Obama Speaks At National Prayer Breakfast; Mark Kelly To Speak As Well (LIVE VIDEO)

President Obama is speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Also scheduled to speak is the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, astronaut Mark Kelly. The president's remarks are scheduled to start at 8:50 AM ET. Scroll down for video.

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Comments

[Marchioness]

12:47 PM on 02/07/2011

In the first and last place, never presume to know anothers heart when it comes to one's personal spirituality. One's religion and/or spirituality may or may not always be shown outwardly, but it's the works and actions that stem from them that counts. Obama has shown tremendous spirituality in his actions and works. He has to also be president which let's face it is not the most spitual work no matter how you look at it. We hope that one's president looks to religion and spirituality in doing the job, and Obama does definitely. However decisions made in that job aren't all religion, spirituality and light; i.e.; guns, wars, executions, bombings, pardoning criminal ex presidents and vice presidents, just to name a few. So that's hard and one has to reconcile oneself with that to even take the job. Obama is a spiritual and a religious man, it's just private and should be to him. Otherwise it can become just performance and acting, which one never wants it to be. At a "Prayer breakfast" and other times, it just might come over him to be more open and vocal about it, and to feel free to do it.

[bbriani3842]

09:19 PM on 02/06/2011

Pandering to the Bronze-Aged, I see ...

[Sparhawk]

04:44 PM on 02/06/2011

2 years of being overtly non-religious in his approach to the Presidency and know he has found religion. Where was

"When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to give me the strength to do right by our country and its people,"

"And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to forgive me my sins, and look after my family and the American people, and make me an instrument of His will."

2 years ago when he was first President. He purposely took a secular attitude towards governance. Obvious to most that this is merely an attempt to endear himself to the 'Religious Right' during the run-up to 2012.

[Edward Standley]

05:35 PM on 02/05/2011

I'm not religious, and many of the more public and vocal religious people in this world tend to really, really irritate me, but I fully support anyone's right to believe what they want and to say so publicly. Just keep religion out of our laws. Religion and governing do not mix well. It's been tried before, and is being done in other nations. Disastrous every time.

[dkinton49]

01:37 AM on 02/06/2011

Edward - have you ever visited Wash DC? Every building in DC somehow mentions God. I cannot think of one that does not. Also, the Capitol build was used as a church all through the 1800's and as late as the early 1900's. Google it and read it yourself. Your comment would make some sense if it said there should be no state sanctioned religion.

[tlaltecuhtli]

04:04 PM on 02/05/2011

I find it scary that he appears to be caving to the lunatic "Christian, family-values" right and is now shopping his belief in Jesus Christ around. Walk the walk, Barack, don't sell it out and just talk the talk. That puts you dangerously close to Ms. Palin's circle.

[farmilyman]

04:21 AM on 02/05/2011

Isn't "The Family" cult behind the National Prayer Breakfast?

[HAlexandria]

06:38 PM on 02/06/2011

Obama is doing everything in his power to lose by a landslide.
Steps 1-5 - Repeatedly alienate your base
Steps 6-10 Pander to people who will never ever vote for you.

[BethS]

02:51 AM on 02/05/2011

A man,half black and half white, whose parents divorced, and left him to be raised by a white mother in Indochina, grandparents in exoctic (Hawaii) and mid-america (Kansas) goes to college-just barely, becomes a lawyer from a prestigious school, works as an community organizer in the inner city, becomes (you know the rest) IS A CHRISTAIN and believes in himself and his God. His winning of the Presidency is a manifested miricle of God-to him, and most of us!

[SoccerNana]

11:21 PM on 02/05/2011

Your post is full of inaccuracies; but, you already know this.

[kylesgrandma]

04:51 AM on 02/04/2011

My feelings about this issue are mixed. I am agnostic, I also believe in and voted for
President Obama. I can only hope that he doesn't use the bible to make decisions. We
had to deal with 8 years of the religious right running this country. We need to remember
that our country was founded on separation of church and state, and religion should not play
a part in any administration.I don't believe it is for show, to win votes or to prove he is not
muslim. I believe his faith is sincere. As long as it does not influence his presidency
I respect his beliefs.

[GravitonX]

09:52 PM on 02/03/2011

But, they'll still call him a Kenyan Muslim....

shhhh, because he's....Black.

[Kelly Cooper]

06:05 PM on 02/03/2011

American society is unambiguous in its demand that the President declare himself a believer. Ultimately, it is less important that the President be sincere in this declaration than that he make it; and so we argue over his sincerity, and the sponsors of the National Prayer Breakfast, without ever seriously confronting the faith-based litmus tests that bar non-believers from holding real political power. It is for this reason that the first President to walk away from these kind of religious theatrics would be doing our entire nation a huge favor.

[kylesgrandma]

04:54 AM on 02/04/2011

Yes! After 8 years of the religious right it would be a breath of fresh air to have
religion out of the white house. F&F!

[RogHol]

01:34 PM on 02/04/2011

Well, isn't Christianity hijacked by the Rightwing-lunatics, like Sarah Palin and her ilk?
Maybe Obama is making the nation a favor by interpreting the bible in a intellectually decent way?

[raker]

04:15 PM on 02/03/2011

The President has no business going to a prayer breakfast.

[sunshine14]

04:48 PM on 02/03/2011

A man of God and put in office by God, and calls himself a Christian, has ever right, has a Ruler to go to a prayer breakfast. Try telling that line to Moses, Abraham, Noah, Elijah, Christ, or Job, or King David. Not our business to tell anyone what to do in their own business. Pres Obama is the Ruler of this Nation. And not just by luck either. Some do not see their blessings when their even in front of them.

[raker]

04:58 PM on 02/03/2011

Obama's being a "man of god" lowers him in my esteem. No one is put in office by god, primarily because god is a fairy tale—that, and we live in a democracy where people are elected by us humans. It is our business to tell the President (we don't use the bible lingo "ruler," as a rule) that we object to his pandering to religious zealots. He sure would not attend a No Prayers Breakfast with atheists, so he shouldn't attend quasi-official relgious events either.

[Justin Stamper]

06:39 PM on 02/03/2011

I believe in Rules, not Rulers.

[SoccerNana]

05:23 PM on 02/03/2011

President Obama is the president of the United States of America. Here, people are free to practice the religion of their choice and free to speak about their faith publicly as well as privately, and to attend religious functions.

[Dan Jighter]

06:10 PM on 02/03/2011

Yes, American citizens do have the right to free exercise of religion, the right to pray and speak about faith and what have you in the middle of a mall or the privacy of your homes. It's called the Free Exercise Clause. It's also not the issue.

The issue is that we also have the right to have a government that does not establish or promote religion. It's called the Establishment Clause. It include Obama promoting prayer on Prayer Days and Prayer Breakfasts. As an American citizen who does not pray, I find this breakfast entirely inappropriate.

[raker]

06:17 PM on 02/03/2011

Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full."

[ninetailedfox]

04:07 PM on 02/03/2011

There shouldnt even be a prayer breakfast. As far as the founding fathers being men of faith here are some quotes from the founding fathers

Lighthouses are more useful than churches _Ben Franklin
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787)

[sunshine14]

04:43 PM on 02/03/2011

Moses did not go to his room, when ruling, serving under the Authority of God.  Moses, Kingdom, Moses Nations, he lead in the millions, Moses,  whole Government had also ONE faith. Moses serve in God's Government, not mans Government.  Mose serving only in God's Government, God Government  Laws, where- the Ten Commandments, Laws of Precept, Laws of Statues, Laws of Ordinances, Laws of the Sabbath, under ONE Faith, there was NO separation of Church and Government, both were ONE.
Moses ruled both as ONE family. Moses open prayer among the Nation was first always.  God's Government is not under our Constitution Laws, you think? Shepherds who say they are Christians, cannot serve 2 masters, that is where all the chaos starts. A house divided cannot stand, why all great empire governments fell. God is not divided.
Every Kingdom has 4 basic elements. ONE Ruler, a territory, Laws, Subjects. Moses nor Christ bowed to any religion on earth, nor Government, having no palls. Both served only in obedience to God's Government and God's Government Laws-Ten Commandments-laws. Read the book of Moses-all about God God in every move they did.

[huffy04]

05:32 PM on 02/03/2011

Pretty good job at quote mining, just taking parts of someone's quotes out of context to more suite your needs is pretty much how liberals fight, they just can't tell the truth to express their views. Here are some full quotes not taken out of context, and to show you the Founding Fathers did believe in God and that the Constitution was formed under Christianity.Here are just a few quotes.
1.) Alexander Hamilton:• Hamilton began work with the Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help spread over the world the two things which Hamilton said made America great:
(a) Christianity
(b) a Constitution formed under Christianity.
“The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”
2.) John Adams and John Hancock--We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus! [April 18, 1775]
3.) John Adams --Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --October 11, 1798
4.) In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."
5.) In 1787 when Franklin helped found Benjamin Franklin University, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning, built on Christ, the Cornerstone."

[Trismegistus22]

06:50 PM on 02/03/2011

Quote mining of the FF is almost as much fun as quote mining the bible or the Qu'ran. We can find pretty much whatever we want. Extremists, whether political or religious, will justify their beliefs by quoting. But what is missing is the overall context of the times. Extremist christians and islamists refuse to deal with the times that their deity lived in, or the times when their holy books were written (over a thousand year period.) Yes, every signer of the Declaration, the Articles and the Constitution were members of some christian denomination or other. There really wasn't much of a choice. Many of the FF considered themselves freethinkers, a term of the day meaning deist or agnostic. Of course the bible influenced their thinking. It is an important book in our civilization. To portray the FF as men of faith is to miss the point of their lives and their writings and the values they ascribed to. They were influenced far more significantly by the philosophers of their time. Remember the big issue of the day for thinkers had to do with human rights. The "divine right of kings" established by the roman church and the empire was fading away. Philosophers declared that all men (sorry my female friends) had unalienable rights of their own equal to the rights of their rulers. Our FF could have followed their european brethren but they chose a new path, one that did not involve a deity.

[MathIsTruth]

08:54 PM on 02/03/2011

Hamilton may have believed the Constitution was formed under Christianity, but he was wrong.  How do I know?  I read the Constitution.  It begins:

"We the People."  It is a people's Constitution.  If it was a Christian Constitution, it would have begun "By the Grace of God".  But it doesn't mention God.  It does insist on the absence of any religious test for government participation.  It does require that government stay out of religion.

We can safely ignore Hamilton on this one.

[Trailfoot]

03:07 PM on 02/03/2011

"“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

-Matthew 6:5-8

I oppose these events because I am not a Christian. Christians should oppose them as well, because they violate a command given in the Bible.

[SoccerNana]

08:53 AM on 02/04/2011

The National Prayer Breakfast is not "violating" any of the scriptures in the Bible. Trust me, Christians who believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God will not oppose the National Prayer Breakfast.

[Trailfoot]

01:11 PM on 02/07/2011

And what about the quote I gave above? The one ordering people not to pray in public?

[SShaw490]

02:46 PM on 02/03/2011

From "Dreams From My Father"; all the evidence of his faith he ever needed.

So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.


It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.

[sunshine14]

05:28 PM on 02/03/2011

I can see that God has been preparing Pres Obama for a long time, to become his servant. Pres Obama lived, had to experienced both sides, what it was like, being white and experience, what it was like, being black, he tasted both, their suffering. Pres Obama was not born rich, but poor middle class, if that at times. 
Pres Obama had to experience, the suffering himself on both sides, taste the bitterness, innocent suffering, and oppression, that was being forced, on both sides. What it was like to be white, being raised by white grandparents and mother being white and single, and being black, without a father present, doing so, not being born into wealth either etc.  Pres Obama, had to first experience the innocent suffering, INJUSTICE, unrighteousness,  forced upon both, white and black.

Pres Obama, did not live or was born into wealth, living on the outside circle of wealth. But Pres Obama had to lived  right in the middle of the circle in proverity himself. Being a community organizer, Pres Obama was  open up to all different religions, all faiths, he experienced, himself, for him to comprehend all sides. For one does not know, what others have suffered, till they themselves have also walked in their shoes. That is what makes a great ruler for ALL  people. That is what gives Pres Obama is strength is his humility, his knees were bended, a long time ago.

Like Moses, he to was not born into wealth, but was born poor, of a hebrew poor slaves. God placed Moses in Pharoahs Kingdom, that was no luck there, and for a reason. God had a plan for Moses and also prepared Moses, to Rule a Great Kingdom. Moses was to bring Righteousness, to all human beings, equality rights for all. Moses learned in Pharoahs Kingdom, that -greed- creates proverity, great innocent suffering etc. There are good Shepherds and there are bad Shepherds. Moses thus had to  learn first , a profiteers Tree, bares no good fruit. Greed's Tree is called- Barren. Pharoah learned that his gold and silver did not save him, did it, nor his Kingdom?

[A-Superstitionist]

01:44 PM on 02/03/2011

In this country, "honesty" and "politics" don't go together. Here is why.

The more educated you are the more likely it is that you see that religions are nothing more than mythology and superstition since there is no shred of verifiable and falsifiable evidence that supports the existence of any god or gods. For example, 93% of the members of the Academy of Science do not believe in any god.

Since around 85% of the population hangs on to the superstition of their choice, you cannot be elected to higher public office without agreeing with them. So if you do not believe in god, you have to either hide it or lie about it.

How many members of congress publicly acknowledge that they do not believe in any god? Let's say it is two (possibly even only one). That would mean that 99.6% of the members congress claim to believe in some god. This is well over the 85% of the population at large. Since some of them are educated - apparently not many are educated in science - that number should probably be closer to 50%.

From that I conclude that probably 50% of the member of congress are dishonest.

Why would we want to have dishonest people representing us in congress?