This quotation is on the webpage of the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation: 

“Founded in 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower accepted the invitation to join Members of Congress to break bread together, our annual Breakfast is an opportunity for Members of Congress to pray collectively for our nation, the President of the United States, and other national and international leaders in the spirit of love and reconciliation as Jesus of Nazareth taught 2,000 years ago. Every president, regardless of party or religious persuasion, has joined since. All faiths are welcome.” (https://npbfoundation.com)

In the light of this statement, President Trump’s thirty-five minute speech at the annual national prayer breakfast on Feb 5 was more than inappropriate. It was blasphemous. He used this occasion, dedicated to humbly seeking God’s blessing upon the leaders of the nation and the world, as an opportunity to brag about his wonderful achievements, promote his own agenda, rant by name against those with whom he is currently displeased, and brag about those who are doing his will. (Click here for the President’s speech.) By contrast, the keynote speaker, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, took a bare fifteen minutes to give a wonderful testimony to the reality of Jesus in the sorrows and challenges of his life. (Click here for his speech.) 

The president bragged that he had done more for “religion” than any other president as if that were a great achievement. He seems not to notice that “religion” is often used as a cover for evil or a means of manipulation. Both Jeremiah and Jesus condemned the “religious” of their day. Followers of Jesus are not concerned about “religion” but about the kind of commitment to Jesus that leads to a life of integrity, mercy, and justice. They are more concerned about being faithful witnesses to Christ than about escaping persecution.

The President showed his ignorance of true Christian faith when he suggested that he might have earned his way to heaven. He said that he had only been joking when he said that he did not think he was going to heaven, but that there was nothing he could do about it. In today’s speech he declared that even though he wasn’t so good himself, he had done enough for good people and for “religion” that he had a chance of making it. It is a terrible thing to promote “religion” as a means of strengthening one’s power and covering one’s sins.

The bad news is, President Trump, that you are wrong. You cannot earn heaven with any number of good works. Salvation is in Christ alone. The good news is, you can do something about it. You can come to Jesus. You can, by his grace, repent of your sexual immorality, rapacious greed, disregard for “the fatherless and the widow” (Deuteronomy 10:18), hostility toward “the stranger that sojourns with you” (Leviticus 19:34), unconcern for those being carried away to death as in Gaza, and neglect of the starving in Cuba and the beleaguered in Ukraine. You can let Jesus replace those things with purity, generosity, kindness, and a concern for mercy and justice that will bless the poor and oppressed of the world.  

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)

For a more detailed analysis of the National Prayer Breakfast click here.