"At this final prayer breakfast as your president, I thank you for your prayers," President Bush said this morning.
He was speaking to some 4,000 people crammed into the Washington Hilton ballroom, most of whom had shelled out $175 a piece for repast of granola, fresh fruit, coffee and Danish. The full text of his speech, which was quite theologically sound, is at www.whitehouse.gov. I'd include a photo of the event but none of us were allowed to bring in cameras.
The National Prayer Breakfast, by the way, is a three-day event crammed with seminars and tours for guests from around the country. The expensive ticket prices for the breakfast subsidize a host of international visitors — plus some heads of state — who are flown here for what's essentially low-key intros to Christianity. A lot of other meetings happen here; this is the event that provided a forum for Jordan's King Abdullah to have closed-door meetings with American evangelicals in 2006.
I've been twice before to these breakfasts but as a member of the White House press pool. This time, I went as an ordinary person — my employer did not pay for my ticket — just to see what it's like to be in the peanut gallery.
To my right was a woman who was running an NGO from North Dakota that ministers to poor Guatemalan children. To my left was the director of a local crisis pregnancy center and a builder from Kirkland, Wash. The speakers were also mixed bag. The keynote, Ward Brehm of the Africa Development Fund, joked that his audience had never heard of him, then went on to give an entertaining talk about his transition from hard-boiled businessman to advocate for Africa's poor.
Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic, emceed much of the gathering. After he praised Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a roll model for the Senate, she followed up with what was supposed to be a reading from Scripture. Instead it was a New Agey-sounding essay written by a Reform rabbi.
The best quote of the gathering came from Judge Carlos Lucero, who serves on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. "Poor New Mexico," he mused. "So far from heaven. So close to Texas."
The better show was actually the night before at columnist Cal Thomas' annual media dinner. Mickey Rooney, 88, brought down the house with a no-holds-barred Christian message and a short film with clips about his famous life. He was there with his eighth wife, Jan Chamberlin, with whom he has stayed married for 30 years.
Mickey Rooney and wife Jan (www.mickeyrooney.com)
Actress Patricia Heaton's monologue was by far the funniest of the evening but I was most struck by a short speech by Jim Pinkerton, one-time political analyst for Fox News Channel and Newsday columnist.
I hadn't known he had decided to forsake it all and become a senior advisor to the Huckabee campaign. Talk about selling all you have and giving to the poor.
Had he done it for the money, I asked him afterwards.
"Oh, no," he said, "I'm still a volunteer."
— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times
