Yesterday, the National Prayer Breakfast was held in Washington, D.C. As most people who follow politics know, this is an annual event that has been held for decades (more than five of them, to be exact), and that every POTUS since Eisenhower has attended — and more to the point, has to attend if wanting to avoid creating a Major Political Scandal.
The National Prayer Breakfast attracts controversy every year because of its connection to the Christian right, and the dissonance of an overtly religious gathering being, in effect, compulsory for party leaders of both major parties.
However, this year it attracted more unwelcome attention than usual. For anyone who is not already aware, here is why:
The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations 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 residence on Capitol Hill that has served as a dormitory and meeting place for a cluster of politicians who ran into ethics problems, including Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, and Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have admitted to adultery.
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.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the ethics group, said: “It is a combination of the intolerance of the organization’s views, and the secrecy surrounding the organization. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to hold their breakfast; of course they should. The question is, Should American officials be lending legitimacy to it, giving their imprimatur by showing up.”
Pres. Obama did attend the breakfast, despite such entreaties. I was initially very unhappy about this, but not so much anymore because he used the opportunity of being there to criticize religious intolerance in general and the Ugandan legislation specifically — as did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Michael Stickings, who I am so happy to say is a contributor at TMV, has further details at his personal blog, The Reaction.
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