THE US president, first lady, vice-president, secretary of state and a host of elected officials yesterday ignored appeals from government watchdogs, secularists and civil and gay rights movements that they boycott the National Prayer Breakfast.
Seventy-two per cent of Americans believe it is important that their president have “strong religious beliefs”, according to a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Participating in the National Prayer Breakfast is an easy way to demonstrate those beliefs. It has been attended by every US president since 1953. Bono, Mother Teresa and Tony Blair have all been speakers.
But the breakfast came under a barrage of criticism this year because it is organised by a secretive evangelical group called the Family, or the Fellowship, which counts several Congressmen among its members and has tentacles overseas, notably in Africa.
David Bahati, the politician who drafted the so-called “gay death Bill” or “kill the gays Bill” that would make homosexuality punishable by death in some cases in Uganda, is believed to be a member of the Family.
Under Mr Bahati’s law, failure to denounce homosexuals would also be an offence. Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, is also allegedly a member of The Family. Mr Bahati says his law is necessary “to protect our children and stop recruitment”. He was to have attended yesterday’s prayer breakfast, but he was “disinvited” by the Family’s American leaders when his presence drew media attention.
President Barack Obama went ahead with his plan to address the prayer breakfast for the second consecutive year, but he took care to condemn the Ugandan draft legislation, saying: “We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are – whether it’s here in the United States, or . . . more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”
Some 3,000 people attended the breakfast in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where there was standing room only. Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina whose ex-wife Jenny just published a book on his affair with an Argentine woman, sat at a front row table.
The Family owns a house on C Street, on Capitol Hill, where Mr Sanford and the Republican senator from Nevada John Ensign sought refuge and counselling after adulterous affairs.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a government watchdog group, wrote to Mr Obama and numerous congressmen, asking them to boycott the breakfast.
“The National Prayer Breakfast uses the suggested imprimatur of the elected leaders who attend to give the Fellowship greater credibility and facilitate its networking and fundraising,” Melanie Sloan, the director of Crew, said in a statement. “The president and members of Congress should not legitimise this cult-like group.” Gay rights activists and liberal religious leaders organised an alternative “American Prayer Hour” at venues across the country.
Further controversy was raised by the attendance of the former University of Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Tebow stars in an anti-abortion advertisement that will be broadcast during the Super Bowl on Sunday.