Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Here's another hilarious headline from the Worldnutdaily:
Would I believe it? Maybe. But it would help if the concert had actually happened.
A local newspaper ran a two-page article on the concert titled "Calling All Christians," and that's exactly what Jim Plack and the organizers of Jubileefest are doing, seeking to gather 1 million people to a farm outside of tiny Houston, Del., this summer for a praise and prayer event for the nation."Every Christian should be there," quipped the Jubileefest website, "but we only have room for a million."
Never mind that Jubileefest is in its inaugural year. Never mind that the crowd Plack is hoping to gather is more than three times larger than any Christian concert event in history and twice as big as 1969's "Three Days of Peace and Music." Plack is trusting God to fulfill the vision he says the Almighty has given him, a vision for a concert that will impact the nation even more than the fabled Woodstock.
"If half a million hippies can gather on farm in New York to do drugs and have sex," Plack told WND, "certainly God can bring a million Christians to a farm in Delaware."
Wow, those hypothetical events sure "can't be ignored."
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Comments
Ummm, even if a million people do show up, doesn't that simply prove that a million people like crappy Christian music? I already knew that. *shudder*
Posted by: dogmeatib | March 17, 2010 12:21 PM
Right... because an omnipotent God is interested in a spitting contest.
If he's going to make a direct intervention in human affairs, how about stopping a genocide instead of increasing the gate at some charlatan's music festival.
Posted by: Dr x | March 17, 2010 12:29 PM
More to the point, who will be supplying condoms? I wonder if the Olympic committee has any left over?
One million young men & women camping out. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Hell, 50 or 60 thousand will clog the 2-lanes down there for weeks. They'll have to bus them in from DC.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 17, 2010 12:31 PM
If Jimi and Janis are headliners, I'll be there.
( I was at the ann Arbor Blues Festival that year - MUCH better weather.)
fusilier
James 2:24
Posted by: fusilier | March 17, 2010 12:32 PM
...to do drugs and have sex.
Posted by: catgirl | March 17, 2010 12:41 PM
I hope God figures out the logistics, like food, water, parking and porta-potties for a million people. I don't have a lot of confidence in the earthly organizers.
Posted by: a different phil | March 17, 2010 12:51 PM
Right now, the Jubileefest Facebook page has a grand total of 283 fans.
Posted by: Alex | March 17, 2010 12:52 PM
"If half a million hippies can gather on farm in New York to do drugs and have sex," Plack told WND, "certainly God can bring a million Christians to a farm in Delaware."
And if he doesn't, what does that say?
Posted by: jake | March 17, 2010 12:52 PM
I hear that they're finishing up construction of a giant new FEMA camp on a farm just outside of tiny Houston, Del. I wonder if there's a connection?
- Calling all Becktonians. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: CallingAllBecktonians | March 17, 2010 12:57 PM
jake@8 - "And if he doesn't, what does that say?"
That there's better music elsewhere?
Posted by: jimmiraybob | March 17, 2010 1:00 PM
On Fox News that's easily a million, probably a million five. What I want to know is why do the pictures of the concert in Delaware look like Washington D.C.?
Posted by: dogmeatib | March 17, 2010 1:12 PM
To be fair, it does ask "Would you believe..."?
To which I answer, "no".
Posted by: ben | March 17, 2010 1:16 PM
For some reason, when I read that headline, I heard it in my head as if it had been spoken by Maxwell Smart.
~David D.G.
Posted by: David D.G. | March 17, 2010 1:25 PM
jake @8 And if he doesn't, what does that say?
If He does (bring a million etc.), it says to me that He can muster up 0.3% of the population with three months' notice. Very impressive for a mortal politician; for a god...not so much.
Posted by: eric | March 17, 2010 1:25 PM
A million Christians praying at the same time, in the same place, still has less effect on the nation that a slight breeze.
Posted by: debaser | March 17, 2010 1:27 PM
"If half a million hippies can gather on farm in New York to do drugs and have sex," Plack told WND, "certainly God can bring a million Christians to a farm in Delaware."
What do you have that's better than "Drugs and Sex?" Cause drugs and sex are pretty well established sales gimmicks.
Posted by: DuggleBogey | March 17, 2010 1:30 PM
@ David D.G.: You're not alone.
Posted by: Captain Mike | March 17, 2010 1:31 PM
There's one purpose and one purpose only to this WND article: hippie-bashing. Over forty years later, and the conservative forces still shit their pants in fear over the youth counterculture. Who says the hippies didn't accomplish anything?
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | March 17, 2010 1:32 PM
A million people in Houston, DE? ROFLMAO!!
If you're trying to host a million people, you don't put it in the middle of a peninsula whose roads can't handle summer vacation traffic, and you don't put it there at the height of summer vacation travel season. What kind of idiots are they? (rhetorical question....I already know the answer).
Posted by: shargash | March 17, 2010 1:40 PM
Over forty years later, and the conservative forces still shit their pants in fear over the youth counterculture. Who says the hippies didn't accomplish anything?
I dunno: seems to me that today's conservative forces *were* the hippies, or their contemporaries, or the children thereof. And in some ways the US seems -- apart from the improved standing of women and blacks -- to be slipping back in to the reactionary 1950s. What the hell happened to the Woodstock generation?
Posted by: Eamon Knight | March 17, 2010 1:42 PM
Any comment if these are going to be Real Christians(TM)?
Posted by: MarkusR | March 17, 2010 1:44 PM
Another headline from WND today, useful for the next time Farah denies he's a conspiracy theorist:
"Scientist: U.S. military caused quake in Haiti
Suggests machines in Alaska prompted catastrophe so troops could be sent in"
Posted by: Loren | March 17, 2010 2:16 PM
I would LOVE to see this happen! Where else could the press & public have an opportunity to watch a million people hallucinate in the fresh air?
Posted by: Howie51 | March 17, 2010 2:22 PM
Somewhat off topic, but my 60 year old boss has his Woodstock tickets framed in his office. I can no longer view footage of Woodstock because I fear recognizing my boss, naked and covered in mud.
Posted by: Personal Failure | March 17, 2010 2:24 PM
"What the hell happened to the Woodstock generation?"
Unfortunately some of them became Jesus freaks & begat a fair chunk of the REigious Reich.
Posted by: Rob Jase | March 17, 2010 2:29 PM
ben@12:
Would you believe 750,000?
500,000?
How about 83 including the scheduled performers?
(for David D.G. and Captain Mike)
Posted by: highnumber | March 17, 2010 2:29 PM
I am of the Woodstock generation (although I was not present at the fabled rock 'n' roll concert). Just wanted to extend an apology to everyone about how everything turned out. Sorry.
Posted by: Mal Rootkit | March 17, 2010 2:30 PM
Problem is the conservatives of the 80s managed to wipe away most of what the counter-culture stood for minus drugs and sex. Most of the kids I see in high school believe (based on their parents) that Hippies are stupid, dirty, drug using, perverts who stood for nothing but communal love and drug use. For the most part their parents learned this from their teachers in the 80s and early 90s based on the rewrites of history from the early 80s (again who controls the standards can manipulate the history).
They've generally wiped away the arguments for civil rights, equality, peace (except a ridiculous parody of it). In effect they've turned coverage of the counter-culture into a Wallstreet era yuppie sneer at the past.
Posted by: dogmeatib | March 17, 2010 2:30 PM
They had lots of sex, got pregnant, and had to get jobs. And that was pretty much the end of that.
Posted by: Abby Normal | March 17, 2010 2:34 PM
Seriously, Ed. Do you really think it's any harder to believe that a million people will attend this festival than it is to believe that a Jewish carpenter was born of a virgin and then rose from the dead after being crucified? Please. Believing this crap is child's play for the faithful.
Posted by: James Sweet | March 17, 2010 2:41 PM
Are they going to pray for bread, fish, water and toilet facilities for everyone? Or are they going to lay them on in the assumption that all those people will turn up?
Posted by: Pen | March 17, 2010 3:33 PM
Woodstock, Woodstock. My mom had tickets, and was heading there, got annoyed with the traffic, flaked out, and went home instead. Only my mom. Only my mom.
Posted by: e-sabbath | March 17, 2010 3:44 PM
Announcement to crowd:
Posted by: Gingerbaker | March 17, 2010 3:54 PM
Wow! They've sold a million tickets already?
Oh... so they've sold almost a million?
Have they, in fact, sold any tickets?
Posted by: DaveL | March 17, 2010 4:23 PM
You're probably right, and to me it's tragic. I'm about five years too young to have "been there" for the 60s, but I was a fundy teen in the early 1970s. The last chords of Woodstock, the hippies and the Jesus Freaks hadn't quite died out, and they were still counter-cultural (have you ever watched Godspell?).
Then, I think they all got recruited by the Establishment in the form of neo-fascists like Bill Bright. My former Christian self is outraged (and my current atheist self ain't so happy, either).
Posted by: Eamon Knight | March 17, 2010 4:23 PM
So...? The Rolling Stones alone performed for a million people in Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, in 2006. So, # people praying = # people singing "Simpathy for the Devil"
Not to mention that, every year, in the Mardi Grass of Recife, a brazilian town, 2 million people follow a particular band (Galo da Madrugada).
Posted by: Andraus Neato | March 17, 2010 4:37 PM
Wow. If that event pans out like they want it to, it's almost enough to make me a theist. Not enough to believe in god, but certainly enough to believe in the devil.
If sitting in the sun with a million sweaty christians listening to christian rock isn't hell, I don't know what is.
Posted by: Rick R | March 17, 2010 4:41 PM
Hey, they ripped off the Ubuntu logo!
Posted by: Daft Greg | March 17, 2010 5:09 PM
If only I didn't have friends in the area, I'd fully advocate them getting a million Christians there.
Then if someone had a low yield tactical nuclear weapon.......
Posted by: Tony P | March 17, 2010 5:43 PM
*snrk*
Yeah. Good luck with that....
Posted by: WMDKitty | March 17, 2010 6:52 PM
Providing sanitation for 1,000,000 people will be quite a challenge.
They have planned for that, right?
Posted by: Disciple of "Bob" | March 17, 2010 7:25 PM
Deep in an isolated cave on the Afghan-Pakistan border a guy in a grubby and stained nightshirt pulls out a map of the United States, draws a circle around Delaware and adds a note in Arabic telling him to 'Find Houston on Google Maps'. He smiles wryly and whistles as he works.
He thinks that so far the situation has not allowed him to focus the conflict as primarily a war between religions. This time will be different. His foes would not be able to avoid it. A million Christians in one spot. Brought together in the name of their religion. An attack there would make it all about religion.
Posted by: Art | March 17, 2010 7:37 PM
Am I the only one who reads this headline in a Don Adams accent, from "Get Smart?"
"Would you believe.... one million Christians?"
"I find that very hard to believe."
"How about two cops in a rowboat?"
Posted by: Andrew | March 18, 2010 12:28 AM
Great ! Kirk Cameron is gonna be there !
And I really like their dress code :
Posted by: BdN | March 18, 2010 12:54 AM
a million? pffft. we already did that; multiple times; piece of cake (but then, we had sex and drugs, just like the hippies, but unlike the hippies, we had money :-p).
Posted by: Jadehawk | March 18, 2010 2:11 AM
Uh, WND that's 400,000 Hippies (1 in every 580 Americans at the time, more or less). To double it you're gonna need over 1,253,582 Million. - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 18, 2010 4:03 AM
Oops - that's 1,253,582 Christians (of course) -Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 18, 2010 4:17 AM
Now, a real miracle would be to see 1 million non-Christian gathering in a lost village in Delaware to listen to awful Christian music (and paying for it).
Posted by: Christophe Thill | March 18, 2010 5:31 AM
"If half a million hippies can gather on farm in New York to do drugs and have sex," Plack told WND, "certainly God can bring a million Christians to a farm in Delaware."
I didn't see Underoath or Jonas Brothers in the line up. (Didn't see Carman in there either but who cares.) No big Country names in there. Half of the big Country groups pay lip service to the "god and country" crowd. I didn't see any of them in there.
Woodstock had big big names, so good luck with the Jeebusfest errr Jeeberleefest, whatever.
Posted by: 386sx | March 18, 2010 6:07 AM
Only 1,253,300 to go. I think you can, I think you can (not) - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 18, 2010 7:00 AM
The Sonshine festival in Willmar, MN, will be on July 14-17 this year, with six stages of music, including several of the same acts as Jubilee Fest plans to have two weeks later. Sonshine is a well-established Christian Music festival, held since 1993. They reportedly had around 25,000 people in 2007, but last year were closer to the same 20,000 or so they'd had for several years before. There are several similar, smaller annual events in the Midwest every year. The Creation Festival at Agape Farms in Pennsylvania has been around for over 30 years, and claims to be the largest Christian music festival of all. They claim around 60,000 attendance. I'm going to be surprised to see a new festival, freshly planned, get anything close to that. If they get a million people, it will likely be the same "million" people that were supposed to be at the big tea party rally in DC last fall, which disrupted traffic less than a Redskins game.
Posted by: ER Doc | March 18, 2010 7:38 AM
I can just see it now,
"To get back to the warning that I received. You may take it with however many grains of salt that you wish. That the brown communion wafer that is circulating around us isn't too good. It is suggested that you stay away from that. Of course it's your own trip. So be my guest, but please be advised that there is a warning on that one, ok?"
Posted by: Doug Little | March 18, 2010 8:38 AM
Wait, I thought Contemporary Christian Music was Satan-influenced? Don't these people read their Chick tracts?
Posted by: TK | March 18, 2010 8:42 AM
They have some work to do, here are the top 10 festivals listed by attendance.
1) Rod Stewart at Copacabana Beach - 3.5 million people
2) New York Philharmonic in Central Park - 800,000 people
3) Garth Brooks in Central Park - 750,000 people
4) Steve Wozniak's 1983 US Festival - 670,000 people
5) Summer Jam at Watkins Glen - over 600,132 people
6) Isle of Wight Festival - 600,000 people
7) Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park - 500,000 people
8) Toronto SARS Benefit - 450,000 people
9) Woodstock 1969 - 400,000 people
10) Blockbuster RockFest 1997 - 385,000 people
So it looks like their best chance for success is to either hold it Brazil (with Rod Stewart as the main act) or Central Park in NY.
I think that their goal of a million is as imaginary as their friend.
Posted by: Doug Little | March 18, 2010 9:15 AM
They did rip off the Ubuntu logo, and as a Ubuntu user that pisses me off. And they're selling their tickets through PayPal... can you say lame e-commerce?
Posted by: Skip | March 18, 2010 11:16 AM
Plack wants to do drugs and have sex with a million christians in Delaware?
I suppose it's good to have a goal to aim for.
Posted by: Captain Obvious | March 18, 2010 11:43 AM