[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 74 (Thursday, May 14, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1169-E1171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATING THE 57TH ANNUAL NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, FEBRUARY 5TH, 
                                  2009

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. VERNON J. EHLERS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 14, 2009

  Mr. EHLERS. Madam Speaker, I had the privilege of co-chairing the 
57th Annual National Prayer Breakfast with colleague, Congressman Heath 
Shuler of North Carolina, on February 5, 2009. This annual gathering is 
held here in our Nation's Capital and is hosted by Members of the U.S. 
Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives weekly prayer breakfast 
groups. I would like to request that

[[Page E1170]]

the continuation of the transcript of the 2009 proceedings be printed 
in the Congressional Record at this time.

  57th National Prayer Breakfast--Thursday, February 5, 2009, Hilton 
                    Washington Hotel, Washington, DC


  Co-Chairs: U.S. Representative Vern Ehlers and U.S. Representative 
                              Heath Shuler

       Congressman Todd Akin: More than a hundred years ago there 
     was a great statesman in England by the name of William 
     Wilberforce. Some of you may have seen the movie ``Amazing 
     Grace''--the story of his life. He had two great aims as he 
     worked in British government. The first was the abolition of 
     slavery--which he was able to see just about on his death 
     bed. The second was one that is not as well known--and that 
     was to spread civility. I guess that means we are being civil 
     with each other. One of the reasons that I have been involved 
     in the Members' prayer breakfast is because it is a force for 
     helping people to be civil and decent to each other--whereas 
     many other things in politics seem to go the other direction.
       Please join me in a prayer for our guests here. Dear Lord, 
     we approach you today with thankful hearts for your great 
     kindness and love and mercy, which immeasurably exceeds any 
     merit of our own. We thank you for our guests, here 
     assembled, guests who join us from the leadership of nations 
     around the world. We ask your blessing once again on each of 
     us, on our deliberations, and on the people that we serve. 
     Dear Father, forgive us our increasing pride, for vainly 
     considering that we can govern without your superintending 
     providence. Our first President George Washington said, ``it 
     is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible.'' 
     Help us once again to acknowledge our dependence upon you and 
     to seek your aid through all of our days. Lord, you inspired 
     our founders to acknowledge the fact that you have bestowed 
     certain inalienable rights to all men--that among these are: 
     life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Forgive us 
     dear Father for ways in which each of us have fallen short in 
     our most fundamental duty in preserving the precious gifts 
     that you grant to all your children. Please, dear Father, 
     batter down the pride of our stubborn hearts with a battering 
     ram of your tender love. Lord Jesus, in a quiet place, come 
     along side each of us, confront us, forgive us, wrap your 
     arms around us and plant your truth deep within us that our 
     lives will bless our families, our constituents and above all 
     be pleasant in your sight. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
       Congressman Ehlers: One of the most difficult tasks that we 
     have in arranging these Prayer Breakfasts is finding a 
     speaker who is suitable to address such a large audience and 
     to do it in meaningful terms that will relate to each and 
     every one of you. We talked long and hard about different 
     speakers and who we could get. Finally, we settled on someone 
     we were hopeful we could get and now we are delighted that he 
     is here with us today.
       I first met our speaker at a NATO conference some years ago 
     when I was a delegate from the United States Congress to meet 
     with a NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Scotland. One of the 
     speakers at the conference was a young man by the name of 
     Tony Blair. He was erudite, eloquent, thoughtful, gave a 
     great speech, and I thought, ``this is a young man who could 
     go places some day.'' Thank you for fulfilling that prophecy. 
     I was deeply touched by his spirit and his passion as I am 
     sure we all will be today. Speaking as an American, I deeply 
     appreciate his friendship and support for our country and our 
     efforts to extend freedom around the world.
       Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 10 
     years. He described his approach once as governing from the 
     radical center, which is something I believe our nation could 
     well imitate. Since stepping down in 2007, he has been 
     involved in three challenges. He currently serves as the 
     Quartet Representative to the Middle East, representing the 
     United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the 
     Russian Federation. He has been involved in youth sports in 
     an effort to combat youth obesity--and we need you in our 
     country for that too, Tony. And he created the Tony Blair 
     Faith Foundation with the aim to show how faith is a 
     powerful force for good in the modern world. He is one of 
     the great moral leaders on the planet. Ladies and 
     gentlemen, join me in welcoming the Right Honorable Tony 
     Blair.
       Tony Blair: It is an honor to be here and a particular 
     honor to be with you, Mr. President. The world participated 
     in the celebration of your election. Now the hard work 
     begins. And now, also, we should be as steadfast for you in 
     the hard work as in the celebration. You don't need 
     cheerleaders but partners; not spectators, but supporters. 
     The truest friends are those still around when the going is 
     toughest. We offer you our friendship today. We will work 
     with you to make your presidency one that shapes our destiny 
     to the credit of America and of the world. Mr. President, we 
     salute you and we wish you well.
       After 10 years as British Prime Minister, I decided to 
     choose something easy. I became involved in the Middle East 
     Peace process. There are many frustrations--that is evident. 
     There is also one blessing. I spend much of my time in the 
     Holy Land and in the Holy City. The other evening I climbed 
     to the top of Notre Dame in Jerusalem. You look left and see 
     the Garden of Gethsemane. You look right and see where the 
     Last Supper was held. Straight ahead lies Golgotha. In the 
     distance is where King David was crowned and still further 
     where Abraham was laid to rest. And in the center of 
     Jerusalem is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where according to the 
     Qu'ran, the prophet was transported to commune with the 
     prophets of the past. Rich in conflict, it is sublime also in 
     history. The other month in Jericho, I visited the Mount of 
     Temptation--I think they bring all the political leaders 
     there. My guide--a Palestinian--was bemoaning the travails of 
     his nation. Suddenly he stopped, he looked heavenwards and 
     said ``Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, why did they all have to come 
     here?'' It is a good place to reflect on religion: a source 
     of so much inspiration; an excuse for so much evil. Today, 
     religion is under attack from without and from within. From 
     within, it is corroded by extremists who use their faith as a 
     means of excluding the other: ``I am what I am in opposition 
     to you; if you do not believe as I believe, you are a lesser 
     human being.'' From without, religious faith is assailed by 
     an increasingly aggressive secularism, which derides faith as 
     contrary to reason and defines faith by conflict. Thus do the 
     extreme believers and the aggressive non-believers come 
     together in unholy alliance. And yet, faith will not be so 
     easily cast. For billions of people, faith motivates, 
     galvanizes, compels and inspires, not to exclude but to 
     embrace; not to provoke conflict but to try to do good. This 
     is faith in action. You can see it in countless local 
     communities where those from churches, mosques, synagogues 
     and temples tend the sick, care for the afflicted, work long 
     hours in bad conditions to bring hope to the despairing and 
     salvation to the lost. You can see it in the arousing of the 
     world's conscience to the plight of Africa. There are a 
     million good deeds done every day by people of faith. These 
     are those for whom, in the parable of the sower, the seed 
     fell on good soil and yielded sixty or a hundred-fold. What 
     inspires such people? Ritual or doctrine or the finer points 
     of theology? No. I remember my first spiritual awakening. I 
     was 10 years old. That day my father--at the young age of 
     40--had suffered a serious stroke. His life hung in the 
     balance. My mother, to keep some sense of normality in the 
     crisis, sent me to school. My teacher knelt and prayed with 
     me. Now my father was, and is, a militant atheist. Before we 
     prayed, I thought I should confess this. ``I am afraid my 
     father doesn't believe in God,'' I said. ``That doesn't 
     matter,'' my teacher replied, ``God believes in him; He loves 
     him without demanding or needing love in return.''
       Tony Blair, Continued: That is what inspires. The 
     unconditional nature of God's love. A promise perpetually 
     kept. A covenant never broken. And in surrendering to God, we 
     become instruments of that love. Rabbi Hillel was once 
     challenged by a pagan, who said: ``if you can recite the 
     whole of the Torah standing on one leg, I will convert to 
     being a Jew.'' Rabi Hillel stood on one leg and said, ``That 
     which is hateful to you, do it not unto your neighbor. That 
     is the Torah, everything else is commentary, go and study 
     it.'' As the Qu'ran states: ``if anyone saves a person, it 
     will be as if he has saved the whole of humanity.'' Faith is 
     not discovered in acting according to ritual, but acting 
     according to God's will and God's will is love. We might also 
     talk of the Hindu: ``living beyond the reach of I and mine,'' 
     or the words of the Buddha: ``after practicing enlightenment, 
     you must go back to practice compassion,'' or the Sikh 
     scripture: ``God's bounties are common to all; it is we who 
     have created divisions.''
       Each faith has its' beliefs. Each is different. Yet at a 
     certain point each is in communion with the other. Examine 
     the impact of globalization. Forget for a moment its' rights 
     and wrongs. Just look at its' effects. Its' characteristic is 
     that it pushes the world together. It is not only an economic 
     force. The consequence is social, even cultural. The global 
     community--it takes a village, as someone once coined it--is 
     upon us. Into it steps religious faith. If faith becomes the 
     property of extremists, it will originate discord. But if by 
     contrast, different faiths can reach out to, and have 
     knowledge of, one another, then instead of being reactionary, 
     religious faith can be a force for progress.
       The foundation which bears my name, and which I began less 
     than a year ago, is dedicated to achieving understanding, 
     action and reconciliation between the different faiths for 
     the common good. It is not about the faith that looks inward, 
     but the faith that resolutely turns us towards each other. 
     Bringing the faith communities together fulfills an objective 
     important to all of us, believers and non believers. But for 
     me, as someone of faith, this is not enough. I believe 
     restoring religious faith to its rightful place, as the guide 
     to our world and its' future, is itself of the essence. The 
     21st century will be poorer in spirit, meaner in ambition, 
     less disciplined in conscience, if it is not under the 
     guardianship of faith in God.
       I do not mean by this to blur the correct distinction 
     between the realms of religious and political authority. In 
     Britain we are especially mindful of this. I recall giving an 
     address to the country at a time of crisis. I wanted to end 
     my words with ``God bless the British people.'' This caused 
     complete consternation. Emergency meetings were convened. The 
     system was aghast. Finally, as I sat trying to defend my 
     words, a senior civil servant said, with utter disdain: 
     ``Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know.''
       Neither do I decry the work of humanists, who give gladly 
     of themselves for others and

[[Page E1171]]

     who can often shame the avowedly religious. Those who do 
     God's work are God's people. I only say that there are limits 
     to humanism, and beyond those limits, God and only God can 
     work. The phrase ``fear of God'' conjures up the vengeful God 
     of parts of the Old Testament. But fear of God means really 
     obedience to God: humility before God; acceptance through God 
     that there is something bigger, better, and more important 
     than you. It is that humbling of man's vanity, that stirring 
     of conscience through God's prompting, that recognition of 
     our limitations, that faith alone can bestow. We can perform 
     acts of mercy, but only God can lend them true dignity. We 
     can forgive but only God forgives completely in the full 
     knowledge of our sin. And only through God comes grace; and 
     it is God's grace that is unique. John Newton, who had been 
     that most obnoxious of things, a slave trader, he it was who 
     wrote the hymn, ``Amazing Grace'' --''`Twas grace that taught 
     my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.'' It is 
     through faith, by the grace of God, that we have the courage 
     to live as we should and die as we must.
       When I was Prime Minister I had cause often to reflect on 
     leadership. Courage in leadership is not simply about having 
     the nerve to take difficult decisions or even in doing the 
     right thing -since oftentimes God alone knows what the right 
     thing is. It is to be in our natural state--which is one of 
     nagging doubt in perfect knowledge, an uncertain prediction--
     and to be prepared nonetheless to put on the mantle of 
     responsibility and to stand up in full view of the world, to 
     step out when others step back, to assume the loneliness of 
     the final decision-maker, not sure of success but unsure of 
     it. It is in that ``not knowing'' that the courage lies. 
     When in that state our courage fails, our faith can 
     support it, lift it up, and keep it from stumbling.
       As you begin your leadership with this great country, Mr. 
     President, you are fortunate, as is your nation, that you 
     have already shown in your life courage in abundance. But 
     should it ever be tested, I hope your faith can sustain you, 
     and your family. The public eye is not always the most 
     congenial. I was reminded of this, as I waited in London in 
     the snow to fly to America and made the mistake of reading a 
     British newspaper. It was the very conservative Daily 
     Telegraph. A few days ago I gave an interview in which I 
     remarked how much cleverer my wife was than me. The Telegraph 
     has a famous letters page. In it was a letter from a 
     correspondent that read something like, ``Dear sir, with 
     reference to your headline, `Blair admits wife more 
     intelligent than him,' I fail to see why this is news. Most 
     of us have known this for a long time,'' and as a P.S. 
     perhaps: ``the bar has not been set high.''
       I finish where I began: in the Holy Land at Mount Nebo in 
     Jordan, where Moses gazed on the Promise Land. There was a 
     chapel there, built by pilgrims in the fourth century. The 
     sermon that day was preached by an American, who spent his 
     life as an airline pilot and then, after his wife's death, 
     took holy orders. His words are the words of a Christian, but 
     they speak to all those of faith, who want God's grace to 
     guide their life. He said this:
       ``While here on earth, we need to make a vital decision . . 
     . whether to be mere spectators or movers and shakers for the 
     Kingdom of God . . . whether to stay among the curious, or 
     take up a cross. And this means no standing on the 
     sidelines--we are either in the game or we are not. I 
     sometimes ask myself the question: `If I were to die today, 
     what would my life have stood for?'. . . The answer can't be 
     an impulsive one, and we all need to count the cost before we 
     give an answer. Because to be able to say yes to one thing 
     means to say no to many others. But we must also remember 
     that the greatest danger is not impulsiveness but inaction.''
       It is fitting at this extraordinary moment in your 
     country's history that we hear that call to action; and we 
     pray that in acting we do God's work and follow God's will.
       And by the way, God bless you all.
       Congressman Shuler: Our next speaker, the 44th President of 
     the United States has consistently made unity an important 
     part of his ongoing message. His message of national and 
     international unity is one that has given people around the 
     world faith, hope, and the spirit to follow their dreams. I 
     have met with numerous leaders who tell me that the citizens 
     of their nations have a higher hope for the future because of 
     the inspiration provided by this President.
       My own children moved by the experience of the recent 
     inauguration said to me, ``Daddy, let's pray for the 
     President.'' Children, politicians, and everyday citizens 
     around the world are showing their hope and faith, through 
     their prayers for this President. Today we continue in an 
     unbroken tradition of 57 years as we are joined by the First 
     Family at the National Prayer Breakfast. Ladies and 
     gentlemen, it is my great honor to introduce to you the 
     President of the United States of America.

                          ____________________