President Obama delivered remarks at his fifth National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning, and in a studiously neutral speech, drew laughs of recognition from the crowd when he pointed out the contrast between the ostensible brotherhood on display at the breakfast, and the bitter reality that exists at every other time. “I go back to the Oval Office, and I start watching the cable news networks, and it’s like we didn’t pray,” the President said, adding “my hope is that humility, that that carries over everyday.”

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The President largely steered clear of politics in his speech, briefly referencing taxes, the deficit, and education, but only in the most neutral fashion, and avoided the subject of the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, save an emotional reference to “consoling the inconsolable.”

Instead, President Obama focused on the unifying aspects of faith, and in the middle  of his speech, urged everyone present to carry that unity into the world. “Our task as citizens,” he said, “whether we are leaders in government or business, or spreading the

word, is to spend our days with open hearts and open minds, to seek out the truth that exists in an opposing view, and to find the common ground that allows for us as a nation, as a people, to take real and meaningful action.”

“And we have to do that humbly,” President Obama continued, “for no one can know the full and encompassing mind of God. And we have to do it everyday, not just at the prayer breakfast.”<

The President praised the National Prayer Breakfast as a “wonderful event,” but added that “I do worry, sometimes, that as soon as we leave the prayer breakfast, everything we’ve been talking about, the whole time at the prayer breakfast, seems to be forgotten. On the same day of the prayer breakfast.”

To laughter from the crowd, the President said “I mean, you would like to think that the shelf life wasn’t so short, but I go back to the Oval Office, and I start watching the cable news networks, and it’s like we didn’t pray. And so, my hope is that humility, that that carries over every day, every moment. While God may reveal his plan to us in portions, the expanse of his plans is for God. and God alone, to understand.”

Here’s the clip, from C-Span 2:
Tags: Barack Obama, National Prayer Breakfast