The power of prayer

Tomorrow is the National Prayer Breakfast, an innocuous-sounding gathering that has taken place in Washington, DC on the first Thursday in February every year since 1953. Every president since Dwight Eisenhower has addressed this gathering. Barack Obama has been no exception. He gave a speech last year, and he is scheduled to do so again tomorrow. Apparently, not everyone thinks that's okay.

This is not just about issues of separation of church and state. Critics of the event are concerned that its sponsor, a secretive right-wing group, variously called The Family or The Fellowship, has an agenda that tries to subvert democracy with an elitist ultra-conservative -- and explicitly patriarchal -- agenda. The Family includes many government officials and members of Congress, including Oklahoma senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe. Wikipedia describes the prayer breakfast as "a forum for political, social and business leaders of the world to assemble together and build relationships which might not otherwise be possible." Many of those relationships are less than desirable.

For instance,  Huffington Post columnist Melanie Sloan writes that

The one time of year when the Family emerges from the shadows is the annual National Prayer Breakfast, its signature event. This large-scale function serves as a recruiting tool for the group, but is often misconstrued by attendees as an official government event -- a perception reinforced by a presidential address at the breakfast, presidential seals strategically located around the room, and an organizing committee made up of members of Congress. Given the official façade, some attendees have expected at least a nod to other religions, but they are quickly disappointed. "JESUS is there!" reads a breakfast planning document.

At past breakfasts, the Family has facilitated meetings between its foreign allies and the president as well as members of Congress, outside the reach of the Department of State and traditional U.S. diplomatic protocol. Past prayer breakfast attendees have included General Eugenio Vides Casanova of El Salvador, later found liable for the torture of thousands of civilians, and General Alvarez Martinez of Honduras, later linked to secret death squads in that country.

Part of the controversy surrounding President Obama's attendance at the prayer breakfast has to do with another of this year's attendees -- Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati, sponsor of a bizarre and hateful Anti-Homosexuality Bill. New York Jewish Week blogger James Besser says that Bahati may not attend the event after all, but that Obama and other US government officials should still stay away.

Meanwhile, AlterNet Washington Bureau Chief Adele N. Stan has a fascinating analysis of The Family and the controversy surrounding tomorrow's event. She includes information from Jeff Sharlet, author of a recent book about The Family. Sharlet's book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, is available through the Oklahoma County Metropolitan Library System.