO AWAY" sign on the front door.

For some time Repent America hosted BushRevealed.com, which now remains as an archive. The website documented what it saw as liberal, un-Christian policies of George W. Bush. [8]