Sen. Tim Kaine has decided to not attend the National Prayer Breakfast next year, and FFRF is asking its Virginia members to thank him for dropping such an inappropriate event.
The National Prayer Breakfast is put on by the Fellowship Foundation, a shadowy organization also known as “The Family,” and is largely funded by the notorious anti-gay hate preacher Franklin Graham. In recent years the event has featured pay-to-play influence-peddling, including by convicted Russian operative Maria Butina, and it was at the event that conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell entered Trump’s inner circle. The Family has had a pattern of troubling relationships with dictators around the world and actively exports anti-LGBTQ legislation and policy.
Kaine served as the event’s co-chair in 2016 and is the most prominent member of Congress to walk away from the event to date. Others who have dropped the event include Reps. Charlie Crist, Fla., Ro Khanna, Calif., Ann Kirkpatrick, Ariz., and Ted Lieu, Calif.
Government officials who attend the event in their official capacity send a message that their office endorses the religious message, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This alienates the 30 percent of Americans who are non-Christians, the one in four citizens who are not religious, and the 44 percent of millennials and younger Americans who are non-Christian.
FFRF recently sent letters to President Biden and members of Congress, urging them to skip this event. Please take a moment to thank Sen. Tim Kaine for doing just that by pressing the “TAKE ACTION” button below.
Talking Points
As your secular constituent, I want to thank you for choosing not to attend the National Prayer Breakfast. The event’s reputation as a bipartisan, solemn occurrence is a sham, and the shadowy organization behind it uses that ill-earned reputation to cozy up with dictators and to advance an anti-LGBTQ agenda.
Thank you for dropping this event. I hope your colleagues follow your lead.
