This is religion in America

Caveat:  There should be no such thing as a National Prayer Breakfast.  Church and State separation, people.

Lobbyists say the annual National Prayer Breakfast has become even more of a coveted invitation in the Trump era.

[...]

With a lineup of prayer meetings, humanitarian forums and religious panels, the National Prayer Breakfast has long brought together people from all over the world for an agenda built around the teachings of Jesus.

  NYT

This already reminds me of the story of Jesus upending the tables of the "money changers" in the Temple. Too bad he's not around today.

But there on the guest list in recent years was Maria Butina, looking to meet high-level American officials and advance the interests of the Russian state, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a Ukranian opposition leader, seeking a few minutes with President Trump to burnish her credentials as a presidential prospect back home.

America for sale. Which reminds me of the recently adopted Trump slogan: "America is open for business."

[T]he annual event has become an international influence-peddling bazaar, where foreign dignitaries, religious leaders, diplomats and lobbyists jockey for access to the highest reaches of American power.

The subculture around the breakfast was thrust into the spotlight last week with the indictment of Ms. Butina, who was charged with conspiring to act as a Russian agent. Her goals, prosecutors said, included gaining access to the breakfast “to establish a back channel of communication” between influential Russians and Americans “to promote the political interests of the Russian Federation.”

A coup of sorts.

Ahead of Mr. Trump’s first appearance at the breakfast last year, some of the people said, foreign politicians clamored for tickets, with some offering to pay steep fees to get into the event and the myriad gatherings on its sidelines. One lobbyist, Herman J. Cohen, offered what he billed as an exclusive invitation to last year’s breakfast, and three days of meetings around it, to an African leader for $220,000.

America is open for business.

Mr. Cohen, a former assistant secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, said that Mr. Déby did not take up the offer. But he said that lobbyists have long brokered access to the breakfast, and opportunities surrounding it, for their foreign clients, often as part of a larger package of services.

[...]

Held every year at the Washington Hilton, the prayer breakfast festivities span several days during the first week of February, with the American president appearing at a ceremonial breakfast on Thursday.

Wait a minute. The venue hasn't yet been changed to the Trump Hotel?

The days are packed with programming, after which guests head to private suites with names like the Africa room and the Middle East room, or to fancier hotels in nearby Georgetown, where they mingle late into the night — praying, sharing business cards and sometimes draining expensive bottles of cognac.

Praying and preying.

A favorite activity is an annual midnight tour of the Capitol, hosted by a former congressman.

I heard they had midnight tours in Reagan's days, too.

With its relative lack of diplomatic protocols and press coverage, the prayer breakfast setting is ideal for foreign figures who might not otherwise be able to easily get face time with top American officials, because of unsavory reputations or a lack of an official government perch, according to lobbyists who help arrange such trips. They also contend that it is easier to secure visas when the breakfast is listed as a destination.

Hmmm. Why should that be? Unless the breakfast was intended for just such a workaround.

“Because our focus is on relationships, reconciliation and unity, even those who may attend with ulterior motives are often moved in a positive and transformative manner,” said A. Larry Ross, spokesman for The Fellowship, the faith-based nonprofit that facilitates the organization of the breakfast each year.

Sure they are. Sure they are.

“While we try not to question attendees’ motives, we certainly discourage anyone from using the National Prayer Breakfast for personal, financial or geopolitical gain.”

How? And has it ever worked? Never mind. I think I know the answer.

Leaders and insiders of the Fellowship say they hope that shared spirituality around Jesus can help to build bridges of understanding across divides, be they religious, cultural or political, and cite that mission as a reason controversial guests have been invited in the past.

Then they're full of shit. Shared spirituality around Jesus is completely divisive. It cuts out people of religions other than Christianity and people of no religion.

The Fellowship, for instance, helped facilitate a meeting between President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mr. Kagame of Rwanda at the breakfast in 2001, before their peace accord the next year.

Which need not have had anything to do with Jesus.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.