Should Obama Skip the National Prayer Breakfast?

If it's February, it's time for the National Prayer Breakfast, the annual event organized by members of the evangelical network known as "The Family." This year the event has taken on an even higher profile than normal, partly because members of "The Family" have intimate connections to legislators in Uganda who are pushing an Anti-Homosexuality Bill that would institute the death penalty for some LGBT people, and prison sentences for many more.

Since the days of Dwight D. Eisenhower, every year the President of the United States saunters over to the breakfast, chows down on a few sausage links and bagels, and addresses the group. This year is supposedly no different: the White House confirmed last week that the President will be attending the breakfast.

His attendance at the event is drawing some sharp criticism from some circles, including from the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). They don't want the President attending the event, partly because Obama's presence can be seen as an endorsement of the cult-like activities of "The Family."

"The president and members of Congress should not legitimatize this cult-like group -- the head of which has praised the organizing abilities of Hitler and Bin Laden -- by attending the breakfast," CREW Director Melanie Sloan said. Is she right? Or would Obama do well to attend the breakfast, and forcibly condemn legislation like that in Uganda, which has been supported, championed, and written by members of "The Family?"

CREW points out that "The Family" certainly doesn't operate in the best interests of transparency. Politicians who are members of "The Family" have used taxpayer money to fund evangelism trips abroad. More than that, "The Family" keeps the details of their work so secret, it's hard to know when they're overstepping their bounds as a religious network, and entering onto the turf of international diplomacy. "Family" members routinely meet with foreign heads of state, and according to the author of "The Family," Jeff Sharlet, members frequently make deals with foreign leaders to curry political favor.

To pray, or not to pray? That is the question facing Obama.

Well, not entirely. Members of "The Family" don't own the monopoly on prayer. And on that note, a coalition of progressive groups and LGBT rights organizations are forming their own prayer hour to call attention to "The Family's" involvement in persecuting queer people in Uganda (and elsewhere), and to call for the global decriminalization of homosexuality. The multi-city "American Prayer Hour" will be held in at least 17 different cities around the country, from Boynton Beach, Florida to Los Angeles, California.

Here's the dream scenario. The President boldly decides on Thursday morning, the day of the National Prayer Breakfast, that instead of breakfast at the Hilton with folks who loathe homosexuality, he'll drive on over to the nearest "American Prayer Hour" and pray for human rights protections for LGBT people the world over.

But given that the sky hasn't fallen, and isn't likely to in the near future, Obama's going to go to the Prayer Breakfast, and hob-nob with big evangelical wigs. While there, perhaps in between sips of coffee, can the President at least say that what "Family" members are doing in Uganda is not only morally wrong, it's atrocious? That might be a powerful message to deliver to this group.

And an even more powerful message to deliver to the people of Uganda. This President, perhaps like no other, is revered in Africa. His words matter.

His silence on this bill could, too.

Photo credit: The White House