It shouldn't even be allowed to exist.On its face, the National Prayer Breakfast is a serene, bipartisan event full of spiritual reflection.
But over the years, the breakfast has also been a source of controversy — full of shadowy fundraising, behind-the-scenes lobbying and even infiltration by a Russian spy.
So lawmakers now have taken it out of the hands of the secretive Christian evangelical group that has run it for decades — the International Foundation, also known as the Fellowship Foundation or "The Family," a name popularized in recent years by a book by the same name and a 2019 Netflix docuseries based on it.
NPR
Inexcusable."When Sen. [James] Lankford, [R-Okla.], and I were co-chairs of the National Prayer Breakfast a number of years ago, there were a lot of questions raised about the finances, about who was invited, about how it was structured," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and frequent participant in the prayer breakfast. "And we frankly had to admit, as co-chairs, we didn't know as much as we felt we should have."
And it will become infiltrated and used in the same way as it has been.With Coons' and several others' help, a new, nonprofit group was formed — the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation with the sole purpose of putting on the signature event. It's headed by former Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who said the first big change, in addition to the new legal status, is it will be smaller and more controlled.
So 300 possibilities to improperly influence policy with religion."We expect there to be maybe 300 people in attendance as opposed to like 3,500 in years past," Pryor said. "So it's going to be just members and plus-ones. ... And hopefully it'll be a smaller, more intimate gathering."
Absolutely inappropriate.The event is also being moved from a prominent Washington hotel to the U.S. Capitol complex.
It is still a religious event in a supposedly secular government.The changes will essentially wall off members of Congress from mixing with any unforeseen guests who present potential conflicts of interest — or worse.
No doubt people of other faiths - or no faith - will feel comfortable with praying to Jesus of Nazareth, eh?"I do think there were concerns raised and expressed by members of both parties, both houses, about a range of different issues," Coons said. "Some involved who were the invited guests. Some involved the book and a Netflix documentary that you referenced. Some just involved a lack of clarity from an ethics perspective about how the event was structured and organized."
It certainly doesn't mean the Fellowship's influence still won't be entrenched in Washington. It will continue to hold its own event at a D.C. hotel and will beam in the speeches of the event for the gathered audience.
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There is also a question of just how much of a break from the past the new foundation is, considering several of its board members have ties back to the Fellowship Foundation. That includes Stan Holmes, who is a board member of the Core Fellowship Foundation and has been involved with not just the National Prayer Breakfast but the House and Senate prayer breakfasts, which are closed to the public, for more than 40 years.
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There has also been criticism of the new iteration of the breakfast because, even though Pryor and others say people of all faiths are welcome, it still seems to be very much rooted in Christian evangelicalism.
The new foundation's website, for example, notes in explaining the breakfast's purpose:"...[O]ur annual Breakfast is an opportunity for Members of Congress to pray collectively for our nation, the President of the United States, and other national and international leaders in the spirit of love and reconciliation as Jesus of Nazareth taught 2,000 years ago. Every president, regardless of party or religious persuasion, has joined since. All faiths are welcome."
And yet, we are obviously still being controlled in politics and policy by the one-third.A little less than two-thirds [of Americans] identify as Christian, down from 90% 50 years ago.
I suppose that even outside the government, if these people got together for a religious event as private citizens, they would still mingle government business in. Like business getting done on golf courses. But it's still highly inappropriate for them to do it in the guise of a governmental body such as Congress."I think they struck the right balance," Coons said, "and that's a balance that delivers transparency and accountability to the members of Congress for this new foundation for a much smaller event."
I think he shouldn't. But maybe he can be a lay spy.The reforms put in place were enough for lawmakers like Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who had boycotted the event for years in wake of the controversies, but will now attend.
Fine, but do it without the prayer and the religious overtones.A spokesperson for Kaine said in an emailed statement that the senator stopped going after 2016 because it had "become an entertainment and lobbying extravaganza," but it has "now been completely reformed to be an opportunity for members of Congress to gather with the president and vice president once a year to reflect upon the deeper meaning of our work."
They're working on that.The Family tries to expose an institution whose most prized currency has always been secrecy, delving into its origins at the hands of a Norwegian minister and fervent capitalist, its ties to some of the world’s nastiest autocrats, its more recent amity with Russia, and its eager embrace of Trump as a “wolf-king” who can change the course of history.
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But there’s something fascinating, and tragic, in the way it documents a group of ordinary men so easily convinced that they’re exceptional, even to the point of being handpicked by God like ripe fruit in a celestial grocery store. [...] . That politicians are, instead, chosen by voters is an inconvenient fact that keeps interrupting so many careers. But it is, nevertheless, a fact [...] .
The Atlantic
And just because they will no longer be officially sponsoring the National Prayer Breakfast by no means indicates they will not have the same influence. It only means it will be more hidden from the public.D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who has studied the ways in which evangelicals have become part of the American élite, was astonished by what he discovered about the Fellowship. “They are the most significant spiritual force in the lives of leaders—especially leaders in Washington—of any entity that I know,” he says. “They are mentioned more often in the interviews I’ve conducted than any other group. They have had a more sustained influence over the decades than any other entity. There is nothing comparable to them.”
New Yorker
Can I get an "Amen"?[O]n Thursday, the president* finished his qualifications for an extended run in the Fifth Circle of Hell by using the occasion of the National Prayer Breakfast—in which no president ever should participate, but that’s another argument for another day—to rage, fume, and whine against the awful fate which he so narrowly avoided. It was an astonishing profanation of the event, to say nothing of an exercise in public psychopathy.
He arrived at the event waving a newspaper with the banner headline “ACQUITTED” over his head and, when Dr. Arthur Brooks, the conservative religious leader in charge, made the mistake of referring to the obscure Christian concept of loving your enemies, the president* had a ready response to that heretical notion.
Arthur, I don't know if I agree with you.At which point, the president* brought out the hammer and drove the nails into his own palms with his usual alacrity.
As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.[...]
As dozens of attendees stared into their fruit cups and longed for the sweet release of the Rapture, the president* continued to read from Paul’s Second Epistle to the Hannitites.
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It is plain from the actions of this most heathen of presidents that Dante’s real problem was a lack of imagination. Hell can be so much worse.
Charles P Pierce
Trump's first words to the National Prayer Breakfast: "I will never let you down. I can say that. Never."Which is normally how he cleans up his reading gaffes (which are on purpose, according to him). The fact that he didn't do that in the abolition of civil rights remarks is your clue he didn't figure it out.
Trump congratulates Second Lady Karen Pence for teaching art classes at a Christian school. She's been criticized because the school bans gay students and parents.
Trump: "Our extraordinary people are just something that is number one."
Trump's text says a SWAT officer "raced through" a doorway during the Pittsburgh massacre. Trump accidentally says "graced," then says, "graced and raced."
Trump says that many of the greatest American accomplishments, including "abolition of civil rights," have been led by people of faith.Almost connecting the two thoughts.
Trump touts bipartisan criminal justice reform, thanks the Christian leaders for helping getting it done. "America is a nation that believes in redemption," he says.
In a rare non-disparaging reference to Muslims, Trump thanks Muslim leaders in the room for sending millions of meals to Somalia.
Trump expresses support for a Michigan Catholic adoption agency being challenged for rejecting same-sex parents, saying, "We will always protect our country's long and proud tradition of faith-based adoption" and that agencies should be able to follow "their deeply held beliefs."
Trump on abortion: "Every life is sacred, and every soul is a precious gift from heaven. As the Lord says in Jeremiah, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart.'"
Trump on human trafficking: "The internet came along and some good things happened but some very bad things happened."The internet caused human trafficking?
Trump: "We are blessed to live in a land of faith where all things are possible. Our only limits are those we place on ourselves. SO true."Is he just now reading this speech for the first time?
Trump says that when he urged Americans on Tuesday to choose greatness, "everybody in that room stood and applauded." (That came right after "results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress or pointless destruction," and Democrats did not stand and applaud.)
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.Lobbyists say the annual National Prayer Breakfast has become even more of a coveted invitation in the Trump era.
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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
America for sale. Which reminds me of the recently adopted Trump slogan: "America is open for business."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.
A coup of sorts.[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.”
America is open for business.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.
Wait a minute. The venue hasn't yet been changed to the Trump Hotel?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.
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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.
Praying and preying.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.
I heard they had midnight tours in Reagan's days, too.A favorite activity is an annual midnight tour of the Capitol, hosted by a former congressman.
Hmmm. Why should that be? Unless the breakfast was intended for just such a workaround.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.
Sure they are. Sure they are.“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.
How? And has it ever worked? Never mind. I think I know the answer.“While we try not to question attendees’ motives, we certainly discourage anyone from using the National Prayer Breakfast for personal, financial or geopolitical gain.”
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.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.
Which need not have had anything to do with Jesus.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.
