President Bush has taken part in Washington's annual prayer breakfast. Mr. Bush says everyone in positions of power should be grateful for God's blessings.
President Bush says the annual interfaith breakfast is a fabulous moment in the nation's capital because it reminds everyone that prayer has always been one of America's great equalizers.
"Here we thank God for his great blessings in one voice, regardless of our backgrounds," he said. "We recognize in one and other the spark of the Divine that gives all human beings their inherent dignity and worth, regardless of religion."
The privately funded prayer breakfast brought together Congressional leaders and politicians from both parties, including the opposition candidate from last year's presidential election, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
It also included some of the nation's most influential religious leaders, corporate officials, and diplomats and ambassadors from more than 100 countries, along with two visiting heads-of-state: Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana.
President Bush said the prayer breakfast is an opportunity for men and women in positions of power to remember the source of that power in God's blessings.
"Through fellowship and prayer, we acknowledge that all power is temporary and must ultimately answer to His purposes," the president said. "And we know that affirming this truth is particularly appropriate at the heart of a capital built upon the promise of self-government."
Evangelical Christians contributed greatly to the president's re-election last year and are eager to promote a social agenda that includes amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage.
Keeping with the bipartisan nature of the prayer breakfast, President Bush did not mention any specific legislation.
But he backed the call for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Wednesday's State of the Union address, and also vowed to keep in place limits on medical research using stem cells. Religious conservatives oppose that research because drawing some of those cells destroys human fetuses.
