President Donald Trump, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Vice President Mike Pence and a host of other political leaders joined religious leaders at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. on Feb. 7.
In his remarks to those assembled, Trump reaffirmed the sanctity of every human life and encouraged Americans to pray for the pursuit of justice. The president also defended religious liberty and the work of faith-based adoption agencies.
In calling for prayer for the United States, Trump said, “Let us pray for the courage to pursue justice and the wisdom to forge peace. Let us pray for a future where every child has a warm, safe and loving home.
“Let us come together for the good of our people, for the strength of our families, for the safety of our citizens, for the fulfillment of our deepest hopes and our highest potential,” he said. “And let us always give thanks for the miracle of life, the majesty of creation and the grace of almighty God.”
At the breakfast, Trump repeated a line from his State of the Union speech Feb. 5, saying, “All children – born and unborn – are made in the holy image of God.”
He also told the audience, “As part of our commitment to building a just and loving society, we must build a culture that cherishes the dignity and sanctity of innocent human life.
“Every life is sacred, and every soul is a precious gift from heaven,” he said. “As the Lord says in Jeremiah, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart,'” which is from Jeremiah 1:5.
On the growing struggle for some religious foster care and adoption organizations, Trump said his administration “is working to ensure that faith-based adoption agencies are able to help vulnerable children find their forever families while following their deeply held beliefs.”
Foster care and adoption entities in some states have halted their services rather than violate their religious beliefs by placing children with same-sex couples.
“As president, I will always cherish, honor and protect the believers who uplift our communities and sustain our nation to ensure that people of faith can always contribute to our society,” Trump said.
Trump lifted up one major moment of bipartisanship at the event by praising the celebrated recent passage of the First Step Act. Faith leaders, he said, “helped us achieve historic, bipartisan criminal justice reform.”
While some Democrats and progressive faith leaders argued the bill could have done more, it enjoyed robust support from evangelical leaders, including several of Trump’s faith advisers.
The president also cited his administration’s work to combat religious persecution overseas and human trafficking, as well as the imprisonment of American citizens by foreign countries. He introduced Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who was freed in October after two years in a Turkish prison.
Trump also introduced Elan Carr, the newly named special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.
The president said many of the great movements in American history “have been led by people of faith and started in prayer. When we open our hearts to faith, we fill our hearts with love.”
He named America’s independence and the extension of voting rights to women as examples but seemed to conflate mistakenly the abolitionist and civil rights movements when he said “abolition of civil rights.”
Gary Haugen, chief executive officer of International Justice Mission (IJM), offered encouragement to an audience that included many evangelical Christian leaders during his keynote speech.
“I believe it is the holy faithfulness of God that should keep us from growing weary in doing good, but we do grow weary, don’t we?” Haugen said. “For our American family, I do sense that we are in a national moment of perilously mounting discouragement.
“We can be so discouraged by all that is going wrong, that we are tempted to give up on seeking what is right.
“We should not grow weary in doing the good we know to do, because in the end an all-good and almighty God has the final say,” he said. “But at the same time, we should not grow weary in humbly seeking what is right, for you and I are not all good and we are surely missing what is right if we do not pause to tremble.”
IJM is a leader in the effort to end human trafficking, and Feb. 7 is Shine a Light on Slavery Day.
The efforts of the United States and other governments mean “[we] could see this ancient sin end for good,” Haugen said. “If we just do the good we can all agree needs to be done, we can see the God of Exodus sweep slavery into His dustbin of history.”
Other political figures attending the event included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.), Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, among others.
Prominent religious attendees included Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry; Lance Plyler of Samaritan’s Purse; Christian author, businesswoman and philanthropist Mo Anderson; and musician Chris Tomlin.
In introducing Trump, Lankford, a Southern Baptist, read 1 Timothy 2:1-2, where the apostle Paul calls for prayers for those in authority.
“From the earliest days — 2,000 years ago — Paul was writing to them and saying, ‘Don’t forget to pray for your leaders,’” Lankford said.
Lankford and Coons served as co-chairs of this year’s prayer breakfast.
The National Prayer Breakfast, which is sponsored by an evangelical Christian organization, began in 1953 during President Eisenhower’s first administration, and every president since has spoken at the event.
The prayer breakfast was mostly free of the partisan rancor that has divided Washington and most of the nation in recent years. Coons explained to Religion News Service earlier this week that the conciliatory nature of the event was by design.
“The point of praying with the president or praying with other elected officials isn’t to berate them about our policy or political differences but rather to try and be present with someone else in a spirit of prayer,” he said. “Those of us who have been involved in organizing it have tried very hard to avoid making it a platform for partisan political issues.” (BP, RNS)
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