The Congressional Prayer Breakfast
THE CONGRESSIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST -- (House of Representatives - July 18, 2005)
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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) has benefited all of us and perhaps even the Nation by arranging for us to discuss something that perhaps many men and women around the country did not know existed. And the only untrue statement tonight is, I think, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) perhaps overstated our singing ability. I do think that we have a couple of people with talent, but it certainly does not go past a couple. And I just wanted to get the record straight for purposes of history.
When I was elected to this body, this hallowed hall, I made a commitment to the people of my district, to my family and to my God that I would not come here to call people names, that I would not come here and disrespect my colleagues. I might disagree, but I would never disrespect.
I did not realize that there was a prayer group here. The second week after I was sworn in, the gentlewoman from my State of Missouri invited me to the prayer breakfast. I came to the prayer breakfast with some uncertainty. I had no idea what it was about. I had no idea whether I would get anything from it. That quickly melted into the woodwork of that room where we meet.
My commitment not to call names, my commitment not to be disrespectful is now empowered by the Hour of Power, the prayer breakfast. It is an opportunity for renewal for me to be with people who are like minded, men and women of faith.
There is a great deal of discussion taking place across the length and breadth of this Nation about the relevance of religion in politics. It is important for me to say that there is great relevance between faith and public service through elective office. If there is not relevance, then faith is frail. All of us are informed by our faith, albeit differently, because self-interest, unavoidably, creeps into our theology. So there are times when I am absolutely certain that I hear the voice of God, when in fact I may be hearing my own voice, disguised.
And so, because of that, in our prayer breakfasts there is no proselytizing. No one comes to the prayer breakfast to speak about legislation and the rightness or wrongness of it, or whether God has embraced it or whether God is against it. We come there in prayer. We come there as men and women looking for a moment. If we can just snatch this little moment where we can come into a setting where nobody is trying to do anybody any harm. It is a nonpolitical hour. You do not find Democrats standing up trying to present a donkey prayer. There are no elephant prayers. Men and women come to pray. So I am convinced that through that prayer breakfast we are able to build up our own personal faith so that it can inform us on how we conduct ourselves politically.
I realize that in this Congress there are no saints, just elected sinners who, for the most part, are trying to do the right thing and coming to the prayer breakfast reminds us that we are trying to do the right thing. Now, everybody here is fallible. We are flawed. We make mistakes. But I am convinced, at least based on what I have seen, that everybody is here trying to do the right thing, and those of us who come to the prayer breakfast are working on it. We are not a complete product, but we are in fact working on it. We realize that working on our faith is a tortuously difficult and long process, but this helps.
I have family in Tanzania, Africa, in the City of Arusha, which sits in the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro. When last there, I went to the Episcopal church, which is in downtown Arusha, such as it is, and I listened to a priest reprimand one of his parishioners. You see, in Tanzania, many of the people who live in huts build a little prayer spot somewhere near their door, usually a back door, and the priest can walk by and see whether there is a well-worn path from the door to the prayer spot. And I listened to a priest say to one of his parishioners, I saw much weeds growing in your prayer path, which meant that he had not been frequenting the place where he had established a relationship with God.
Without the prayer breakfast, I do not think that I would have the well-worn prayer path that I have now. For me, Thursday morning at 8 o'clock is the Hour of Power. There are people here who are in powerful positions, there are people here even now trying to become even more powerful in this Congress, but the real power, for me, the power that enables me to continue to function is the Hour of Power on Thursday mornings, and I thank God for it.
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