Minneapolis, USA - For many drivers it's an efficient route to the cabin up north or the Iowa homestead down south, but for a number of Christians across denominations, Interstate 35 is a holy stretch of asphalt leading not to the site of Buddy Holly's last gig, but to divine salvation.
Some believe I-35 might be shorthand that links the interstate to Isaiah 35:8 of the Bible: "And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein."
While some believe the interstate is literally a road to enlightenment and a detour from sin, others say the link is, at best, a wildly skewed interpretation of scripture and at worst, "ridiculous."
What proponents of the idea call "The Highway of Holiness" cuts a swath straight through the heartland from Duluth to Laredo, Texas, bisecting the country and kissing the Mexican border. The road's prominence through the country's midsection lends more apple-pie credence to the belief.
Worshipers in churches across the United States and abroad prayed nonstop for 35 days from late October to early December as part of the "Light the Highway" movement led by a Texas ministry.
The goal, believers said, was to pray for the overall betterment of the country, forgiveness of personal and collective sins and closeness with God.
"I believe it began a shift in the spiritual realm over the city of Duluth and especially over I-35," said Shannon Stone, a participant whose husband is pastor of Jesus is Life Ministries in Duluth.
"I think we'll see a change in the things that are happening ... people's desire to live more righteously," she said.
Not everyone buys it, however.
"These long days of prayer ... they try to whip everybody into a frenzy in hopes that God will come and do miracles that he wouldn't do otherwise," said critic Bob DeWaay, pastor at the Evangelical Twin City Fellowship in St. Louis Park. "God isn't going to determine how he works based on the highway system."
In the beginning
Three years ago, self-described prophet and God Channel regular Cindy Jacobs was preaching in a Texas church when she said she made the first public connection between the interstate and Bible verse.
"It's amazing that there's a scripture that talks about the highway of holiness and there's an actual one," said Jacobs, who co-founded Generals International ministry in Red Oak, Texas, which led the Light the Highway movement.
She referenced a number of incidents along the interstate as a sign of its biblical ties: the I-35 bridge collapse, the 1963 assassination of John Kennedy in Dallas and a spate of kidnappings and murders in Laredo.
"Isaiah 35 talks about a highway of holiness and so we were reading this and felt that in our hearts, just like any Christian would, that it pertained to us," Jacobs said.
The interstate isn't currently holier than any other roadway, she said, but will become so through continued prayer. Churches in 17 cities along the interstate participated, praying along with a guide that outlined "sins" to address, including poverty, racism, abortion and homosexuality.
Jacobs and some participants said it's too soon to expect benefits of the mass prayer, but she predicted that crime will decrease and that government and religious corruption will be exposed.
Coon Rapids resident Tom Gibson is a believer. In the summer of 2005, he and his wife drove the entire stretch of I-35 in 14 days, stopping at churches along the way.
"I felt it wasn't a coincidence," Gibson said. "It is a cry. There has been a lot of repentance."
Grandiose claims
Critics say that on top of misapplying scripture, such prophecies can scare away people on the edge of Christianity.
DeWaay has long published articles debunking "grandiose claims" made by self-described modern-day prophets. He's criticized prophecies that the Hoover Dam was going to crumble and that Los Angeles was going to break away and sink into the ocean.