The National Prayer Breakfast has been a staple of top political officials over the last 50 years. It brings together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for networking over breakfast fare.
This year, in view of challenges to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by some on Capitol Hill, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, but it obviously fell on deaf ears. Religious and pro-gay groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.
The groups are up in arms about the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and charges that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.
The Family has always stayed intentionally in the background, according to those who have written about it. In the last year, however, it was identified as the sponsor of a dormitory on Capitol Hill that has served as a meeting place for politicians who were recently scrutinized for ethics challenges, including Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., both having admitted to adulterous affairs.
More recently, it became public that the Family also has close ties to the Ugandan politician who has sponsored the proposed anti-gay legislation.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, sent a letter this week to the president and congressional leaders urging them to skip the prayer breakfast. They have also called on C-Span not to televise it this year.
Should the president have forgone his participation in the event, since he’s positioned himself as a proponent of gay rights? “The Family …” sounds very gangsta. –gerald radford
