Secretary Clinton in Belfast, Ireland with First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness
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 58th National Prayer Breakfast focuses on Haiti, human rights
The lead issue in Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's address at the 58th annual National Prayer Breakfast was unsurprisingly Haitian relief. The Secretary applauded the international response, attributing it to the zenith of our character and the best of our faith. Clinton also focused on the darker side of religion, reminding her audience that so much violence is carried out in the name of God: "But religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples."
Harkening back to her own faith tradition, Clinton quoted John Wesley: "Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." She impressed the audience to do all the good possible and never cease working for what is right.
Excerpt:
After the earthquake, I was looking at some of our pictures from the disaster, and I saw the total destruction of the cathedral. It was just a heart-rending moment. And yet I also saw men and women helping one another, digging through the rubble, dancing and singing in the makeshift communities that they were building up. And I thought again that as the scripture reminds us, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.”
As the memory of this crisis fades, as the news cameras move on to the next very dramatic incident, let us pray that we can sustain the force and the feeling that we find in our hearts and in our faith in the aftermath of such tragedies. Let us pray that we will all continue to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Let us pray that amid our differences, we can continue to see the power of faith not only to make us whole as individuals, to provide personal salvation, but to make us a greater whole and a greater force for good on behalf of all creation.
(2010/02/05 -
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