[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2054-H2059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Barrett] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year I had the
distinct pleasure and the great honor of chairing the 45th annual
National Prayer Breakfast here in Washington.
Now, this is an annual event that is hosted by the Senate prayer
group and the House prayer group, and it represents an effort by many
thousands of people to come together once a year here in our Nation's
Capital in prayerful reflection. The breakfast was initially founded as
an opportunity for Members of Congress to express spiritual support for
the President, for the leaders of our Nation and, of course, for each
other.
This year more than 4,000 people came to the breakfast from all 50
States and from over 140 countries. The personal contacts we all had
from across the Nation, from around the world, were something that were
impressions that will last a lifetime.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my colleagues on the congressional
committee that planned this most recent breakfast, I provide a copy of
the transcript of that breakfast to be inserted in the Record so that
everyone might read the uplifting and inspirational messages we heard
that day.
The National Prayer Breakfast, the Washington Hilton, Thursday,
February 6, 1997
Representative Bill Barrett: It's a special privilege for
me to be able to welcome each and ever one of you here this
morning to the 45th annual National Prayer Breakfast,
especially our friends from around the world, as well as
those of you who are attending the prayer breakfast for the
first time. God created us at different times and in
different places, and with the flesh of a hundred different
hues, but he did set us forth with a very common purpose; to
love the Lord, our God, and to love our neighbor as ourself.
We're gathered here today from six continents. I don't
believe the Antarctica delegation has arrived yet. Ladies and
gentlemen, there are nearly 170 countries represented here
today--all 50 states are represented here today--here in this
ballroom and in auxiliary rooms in which people who could not
get into the ballroom are seated, viewing this on television.
We have nearly 4,000 people gathered for the 45th annual
prayer breakfast. There are literally hundreds and hundreds
of Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives,
people from all professions, all fields of service. We have
laborers, we have prison parolees here, we have street people
here. We have people of considerable wealth; we have people
with little material wealth. There are people from all levels
of society, all backgrounds, religiously and politically.
There is represented here today truly a cross-section or our
world.
Who we are is not the important point. The point is that we
all come together to let each other know that we care. We
come here to humbly beseech guidance; to further the building
of humankind, recognizing and acknowledging the reliance that
each of us has on Divine Providence. What a happy time it is
that so many have chosen to join us this morning in the
spirit of Jesus of Nazareth and to share this time together.
From the reports that we hear, read and observe, it's
probably difficult to believe that members of Congress can
ever agree with one another or find it possible to be
perfectly united in mind and thought, as St. Paul admonished
us to do. But it's my pleasant duty to bring to you greetings
from the House of Representatives' Prayer Breakfast.
One of the most meaningful experiences for me since I've
been a member of Congress has been to attend that prayer
breakfast, in which we gather every Thursday morning in the
Capitol at 8:00, in a time of fellowship and prayer with our
colleagues. On these mornings, 40 to 50 Democrats and
Republicans, without guests, with the exception of an
occasional parliamentarian from another nation who is a
member of a prayer group in that nation, or perhaps a
parliamentarian who wants to come and observe our prayer
breakfast, with the thought in mind of going back to his or
her country and establishing a similar prayer breakfast. We
meet simply to find fellowship in the spirit of Christ and to
share burdens with each other.
We leave our differences outside the door. Labels remain
outside the door. We get to know each other on a basis of
something that transcends the labels that often divide us
during the rest of the week. As a result, many special and
many unlikely friendships have been born and even nurtured
during that time together.
Our speaker each week--one week a Republican, one week a
Democrat--is always a member of Congress, but no necessarily
a member of our prayer group. We hear from that person, in
which they share with us something that they want to talk
about--perhaps some of the trauma in their life, some of the
problems, some of the joys, some of the satisfactions, some
of the triumphs. We've had some wonderful messages and, with
each one, inspiration, better understanding and, of course,
close friendships. And because of the seeds that were planted
by the House and the Senate fellowship groups 45 years ago
the National Prayer Breakfast, this prayer breakfast, has
grown to include people from so many countries that we have
to wonder today if we should perhaps rename the National
Prayer Breakfast to ``the International Prayer Breakfast.''
So on behalf of both the Senate and the House prayer
groups, who are hosting this breakfast, we thank you for
sharing with us. We also acknowledge the hundreds of groups
that are meeting simultaneously around the world as we meet
here together at this particular moment--meeting around the
world to praise the Lord.
Many of you know that Billy Graham has been a steadfast
member of this national prayer group--I believe he has missed
only three National Prayer Breakfasts in 45 years. Dr. Graham
had hoped to be with us today, but his health prevents it.
And I'd like to share with you a message that I received from
Dr. Graham.
``I hear constantly the impact that the Prayer Breakfast is
having throughout the world. Since this is one of the few
times I have every missed being at a breakfast since its
beginning, I will certainly be in prayer that God will make
this gathering one of the most significant prayer breakfasts
we've ever had. Give my warmest greetings and affection to
all of those in attendance, especially the president, Mrs.
Clinton, the vice president, and Mrs. Gore.
``With warmest affection in Christ, I am cordially yours,
Billy Graham.''
The gentleman from Missouri, the minority leader of the
House of Representatives, the Honorable Richard Gephardt,
will now read from the Old Testament.
Representative Gephardt: Our Old Testament reading this
morning is from Psalms. ``Make a joyful shout to the Lord,
all your lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His
presence with singing. Know that the Lord He is God. It is He
who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, and
the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with
thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to
Him, and bless His name for the Lord is good. His mercy is
everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.''
Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Minority Leader.
It's a tradition of the National Prayer Breakfast that a
person of very special talent is chosen to present a solo at
our breakfast. This morning we are thrilled to be able to
present a young opera star of unparalleled prospect, a mezzo-
soprano who has made a number of important debuts both here
and in Europe. Please welcome Ms. Denyce Graves.
(Ms. Graves sings ``Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'' and ``Every
Time I Feel the Spirit'')
Representative Barrett: What a thrill, right? Thank you,
Ms. Graves.
The Scripture from the New Testament will be brought to us
by the speaker of the House of Representatives, the gentleman
from Georgia, the Honorable Newt Gingrich.
Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA): Let me just say that I think
all of our hearts, I hope, were touched by Ms. Graves just
now. It was truly a wonderful moment.
I'm going to read from John 3, verses 12 to 21.
``If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not,
how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no
man has ascended up to heaven but He that came down from
heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth
on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the
condemnation: that light is come unto the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh in the light, that his
deeds made be made manifest, that they wrought in God.''
Representive Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that
reading from the New Testament.
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Vice President Al Gore was a very faithful member of the
House prayer group when he was a member of the House. And
when he entered the Senate, he became a very faithful member
of the prayer group as well. And as a result, the Senate
prayer group has asked him to represent them in delivering
remarks of the Senate. And it's encouraging to know, Mr. Vice
President, that one of our own can occasionally succeed.
It is with great pleasure that I present to you the vice
president of the United States, Mr. Albert Gore Jr.
Vice President Gore: Thank you. Thank you very much, Bill.
Mr. President and Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Speaker; leader
Gephardt, other distinguished guests at the head table; and
senators, congressmen; heads of state from other countries;
thank you very much for your attendance; distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen, including those in the overflow
room, we're so proud that you are here. And among those at
the head table, allow me just a brief personal word.
Dr. Ben Carson--I had nothing to do with the invitation to
Dr. Carson to be the main speaker this year. But after Tipper
and I found out that he was going to be our speaker, we
recalled that when one of our children was seriously injured
and in Johns Hopkins Hospital, he was part of the medical
team that consulted with us. We are among the thousands of
families who are grateful to you and the others healers among
us, Dr. Carson. It was a pleasure to meet your sons, Murray,
Den, and Royce, in the other room.
Bill said that I was invited to bring greetings from the
Senate prayer breakfast group because I was a faithful member
of it. The truth is that with my travels on behalf of the
president and the White House schedule, they invited me to
give greetings on their behalf so that I will definitely
become a faithful member of the Senate prayer breakfast. I
know what they're doing. And it's true that my schedule has
taken me away from it. But your ploy is going to work.
May I also refer to the many thousands of prayer groups
around the United States that are represented by many of you
here, and around the world. I want to acknowledge a group
represented here--the Religious Partnership for the
Environment. I am proud to have had a chance to meet
frequently with them.
Since we met here last year, something has happened that I
wanted to briefly comment upon: Churches were burned,
synagogues and other houses of worship were burned, and a
great outpouring of national concern took place.
Many wondered, ``How could we respond to this?'' I know the
president gathered spiritual leaders from various
denominations to talk about this issue. The House and the
Senate took action. There was no dissent. I forget the vote
in the House, but it was 100 to nothing in the Senate. It's
rare that you get a vote of that kind. And the country began
to come together to respond to this challenge.
Churches were rebuilt. Some of them that had been burned to
the ground left the congregations just devastated. I remember
visiting one, looking at the ashes covering the timbers, and
the congregation expressed its determination to come back
together and rebuild.
On August 19th, the president and the first lady, Tipper,
and I went to a church that had been burned in Tennessee and
joined in rebuilding the church. When we got there, we
learned that there had been two churches burned--one with a
white congregation, one with a black congregation. When the
church with a white congregation burned, the first donation
to rebuild it came from the black congregation just two miles
away. About a year later, when the church with the black
congregation burned, the first donation to rebuild it came
from the church with the white congregation. On that day when
we gathered with hammers and nails and paint brushes to
rebuild it, all of the community leaders came. The African
American pastor of this congregation made note of the fact
that some of the county leaders who were present were
individuals he had never met before, and the members of the
white congregation who came had never met their counterparts,
in many cases, before. He cited a verse from Genesis 50:
``Man intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.''
The president spoke and said, ``You can burn the building,
but you cannot burn out the faith.''
I was reminded of the examples in the Bible of fires that
burned but do not consume. In Exodus Chapter 3, Moses is
confronted with a burning bush. ``Though the bush was on
fire, it did not burn up.'' Moses thought, `` `I will go over
and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up.'
God called to him from within the bush: `Moses!' And Moses
said, `Here I am.' ''
In the book of Daniel, Chapter 3, verse 19, Nebuchadnezzar
orders his furnace heated up seven times hotter than usual,
and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to
tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and throw them into
the blazing furnace. They had refused, of course, to bow down
to graven images and idols. And when they were thrown into
the furnace--you know the story well--the soldiers were
burned. But Nebuchadnezzar looks into the flames, and in
amazement asked his advisers, ``Weren't there three men that
we tied up and threw into the fire?'' They replied
``Certainly, o king.'' He said ``Look, I see four men walking
around in the fire, unbound and unharmed. And the fourth
looks like a son of the gods.''
The three were taken out, and they saw that the fire had
not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed.
Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire
on them.
In response to such challenges, we are called to be present
with those who are persecuted.
Finally, when we saw the rebuilt church brought--the image
of it brought in the photograph when this minister revisited
the White House earlier this year, I was reminded of the
famous chapter in Ezekiel 37, when Ezekiel is placed in the
valley.
``And I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley,
bones that were very dry. And the Lord asked me, `Son of man,
can these bones live?' And then he said to me, `Prophesy to
these bones, and say to them, ``Dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord,'' ' So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I
was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the
bones came together, bone to bone. Tendons and flesh appeared
on them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in
them. And then he said to me: `Prophesy to the breath.
Prophesy, son of Man. And say to it, ``This is what the
sovereign Lord says, `Come from the four winds, oh breath,
and breathe into these slain that they may live.'' ' So I
prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them. They
came to life and stood up on their feet a vast army.''
These houses of worship have been lifted back up, and the
breath of the Spirit has been breathed into them. May the
same thing happen to our hurting nation.
Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
To deliver our prayer for the national and international
leaders, I would like to recognize the senator from Indiana
Senator Dan Coats, who is a very faithful member of the
Senate prayer breakfast. It's my pleasure to introduce the
senator for the most basic purpose of this breakfast, to let
our leaders know that we are praying for them.
Senator Dan Coats (R-IN): Please bow your heads with me in
prayer and join your hearts with me in prayer.
Our Lord and our God, we have set aside this day of prayer
to acknowledge you and you alone, as the God of men and
nations; to thank you for your loving kindness toward each of
us, and to humbly ask for wisdom and discernment as we seek
to serve the people of our land. We ask for your mercy and
divine forgiveness for our sins, for we often rely on our
ways and not on yours.
We are divided by barriers of anger and suspicion. We are
shamed by the commonplace violence in our nation. We have
failed to protect the innocence of our children, and we have
left them to moral confusion and early despair. We have
misunderstood both the cause and the cure of our troubles. We
see social and political problems; You see our failures of
love and duty and commitment. We talk of politics and laws;
You weigh the desires of our hearts. We propose solutions for
others; You ask us to examine ourselves.
Lord, each of us in some way has set out to change our
society. But now, today, we humbly ask you to change each of
us. We are thankful, Lord, that Your mercy does not depend on
our merit. We are grateful that the Gospel is a story of
failure forgiven.
Lord, we pray for the leaders You have brought to this
room. Preserve us from the pride of power. Guard us from
self-interest and selfish ambition. May we build careers of
honorable service, obeying Your command to do justice, to
seek mercy, and to walk humbly with You.
We pray above all for inward surrender to Your guidance,
hearts transformed by an encounter with the living God, and
lives marked with Your meaning. We pray these things in the
confidence and comfort given by Jesus Christ. Amen.
Representative Barrett: Thank you so much, Senator Coats,
for those words.
It's now my pleasure to present to you our featured speaker
at this prayer breakfast, Dr. Benjamin Carson, who is
director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins
University. Dr. Carson is well renowned in his field--most
notably, perhaps, the 1987 separation of the Binder twins in
Germany, which of course were attached at the head.
Dr. Carson has led a life of struggle as well as triumph,
and I know that you're going to find his remarks both
interesting and very inspiring. He brings us his love for
children. He's a living example of caring and compassion.
Please welcome Dr. Ben Carson.
Dr. Benjamin Carson: Thank you very much. It's a real
pleasure and an honor to be here before so many distinguished
people. I don't feel that I really belong here under these
circumstances. But the nice thing is, when it comes to love
that is inspired by Jesus Christ, we're all equal. And it
makes you feel good. You begin to realize that He's the one
who empowers us to do whatever we do and to go wherever we
go.
I want to give you some little vignettes from my own life
and how my relationship with God developed. Let me set my
stopwatch here because I understand that if I go overtime,
the Secret Service will take me away.
I always wanted to be a missionary doctor. I used to listen
to the mission stories in church, and they frequently
featured missionary doctors--people who, at great personal
expense, would go to foreign lands and bring not only
physical but mental and spiritual healing to people. It
seemed like the
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most noble thing a person could do. I harbored that dream
from the time I was 8 years old until I was 13, at which
time, having grown up in dire poverty, I decided I'd rather
be rich. So at that point, missionary doctor was out and I
decided I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Now I didn't know any
psychiatrists, but on television, they seemed like very rich
people. They lived in these big fancy mansions and drove
Jaguars and had these big plush offices, and all they had to
do is talk to crazy people all day. It seemed like I was
doing that anyway, so I said, ``This should work out quite
well,'' and started reading Psychology Today. I was the local
shrink. I majored in psychology in college, did advanced
psych when I went to medical school.
But that's when I started meeting a bunch of psychiatrists.
Now, some of my best friends are psychiatrists. Actually, on
a serious note, some of the smartest people I know really are
psychiatrists and I'm a little bit miffed, as a medical
professional, as to why the insurance companies and HMOs are
giving psychiatrists such a hard time. I hope we'll do
something about that.
I discovered that I wasn't going to be a psychiatrist and I
had to stop and ask myself ``What are you really good at?'' I
discovered I had a lot of eye-hand coordination, the ability
to think in three dimensions. I was a very careful person,
never knocked things over and said ``oops!'' and I enjoyed
the brain. So I put all that together and that's how I came
up with neurosurgery.
If you had seen me as a youngster, and someone had told you
that I was going to grow up to be a neurosurgeon, much less
chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, you would
have laughed until you died, because there was unanimous
agreement amongst my classmates, my teachers, and myself that
I was the dumbest person in the world. I was always the first
one to sit down in a spelling bee, got big goose eggs on
everything that dealt with academics.
I remember one time we were taking this math quiz, and I
had a major philosophical disagreement with my math teacher
who seemed to think it was important to know your time
tables. As far as I was concerned, why waste my time learning
those when I could look them up on the back of the notebook?
So you can imagine what kind of grades I got in math. But
that particular day I'd been having a discussion with some of
my classmates about lack of intellectual agility, one might
say. In fact, they were saying I was the dumbest person in
the world, and I was disputing that. We had a math quiz that
day. I had about thirty questions. And in those days you
would pass your test to the person behind you, and they would
correct it as the teacher called out the answers, give it
back to you. The teacher would call your name out loud and
you would report your score out loud.
Well, I had gotten my usual zero. But, on this particular
day, having had those discussions, I was looking for a way to
hide that fact from my classmates, so I schemed and I said,
``When the teacher calls my name, I'm going to mumble. And
maybe she will misinterpret what I said.''
So when she called my name, I said, ``Nnngn.'' And she
said: ``Nine?'' Benjamin, you got nine right? Oh, this is
wonderful. This is the greatest day of my life. I told you
you could do it if you just applied yourself.'' She ranted
and raved for about five minutes. Finally, the girl behind me
couldn't take it any longer. She stood up and said, ``He said
none.'' Of course the kids roared with laughter, and the
teacher sat down quite embarrassed. If I could have
disappeared into thin air, never to be heard from again in
the history of the world, I would gladly have done so, but I
couldn't.
The thing that really hurt was when I got my report card at
mid-term, and my poor mother saw it, and she was just
distraught. There I was failing almost every subject, and
there she was, working two or three jobs at a time as a
single parent, trying to raise her young sons in inner-city
Detroit, realizing what a difficult time she had because of
her lack of education, having had only a third-grade
education herself. Then there I was going down the same path;
my brother also doing quite poorly.
She did not know what to do, and she prayed and asked God
to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons
to understand the importance of intellectual development so
that they could have control of their own lives? And you know
something? God gave her the wisdom, at least in her opinion.
My brother and I didn't think it was all that wise because it
was to turn off the TV set and let us watch only two or three
TV programs during the week. With all that spare time, we
read two books apiece from the Detroit Public Library and
submit to her written book reports which she couldn't read,
but we didn't know that. So she had pulled a fast one on us.
I was in no way enthusiastic about this program. All my
friends were outside having a good time, and there I was,
inside, reading. A lot of times parents come to me today, and
they say: ``How was your mother able to get you and your
brother to turn off the TV and read? I can't get my children
to do that.'' I have to chuckle and I say, ``Back in those
days, the parents were in charge of the house. They didn't
have to get permission from the kids how to run it.''
Interestingly enough, because of the reading--always
reading, I learned how to spell, so I wasn't the first one to
sit down in a spelling bee. I learned grammar and syntax
because I had to put those words together. I learned to use
my imagination because I had to take those sentences and make
them into concepts. Within the space of a year and a half, I
went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class,
much to the consternation of all those people who called me
``dummy.'' The same ones were coming to me now and saying,
``Hey, Benny, how do you work this math problem?'' I would
say, ``Sit at my feet, youngster, while I instruct you.'' I
was perhaps a little obnoxious but it sure did feel good to
do that.
The fact of the matter is, what am I talking about? I'm
talking about a person's image and self-concept. When I was
in the fifth grade, I thought I was dumb, and I acted like a
dumb person, and I achieved like a dumb person. When I was in
the seventh grade, I thought I was smart, and I acted and
achieved accordingly. Does that say a lot about the human
brain, about the potential that our Creator has given us?
Think about it. There is no computer on Earth that comes
close to the capacity of the normal human brain. How many
people here remember your home telephone number? Okay, that's
pretty good for a bunch of people in Washington. What did
your brain have to do for you to react to that question?
First of all, the sound waves had to leave my lips, travel
through the air into your external auditory meatus, travel
down to your tympanic membrane, set up a vibratory force,
which traveled across the ossicles of your middle ear to the
oval and round windows, setting up a vibratory force in the
endolymph, which mechanically distorted the microcilia,
converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, which
traveled across the cochlear nerve to the cochlear nucleus
at the ponto-medullary junction, from there to the
superior olivary nucleus--wait a minute, we've got a ways
to go--ascending bilaterally up the brain stem to the
lateral lemniscus, to the inferior colliculus and the
media janicular nuclei, across the thalamic radiations to
the posterior temporal lobes to begin the auditory
process; from there to the frontal lobes, coming down the
tract of Vicq d' Azyr, retrieving the memory from the
medial hippocampal structures of the mammary bodies, back
to the frontal lobes to start the motor response at the
Betz cell level, coming down the corticospinal tract,
across the internal capsule into the cerebral peduncle,
descending down to the cervicomedullary decussation into
the spinal cord gray matter, synapsing, going out to the
neuro-muscular junction, stimulating the nerve in the
muscle so you could raise your hand. Due to our limited
time, I didn't want to get into the complexities. But the
fact of that matter is, you could do that, and you barely
had to think about it. Can you imagine what the human
brain is capable of if people actually put some time and
thought into things?
This is the thing that is so disturbing to me. When I see
surveys about how our young people are doing in school vis-a-
vis other industrialized nations--notwithstanding the
outstanding individuals that the president pointed out the
other day in the State of the Union address. That's the
exception and not the rule. We have to change that as we
enter the information age. We have to change the tremendous
emphasis on sports and entertainment, and life-styles of the
rich and famous. Because there are other great nations that
went that pathway: Egypt, Greece, Rome. They were all at the
pinnacle, just like the U.S.A., and then they forgot about
the things that made them great, and they became enamored of
the things that weren't so important. Where are they today?
Some people think that that can't happen here, but it can. We
have a real obligation to do something to change that.
You would think that having realized that, life was going
to be wonderful for me. But it wasn't. You see, I had this
problem with my temper. I was one of those people who thought
I had a lot of rights. Have you ever met anybody like that?
It's like when you're driving in your car and somebody gets
in your lane--the one you own and paid for and you begin to
dictate to them how they should be driving? Well, this was
me. I thought I had a lot of rights.
I remember one time a kid hit me with a pebble. It didn't
hurt. I was so incensed, I grabbed a big rock and I threw it
at him and broke his glasses, almost put his eye out. Another
time, a kid was trying to close my locker at school. I didn't
want it closed, and I hit him in the head. Unfortunately, I
had my lock in my hand and put a three-inch gash in his
forehead. Another time, my mother was trying to get me to
wear something. I didn't want to wear it. I picked up a
hammer and tried to hit her in the head with it. Other than
that, I was a pretty good kid.
But it all sort of culminated one day when another kid did
something I didn't like. I had a large camping knife and I
tried to stab him in the abdomen. Fortunately, under
his clothing, he had a large metal belt buckle and the
blade struck it with such force that it broke, and he fled
in terror and I ran to the bathroom and started thinking
about my life.
A few years ago, I was in San Quentin--as a speaker--and I
was looking out over those hardened faces, and realizing
that, except for the grace of God and our Lord and Savior, I
could easily have ended up in a place like that myself.
Sometimes it does us good to think about that when we believe
how high and mighty we are, that except for certain
circumstances, things might have been quite different for us.
We need to learn how to be compassionate and how to put
ourselves in other people's
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places. As I was in that bathroom, thinking about my life,
having turned things around academically, I realized that
with that temper there was no possibility of me ever
achieving my dream of becoming a physician. I fell on my
knees and I began to pray. I said: ``Lord, I cannot control
this temper.'' I said: ``It's up to you. I am giving it over
to you.''
I picked up my Bible. I started reading from the Book of
Proverbs. There were so many verses in there about anger, the
trouble that people get into: ``If you deliver an angry man,
you're going to have to keep doing it''; Proverbs, 19:19.
``Like a city that is broken down and without walls is the
man who cannot control his temper''; Proverbs, 25:28. Also
verses about how God admired people who could control their
temper; Proverbs, 16:32: ``Mightier is the man who can
control his temper than the man who can conquer a city.'' It
seemed like, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, they
were all written for me. After three hours in that bathroom,
I came out of there, and the temper was gone. I've never had
another problem with it since that day.
I knew that it was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who
did that for me. I began to understand that we have not only
a heavenly Father, but I adopted God as my earthly Father;
somebody that I could go to, somebody who was a nice guy;
somebody who didn't force himself upon you but someone who,
if you allowed him to be in your life and to control your
life, would make it something special, something wonderful,
would give you perspective and understanding; the ability to
look at things from other people's points of view, rather
than castigating people who disagree with you putting them in
a corner and throwing stones at them, like so many people are
prone to do. I think the more highly civilized a society is,
the less likely they are to do that; the more likely they are
to be able to engage in intelligent conversation, discussing
their differences and arriving at common solutions.
There is a segment of our society that I am particularly
concerned about; who seem to be affected by the things that
I've talked about; the temper, the outrage, the lack of
intellectual development. It's the young black males in our
society in America. We've all heard the young black male in
this society is an endangered species. Why do people say
that? Because there are more young black males in jail than
there are in college.
And you know the interesting thing? My good friend Wintley
Phipps told me that 90 to 95 percent of those people in
prison grew up in homes without fathers. Does that tell
us something? Something about what we need to be doing as
a society in terms of reaching out and providing
appropriate role models for individuals?
Why do we have this dismal situation occurring? Some people
say: ``I am not a black male, so it doesn't affect me. It's
not my problem.'' I beg to differ with you because all of our
ancestors came to this country in different boats. But we're
all in the same boat now. And if part of the boat sinks,
eventually the rest of it goes down, too. We have to
understand that.
The interesting thing is that young black males never had
to become that way. Those of you who are in education know
that young black males in the kindergarten, first grade,
second grade, are as good a students as anybody else. Then
something happens along the way. What happens? They start
reading in American history about this great nation of ours
and they discover that there's nobody in there who looks like
them who did anything of significance. They say, ``Well,
maybe next year, when I take world history.'' Then they
discover there's nobody who looks like them who did anything
of significance. then they come home and they turn their TV
on, and they say, ``Oh! There I am. Playing football and
basketball and baseball, and rapping in these baggy pants
that look like you could fly in them, and acting a fool on
some sit-comedy.''
You begin to develop certain self-images, certain concepts:
``That's how I'm going to make it. I'm going to become the
next Michael Jordan.'' The media doesn't tell them that only
seven in one million will make it as a starter in the NBA;
that only one in ten thousand make it in any lasting way in
sports and entertainment.
We need to emphasize the right things. I wish we had a
program that came on television every day, called
``Lifestyles of the Formerly Rich and Famous,'' so that they
could find out what happens to many of these people, because
it's not as glamorous as we make it out to be. We need to
emphasize the intellect.
But, they don't have that emphasis. And then they find out
later on that they're not going to be a sports star or in
entertainment. What's left? Up drives this big black BMW with
tinted glass, out steps this tall gentleman, jewels and furs
and women, and he says ``Wouldn't you like to have some of
what I have? That society sold you a bill of goods. Let me
show you how you get it.'' Hence, we have people who do some
things that none of us can imagine that a human being would
do, because they feel betrayed by society.
That's part of it, part of the sociology. That's not all of
it, but it's part of it. It's something that should give us
pause, but it never had to happen. Any of us could have taken
that young man at age 6, and walked down the streets of
Washington, D.C., and given him a lesson that would have
thrilled his heart, a black history lesson that could have
started by pointing to his shoes and saying ``It was Jan
Matzlinger, a black man, who invented the automatic shoe-
lasting machine which revolutionized the shoe industry
throughout the world.'' Step on that clean street, they can
tell him about Charles Brooks, who invented the automatic
street-sweeper. Down that clean street comes one of those big
refrigerated trucks and you can tell him about Frederick
Jones, who invented the refrigeration system for
trucks, later adopted for airplanes and trains and boats.
It stops at the red light, and you can tell him about
Garrett Morgan, a black man who invented the stop sign,
the stop signal, and also invented the gas mask, saved
lots of lives during the war.
You can tell him about Henrietta Bradbury, a black woman
who invented the underwater cannon, made it possible to
launch torpedoes from submarines. And a black woman is
walking down the street--a black man did not invent her--but
you can take that opportunity to talk about Madame C.J.
Walker, a black woman who invented cosmetic products for
women of dark complexion, was the first woman of any
nationality in this nation to become a millionairess on her
own efforts.
You walk past the hospital, and you can talk about Charles
Drew and his contributions to blood banking, blood plasma,
and Daniel Hale Williams, the first successful open heart
surgeon. You look up at the surgical light, Thomas Edison--
you didn't know he was black, did you? He wasn't, but his
right-hand man, Lewis Lattimer, was. Lewis Lattimer came up
with the filament that made the light bulb work, pioneered
research in fluorescent lighting, diagrammed the telephone
for Alexander Graham Bell. People don't even know who Lewis
Lattimer was.
You walk by the railroad tracks: Andrew Beard, automatic
railroad car coupler, helped spur on the industrial
revolution. Elijah McCoy had so many great inventions, like
the automatic lubricating machine for engines, that people
were saying when something big in the industrial era came up,
``Is that a McCoy? Is that the real McCoy?'' You got racist
people like David Duke running around talking about ``the
real McCoy,'' don't even know who they're paying homage to.
And I'm just scratching the surface. I'm barely scratching
the surface.
Here's what's interesting: I can take that same walk down
the street for any group, any ethnic group in this nation,
and point out tremendous contributions, because the fact of
the matter is we have all made enormous contributions to this
nation. That's how this nation got to be number one faster
than any other nation in the history of the world, because we
have people here from every place, from all corners of the
earth. This is not a problem, this is a good thing.
Think about it. How many people here would want to go to
the National Zoo and pay money to get in there if every
animal was a Thompson's Gazelle? It wouldn't be that
interesting would it? How many people would go downtown
Baltimore to the National Aquarium, pay to get in there, if
every fish were a goldfish? How many people want a bouquet of
flowers if every one was identical? And how many people would
want to get up in the morning, if everybody looked exactly
like you? Think about it. In some cases, it would be a
disaster.
I think we should praise our Heavenly Father for giving us
diversity, and please, let's not let those people with small
minds make that into a problem. We don't have to do that.
Let me close quickly by saying I really feel that we have
to get this into our young people, this idea about our
diversity being our strength, this ideal about developing
ourselves intellectually. What if everybody in this room,
with all your influence, wrote a letter to Kellogg's and
General Mills, when you went home, and said, put on your
cereal boxes Nobel Prize winners and people of intellect
instead of just people who use sports and entertainment, and
our young people could read about them when they were eating
their cereal in the morning.
Just those kinds of things will make a big difference. It
helped me to have a very rapid rise in my career, and it came
up with my philosophy for success in life: Think big.
The ``T'' is for talent, which God gave to everybody--not
just the ability to sing and dance and throw a ball. Don't
get me wrong; I love sports and entertainment. I love sports
stars and entertainers, but it's not the most important
thing. Intellect--we need to develop that. We need to
emphasize it.
Honesty--lead a clean and honest life. You won't have to
worry about skeletons in the closet coming back to haunt you
just when you don't want to see them. If you always tell the
truth, you don't have to try to remember what you said three
months ago. What a difference that makes.
The ``I'' is for insight, which comes from listening to
people who have already gone where you're trying to go.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, ``Wise is the
person who can learn from someone else's triumphs and
mistakes.'' He said, ``The person who cannot is a fool.''
The ``N'' is for nice. Be nice to people, because once they
get over their suspicion of why you're being nice, they'll be
nice to you. If you're not nice, try it for just one week.
Try for one week not saying something bad about anybody and
being nice to everybody. You'll see it makes a big
difference, and you won't go back.
The ``K'' is for knowledge, which is the thing that makes
you into a more valuable person.
[[Page H2058]]
You ask--do I have a big house? Yes. Do I have many cars?
Yes. I grew up in Detroit. I like cars. Do I have a lot of
things that ``Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous'' thinks are
important? Yes, I do, but they're not important. Guess what:
If somebody comes and takes all those things away from me
today, it's no big deal. Why? Because I can get them all
right back with what's up here--at least I could before
managed care. That's what Solomon was talking about when he
said gold is nice, silver is nice, rubies are nice, but to be
cherished far above those: knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding, because he knew with knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding, you could get all the gold and silver and
rubies you wanted. More importantly, he knew, with knowledge,
wisdom, and understanding, you would come to understand that
they--gold and silver and rubies--aren't important, that the
important thing is developing your God-given talents to the
point where you become valuable to the people around you.
The ``B'' is for books. I've already talked about the
importance of reading.
I want you to know that my mother did eventually teach
herself how to read. She finished high school. She went on to
college. And in 1994 she got an honorary doctorate degree.
It's never too late. It's never too late.
The second ``I'' is for in-depth learning, learning for the
sake of knowledge and understanding, as opposed to
superficial learners who cram, cram, cram before an exam,
sometimes do okay, and three weeks later know nothing. I am
sure no one here knows anyone like that.
The ``G,'' the most important letter for for God. Don't
ever get too big for God, and don't be ashamed of a
relationship with God. We live in a country where some people
say that you're not supposed to talk about God in public;
that somehow, that's a violation of the separation of Church
and State; what a bunch of hogwash! Do they know that Thomas
Jefferson had 190 religious volumes in his library? Do they
know that the preamble to our Constitution talks about
certain inalienable rights that our Creator endowed us with?
Have they ever said the Pledge of Allegiance to that flag,
which says we are one nation under God? In every courtroom in
our land, on the wall, it says, ``In God, we trust''; every
coin in our pocket, every bill in our wallet says, ``In God,
we trust.''
So tell me something, if it's in our Constitution, it's in
our pledge, it's in our courts, and it's on our money, but
we're not supposed to talk about it, what is that? That's
schizophrenia. does that not explain some of the things going
on in our society today?
We've got to get it across to our young people that it's
okay to be nice to people, to care about your fellow man, to
develop your God-given talents to their utmost; to have
values and principles in their lives. If we do that, I
believe we in this country can lead the world to the type of
civilization that this world should know. We should not be
castigating each other; we should be loving each other. We
should follow the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We
should make sure that in all things we honor him. The way we
honor him is by honoring each other.
Thank you, and good luck.
Representative Barrett: Thanks. Dr. Carson, thank you so
much for those words, for that inspirational message. We're
grateful to you.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my great privilege and high
honor to introduce to you William Jefferson Clinton, the
president of the United States.
President Clinton: Thank you very much.
Congressman Barrett, I want to thank you for making it
possible for me to follow Dr. Carson. That business about
worrying about whether the Secret Service would take you away
if you talked too long--if that were true, I wouldn't be here
today; I'd be long gone.
That biochemical description--I've got a real problem; I
can't remember my home phone number anymore.
Senator Akaka, Mr. Speaker, Congressman Gephardt, to all
the members of Congress and the governors who are here, and
our leaders and visitors from other lands, and ministers and
citizens from the United States, I've had a wonderful day
today.
I would like not to pour cold water on the day, but just as
you go through the day, I would like to ask all of you to
remember the heartbreaking loss that our friends in Israel
have sustained in the last couple of days, with 73 of their
finest young soldiers dying in that horrible accident in the
air.
I would like to also say that, like all of you, I was very
elevated by this experience, as I always am. I thought Dr.
Carson was wonderful. I thought the Scriptures were well-
chosen. I appreciate all the people who work on the prayer
breakfast so much.
I would like to just say a couple of things very briefly.
In my Inaugural Address and again in my State of the Union,
I've quoted Isaiah 58:12, which Reverend Robert Schuller sent
to me a few days before I started my second term, to remind
us that we should all be repairers of the breach. It's a very
moving thing. Basically, the political press here read it in
the proper way. They said that Clinton wants the Republicans
and Democrats to make nice to each other and do constructive
things. But then I got to thinking about who is it that's in
the breach. Who has fallen between the cracks? If we repaired
the breach, who would we be lifting out of the hole? Very
briefly, I'd like to just mention three things, and to ask
you not only to pray for these three groups of people but
also to do something about it.
I don't know about you, but whenever I hear somebody like
Dr. Carson speak, I can clap better than anybody in the
audience; then the next day when I get up and try to live by
what he said I was supposed to do, it turns out to be harder
than it was to clap. So I would like to ask you to think
about who is in the breach if we're supposed to be repairers
of the breach.
The first group of people that are in the breach are the
poor in America. They're different than they used to be. When
I was a boy, most poor people were old. In 1995, we learned
last year, we had the lowest rate of poverty among older
Americans in the history of the country. We have succeeded in
taking them out of poverty, virtually, all of them. We should
be proud of that, and grateful. Today almost all the poor are
young. Very young people without much education. A lot of
mothers like Dr. Carson's mother, struggling, doing the
best they can to raise their kids.
We just passed this welfare reform bill, which I signed and
voted for because I believed it, and we did it because we
believed that the welfare system had gone from being a system
that helped the poor to help themselves to move off welfare
to a system that trapped people because the family unit has
changed and there are so many single parents out there having
children, and there isn't the stigma on it there used to be.
A lot of people now seem to be stuck on that system from
generation to generation. So we changed it.
We didn't change it; we tore it down; we threw it away. We
said there's no longer a national guarantee that you can
always get a check from the government just because you're
poor and you've got little babies in your home. Now, the kids
can have health care and we'll give them food, but you don't
get an income check every month. You've got to go to work if
you're able to.
So the people that are in the breach are the people that we
say have to go to work, who want to go to work, who can go to
work. You have to help us repair the breach. Two and a
quarter million people moved off of welfare rolls in the last
four years. A million of them, more or less, were adults who
went to work; the others were their children, a million out
of 11 million new jobs created. In the next four years,
there's more or less 10 million more people left on welfare;
about 3\1/2\ million adults, maybe 4 (million), most of them
able-bodied. All of them are supposed to lose their benefits,
if they're able-bodied, after two years unless they go to
work. Where are they going to get the jobs? You're going to
have to give them; private employers and churches, community
nonprofits.
I see the governor of Michigan, the governor of North
Dakota here. They can actually take the welfare check and
give it to you now as an employment or a training subsidy or
to help you deal with transportation or child care or
whatever. But you better hire them. If you don't, this whole
thing will be a fraud, and we will not have repaired the
breach. All that we dreamed of doing, which is to create more
Dr. Carsons out of those children of welfare recipients, will
go down the drain because we come to places like this and
clap for people like him, and then we get up tomorrow
morning, and we don't repair the breach and do what we're
supposed to do. I need you to help us.
The second people who have fallen between the cracks are
people around the world who are in trouble that we could help
without troubling ourselves very much. I am proud of what our
country has done in Bosnia and the Balkans--you should be
too--in the Middle East and Haiti; to help our neighbors in
Mexico. The impulses of the American people are generous. I
want to thank the speaker for supporting me when only 15
percent of the American people thought we were right when we
tried to help our friends in Mexico. Thank goodness they
proved us right, Mr. Speaker; otherwise, we might be out on
the south 40 somewhere today.
But still our county has this idea that somehow it demeans
us to pay our dues to the United Nations or to participate in
the World Bank, or there's lots of things more important than
that; or just to give Secretary Albright this year the basic
tools of diplomacy. this is an interdependent world. We can
get a long way with having the finest defense in the world,
but we also have to help people become what they can be. So I
ask you to think about that.
We're not talking about spending a lot of money here. It's
only 1 percent of our budget. But we can't walk away from our
obligations to the rest of the world. We can be a model for
the rest of the world, but we also know that we have to model
the behavior we advocate, which is to give a helping hand
when we can.
The third people who are in the breach and in a deep hole
and need to be lifted up are the politicians. We need your
help. Some members of the press, they're in that breach with
us, too. They need your help. This is funny, but I'm serious
now. I want you to laugh today and wake up and be serious
tomorrow.
This town is ripped with people who are self-righteous,
sanctimonious, and hypocritical. All of us are that way
sometime. I plead guilty from time to time. We also tend to
get--we spend an enormous amount of time here in Washington
trying to get even. It doesn't matter who started it.
I remember when I came here one time, I got so mad at our
friends in the Congress and
[[Page H2059]]
the Republican Party because they were real mean to me over
something. I went back to the White House and I asked
somebody who'd been there a while in Washington, I said,
``Now, why in the world did they do that?'' They said, ``It's
payback time.'' I said, ``What do you mean?'' They said,
``Well, they think the Democrats in Congress did this to the
Republican Presidents.'' I said, ``I didn't even live here
then. Why are they paying me back?'' They said, ``Oh, you
don't understand. You just got to pay back.'' So then pretty
soon I was behaving that way. I'd wake up in the morning, my
heart was getting a little hard. I thought ``Now, who can I
get even with?''
You think--this happens to you, doesn't it? Who can I get
even with? Sometimes you can't get even with the people that
really did it to you, so you just go find somebody else
because you got to get even with somebody. Pretty soon
everybody's involved in this great act.
You know how cynical the press is about the politicians.
They think we're all--whatever they think. What you should
know is that the politicians have now become just as cynical
about the press, because cynicism breeds cynicism. We are in
a world of hurt. We need help. We are in the breach. We are
in the hole here.
This country has the most astonishing opportunity we have
ever had. We happen to be faced with this time of great
change and challenge. We're going into this enormous new
world. Instead of going into it hobbled with economic
distress or foreign pressures, we are free of any threat to
our existence and our economy is booming. It's like somebody
said, ``Here's this brave new world, and I'm going to let you
prepare for it and walk into it in the best shape you've
ever been in.'' Instead of doing that, half of us want to
sit down and the other half of us want to get into a fight
with each other. We are in the breach. We need you to help
us get out of it.
The United States is better than that; we owe more than
that to our people, to our future, and to the world. We owe
more than that to our heritage, to everybody from George
Washington on that made us what we are today. Cynicism and
all this negative stuff--it's just sort of a cheap excuse for
not doing your best with your life. It's not a very pleasant
way to live, frankly--not even any fun.
I try to tell everybody around the White House all the
time, I have concluded a few things in my life, and one of
them is that you don't ever get even. The harder you try, the
more frustrated you're going to be, because nobody ever gets
even. And when you do, you're not really happy. You don't
feel fulfilled.
So I ask you to pray for us.
I went to church last Sunday where Hillary and I always go,
at the Foundry Methodist Church. The pastor gave a sermon on
Romans 12:16-21, and a few other verses. But I'm going to
quote the relevant chapters: ``Do not be wise in your own
estimation.'' It's hard to find anybody here that can fit
that. ``Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. If possible,
so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men.
Never take your own vengeance. If your enemy is hungry, feed
him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good.''
Pray for the people in public office, that we can rid
ourselves of this toxic atmosphere of cynicism and embrace
with joy and gratitude this phenomenal opportunity and
responsibility before us.
Do not forget people in the rest of the world who depend
upon the United States for more than exhortation. And most of
all, remember that in every scripture of every faith, there
are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of admonitions not to
forget those among us who are poor. They are no longer
entitled to a handout, but they surely deserve--and we are
ordered to give them--a hand up.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. President, for those
words. And thank you for, again, scheduling the prayer
breakfast. We're grateful to you for taking the time to be
with us, as I believe all of your predecessors for 45 years
have spent time at this National Prayer Breakfast. Thank you
so much.
Senator Daniel Akaka from Hawaii has been a dedicated
member of the Senate prayer-breakfast group and the House
prayer-breakfast group, as well. He's renowned on Capitol
Hill as a man of kindness and a man of great faith. He'll
also serve, incidentally, as the chairman of next year's
prayer breakfast. Please recognize Senator Dan Akaka to
lead us in our closing hymn.
Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI): Thank you very much, Bill. May
I ask all of us to stand, please; open our hearts, and raise
our voices to the Lord.
(Senator Akaka leads in singing of ``Amazing Grace.'')
Representative Barrett: Thank you so much, Senator.
I would like to, at this time--to deliver our closing
prayer--to recognize a man who has distinguished himself both
in public and private life, the governor of the state of
North Dakota, the Honorable Edward Shafer.
Governor Edward T. Shafer (R-ND): As we gather here this
morning in Washington, DC, I am reminded of greatness. This
is a great city, and we are here as great leaders. We are
leaders of great governments and nations, leaders in great
business and industry. We are here as leaders of our faith.
But we gather here not in greatness, but in humbleness, and
to give thanks. To remember that it is only through the grace
of our Almighty God that we serve our fellow man.
On this occasion, I hear again the words of Abraham
Lincoln. He said ``I have been driven many times to my knees
by the overpowering conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
My own wisdom and that about me seemed insufficient for the
day.''
Mr. President, First Lady Hillary, Congressman Barrett,
Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, all distinguished guests,
let us open our hearts and minds and bow our heads in prayer.
God Almighty, Lord of all mercy, we your servants from
around the world thank you for your goodness and loving
kindness. As our lives burst with meaningful events, large
and small, help us remember patience and compassion. We
cannot live by scoring who wins or who loses, or by getting
even or paying back. Let us live as neighbors looking out for
one another, as friends caring for each other, and as family
loving one and all.
Encourage us to respect, honor and serve each other. Help
us remember it is not the words from our mouths but the
actions we take that will command your final judgment.
As we depart from this special occasion, we pray that you
will give each of us your directions for the decisions that
lie before us, that we might govern wisely and lead well
those who are in our care. May we have insight and wisdom in
our search for justice, mercy and peace.
I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Representative Barrett: Thank you, governor. This will draw
to a close the 45th Annual National Prayer Breakfast. We
again thank you for your presence, and we ask that you go
wherever with God's love.
____________________