Bret Baier, chief political anchor for Fox News Channel, spoke about the power of prayer and the problems in Washington during the 11th annual University of Mobile Leadership Banquet on April 28.
The annual fundraiser event raised nearly $128,000 this year as an audience of about 700 gathered at the Mobile Convention Center.
Special guests included more than 35 World War II veterans, including a 105-year-old dressed in uniform.
Baier told the audience that the political system in Washington is broken and something has to change.
“Both sides will tell you it’s broken,” he said. “But there is hope. There are people thinking about big things, on both sides of the aisle.”
Baier spoke about hope on a more personal level as he told about the birth of his first son, Paul. Paul was born nearly nine years ago with five congenital heart defects and has had three open-heart surgeries and eight angioplasties.
“He was our first son and we were ecstatic when we were told he was a boy. I was thinking Master’s champion, Super Bowl ring, all kinds of things,” Baier said. After Paul was born, “The doctor comes in and says, ‘your son has to have emergency surgery in the next few days or he’s going to die.’ So we went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a matter of minutes. And all those things in my head changed dramatically,” Baier said.
He recalled the period after Paul’s first surgery.
“At that moment we’re in the cardiac intensive care unit. … You pray to God and say, thank God that this heart was still beating — every beat, I was saying that. … But you’re scared. And it changes your world view.”
Baier noted how the experience through his son’s surgery, and later release from the hospital, taught him to “think big, think optimistic” and to “trust in the Guy upstairs and make it about family and friends.”
(UMobile)
Share with others: