[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ANNUAL NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I want to chronicle for the Senate and 
to make a part of the Congressional Record that nearly 5,000 people 
gathered this morning for the annual National Prayer Breakfast with the 
President, members of the Cabinet, members of the Joint Chiefs, most of 
the Diplomatic Corps, and a lot of the Members of Congress.
  The national breakfast is sponsored by the Senate prayer group that 
meets on Wednesday morning and the House prayer group that meets on 
Thursday morning. This year it was the House's turn to be the cochairs. 
We do have cochairs in the House and the Senate prayer group, one from 
each party. In the case of the Senate prayer group, we were ably 
represented, as they spoke from the podium, by Senator Boozman of 
Arkansas and Senator Kaine of Virginia. They will be the cochairmen of 
the breakfast next year.
  It was the eighth time that President Obama has spoken. This Senator 
feels it was the best speech at the Prayer Breakfast I have heard 
President Obama give. It was one of the best speeches that this 
Senator, after attending Prayer Breakfasts for over three decades, has 
ever heard. He quoted the Scriptures from the writings of Paul which 
say that our faith can keep us from fear. The President illustrated 
that throughout so much of his remarks.
  During his closing remarks, he told a story that he had heard a week 
or so ago, and I wish to share that story here on the Senate floor. It 
was about a U.S. Army sergeant whose entire unit had been captured by 
the Nazis during World War II. While he was in the POW camp, a Nazi 
colonel told the sergeant, who was the senior official: I want the 
names of the Jewish soldiers in this unit, and I want them to report to 
me. The sergeant refused.
  The Nazi colonel then decided to assemble all 200 of the sergeant's 
troops in the POW camp in formation, with the sergeant at the head of 
the formation. As the colonel approached him again, obviously trying to 
single out and take and probably try to annihilate the Jewish-American 
soldiers, he again said, as all the troops were standing there in 
formation: Sergeant, I want to know who the Jews are. The sergeant 
replied: Sir, we are all Jews. The colonel then took his pistol out of 
the holster, cocked it, and put it to the head of the sergeant and made 
the same demand again. The faith of that Christian sergeant overcame 
his fear for he was looking out for his troops, and he repeated again: 
Sir, we are all Jews. The Nazis backed down in that POW camp. The 
Jewish soldiers were not revealed and, therefore, protected.
  That was just one of the many stories that were recounted as the 
President gave what was an extraordinary conclusion for his last 
National Prayer Breakfast as President. It is an occasion that so many 
of us join in on every Wednesday here as we come together and put aside 
our partisan, regional and any other differences that we have and are 
unified and joined in prayer. So I thought it fitting, the National 
Prayer Breakfast having just concluded, that I share this story with 
the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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