Volume 2, Issue 4
Last Thursday the 63rd National Prayer Breakfast was held in Washington, DC. This is a gathering of over 3,000 people coming together for the purpose of seeking peace and prosperity in the world. The organization represents citizens from over 180 countries on every continent seeking “the better way.” It first began in April of 1935 when 19 business executives in Seattle, Washington, met together to face a critical situation in the life of their city.
According to the official brochure of the National Prayer Breakfast, these executives turned to the 2000 year-old story of Jesus of Nazareth at a meal to find ways to deal with the tensions and fractures that often accompany public life. These teachings and principles of Jesus are still at the center of the National Prayer Breakfast movement for men and women at all levels of society in our modern world to find “the better way.”
The first National Prayer Breakfast wherein the President of the United States attended was in 1953. The President was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Every President since 1953 has attended the National Prayer Breakfast. We often quote the Declaration of Independence, George Washington, and the Founding Fathers in reference to principles that unite us. One may take issue with the Founding Fathers, that is one’s constitutional right of free speech. It is interesting, however, to note excerpts of President Eisenhower’s remarks at the inaugural Washington, DC Prayer Breakfast:
“In the company of fellow believers united in faith and hope there is strength for renewed effort to serve our God and neighbor. In such a spirit, the magnitude of our common task diminishes, the obstacles to their accomplishment becomes less and less formidable. This is a time to confront our common problems with confidence. I am sure the Nation and the world can and will find the wisdom and courage, the inspired leadership required for the living of these days.
You can’t explain free government in any other terms than religious. The Founding Fathers had to refer to the Creator to make the revolutionary experience make sense; it was because ‘All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights’ that man could dare to be free. They wrote their religious faith into our founding documents, stamped their Trust in God upon the faces of our coins and currency, and put it boldly at the base of our institutions. And when they drew up their bold Bill of Rights, where did they put freedom of worship? First: in the cornerstone position. That was no accident.”
There were many faiths represented in the delegation of attendees. The opening prayer was led by a Rabbi. His Majesty Abdullah II, King of Jordan, was scheduled on the program to read from the New Testament. The Dalai Lama was in attendance. King Abdullah left Washington to return to his country to provide national leadership in the aftermath of the horrific execution of a Jordanian pilot at the hands of ISIS. A prayer was offered in support of the Jordanian people during this time of emotional tragedy. There was unity in the room for support of the nation state of Jordan.
President Obama in his address spoke of the need for humility as a basis for religious belief. I agree with him. By this, I believe he meant that no one should come to the conclusion that he or she knows God in His entirety, for no human can possibly grasp the vast love of God.
He did, however, state that Christianity has, in its history, led in efforts that resulted in judgment without authority. He cited the Crusades and the Inquisition. He then implied that we should not get on our high horse lest we repeat these mistakes.
Providing leadership in the world today to find unity and produce common cause is not getting on your high horse when it is your responsibility and obligation. Only the United States of America has the ability and the resources to support other nations on a worldwide basis to protect their sovereignty. It requires the U.S. military to provide the satellite communications for the coordination of Jordanian airstrikes against ISIS. Also required is the support of American pilots. The geopolitical diplomacy of the United States allows Jordan to participate in the alliance opposing ISIS without causing a rift their Arab neighbors.
Without U.S. presence in the world militarily, the world would fly apart into pieces. The conflicts between India & Pakistan, China & Taiwan, Russia & its immediate neighbors, and the entire Middle East could explode overnight. We should not look at the U.S. as the world’s police force. The world should look at the U.S. as the defender of cultural security. By this I mean allowing sovereign nations and peoples to determine for themselves how they want to live without the threat of oppression.
We must be humble, but we must be prepared to defend eternal principles. Unity of peoples has never been accomplished without leadership. Without principled leadership, unity will remain an unrealized hope.
Future Nuttle Reports will begin to address world economics, world affairs, government policy, and the national elections of 2016. We will discuss together how world and national events impact you personally and your family.
Whether or not you believe that the National Prayer Breakfast organization provides a protocol for unity, you cannot criticize it without stating the principle you cite that should guide each of us. We should debate policy based upon priorities derived from principles that unite and bind us. In other words, you must believe in a cause greater than yourself. Otherwise, everything is about self-interest.
It is critical that we as Americans decide not only for ourselves, but also for our brothers and sisters in the world, what we want as guiding principles for the inheritance of values for our children. We have inherited values from previous generations. We have to decide-- will we commit to them or do we want to change them? But we cannot leave them to stand on their own because without defense, values will fail.
I believe in the principles established by our Founding Fathers. I am committed to their defense.
Our Founding Fathers established principles of freedom -- the Greatest Generation defended them with their lives. It is now up to us to commit to them for the generations. We must find unity in purpose through binding principles, for without unity in purpose, the greater cause of freedom and liberty cannot be advanced.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?