President Joe Biden called for unity among Americans—regardless of religion, race, and party affiliation—during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill on Feb. 2.
“Just before Christmas, I offered a message to the country. A universal message of hope, joy, and love, whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other faith or no faith at all,” Biden said.
“It speaks to all of us as human beings who are here on this Earth primarily to care for one another. Look—look out for one another and to love one another.
“It’s not always easy. It’s hard. But that’s our mission. The message is always important, but especially important during tough times. Like what we’ve been through the last three, four, or five years.”
He continued by noting the COVID-19 pandemic, “record bouts of extreme weather claiming lives and destroying homes,” wildfires, and mass shootings.
“When we’re present in our lives, we find there’s so much more that unites us than divides us,” Biden said. “And while we have profound differences, the last two years have proven we can come together to do big things for the country. We can join hands and get things done. We can redeem the soul of America.”
He referenced earlier this year a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. King once served as pastor of the church, which is now led by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).
Joy comes “when we apply the commandments of Scripture,” Biden said. “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, and all thy soul, and love thy neighbor as thyself. That’s the hardest one. It didn’t use to be as hard. I’ve been here a long time. But it seems to be getting harder.”
He referenced “the question Dr. King asked us all those years ago. Where do we go from here?”
“My message to all of you to the nation is: we go forward. Go forward together,” Biden said. “Let’s be the doers of the word. Let’s keep the faith. Let’s remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. The United States of America. We’re born out of an idea.”
He concluded his remarks by reminiscing about his early days in the Senate when lawmakers would “argue like hell with each other but then still go to lunch together.”
Biden mentioned figures such as Strom Thurmond, Ted Kennedy, and others who argued on the floor and then would “go to the Senate dining room and sit down and eat.”
Saying that legislators should “start treating each other with respect,” he said he had a “good meeting yesterday” with Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“I think we got to do it. Across the board,” Biden said, expounding on his comment. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to agree. Fight like hell, and let’s treat each other with respect.”
Unity had been missing at the breakfast where he delivered his Feb. 2 morning remarks.
A high-profile event that incorporates politics and religion, the National Prayer Breakfast has been marked with controversy in recent years.
The International Foundation, a Christian evangelical organization also known as the Fellowship Foundation or “The Family”—as popularized by a book with the same name and a 2019 Netflix documentary based on its story—spearheaded the breakfast for decades.
Concerned that the gathering has become too divisive, lawmakers created the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation to lead this year’s two-day event. The foundation is headed by former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the gathering in 1953. Every president since has spoken at the breakfast.
Eisenhower was asked to attend by evangelist Billy Graham. Not known as an outwardly religious figure, Eisenhower at one point in his presidency remarked that the country needed a spiritual renewal.
Over the years, the breakfast has generated controversy related to questionable fundraising, behind-the-scenes lobbying, and infiltration by a Russian spy.
“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 prayer breakfast participant. “And we frankly had to admit, as co-chairs, we didn’t know as much as we felt we should have.”
Coons is part of the group that helped establish the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation to coordinate the event. Pryor explained that this year’s breakfast and future gatherings will be smaller and more controlled.
This year’s breakfast was moved from a Washington hotel to the U.S. Capitol complex.
“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.”
More than two dozen groups that range from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and American Atheists to The Clergy Project and the Transgender Law Center joined 10 community leaders in sending a Jan. 17 letter “strongly encouraging” Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and congressional members “not to sponsor or attend the National Prayer Breakfast.”
Calling the breakfast “a pay-to-play political event with a troubling history” and citing “serious issues associated with the event,” the letter’s authors claimed that past breakfasts have featured “anti-LGBT rhetoric.”
“Mike Lindell credits his rise and relationship with former President Donald Trump to being ‘picked out of 12 people to pray with Ben Carson in a room [at] the National Prayer Breakfast,’” the letter reads. “The FBI caught Maria Butina, an unregistered foreign agent with ties to Putin, using the event to illegally ‘back channel’ with American officials who attended. Butina pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2018.
“New records reveal that Franklin Graham is the primary financial backer of the event, which he admitted is meant to buy access. Former President Trump used the event in 2019 to promote discriminatory adoption practices.”
Members of Congress who sponsor or attend the event “are inadvertently sending a message that their office endorses the event’s Christian nationalist message, which is incompatible with pluralistic religious freedom and our constitutional system of governance,” according to the letter.
“Moreover, besides the issue of religious freedom, supporting the breakfast would be a blatant disregard for some of the most vulnerable communities in our country today given the event’s support for anti-LGBT campaigns,” it reads.
Biden’s remarks about God, and the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation website, indicate that religion is still an integral part of the event.
“Our 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,” a description about the foundation’s purpose on its website reads.
“Every president, regardless of party or religious persuasion, has joined since. All faiths are welcome.”
