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On a wing and thousands of prayers
WASHINGTON - Meagan Gillan quotes a line from the Bible when asked what motivates her to spend every working day praying for George W. Bush.

"It's in First Timothy 2. It says 'pray for the kings and all those in authority,' " explains the 50-year-old Arizona writer and editor.

So that is exactly what she does. Working from a small office suite in suburban Tucson, Ms. Gillan leads the five-person staff of the Presidential Prayer Team, a group trying to marshal millions of Americans in the cause of praying daily for their commander in chief. By using the Internet as their pulpit, Ms. Gillan and her associates claim to have enlisted 2.8 million people -- about 1% of the U.S. population -- since the group's launch in 2001.

The Presidential Prayer Team is the most ambitious of a bevy of prayer groups, predominantly Christian and evangelical, that have sprung up in the United States since Mr. Bush's election in 2000....

...Democrats criticize the faith-based initiatives as a dangerous blurring of the division between Church and state.

Other critics recoil at prayer sites that heap praise of Biblical proportions on Mr. Bush. One site compares him to King David and calls him a "merciful gift from the Lord to an undeserving people."

Perhaps not surprisingly, political support for Mr. Bush is sharply higher among U.S. churchgoers.

A poll conducted in November by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found 63% of voters who regularly attend religious services support Mr. Bush. Among non-churchgoers, 62% oppose Mr. Bush....