WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined The Russell Moore Show with Dr. Russell Moore, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today, to discuss tomorrow’s National Prayer Breakfast, Senator Coons’ participation in the Senate’s weekly prayer breakfast, and how his faith has brought him closer to colleagues from across the political spectrum. He also discussed the impact of social media on politics and the future of political discourse heading into the 2024 elections.              

You can listen to the whole interview here.

Senator Chris Coons: [E]very Wednesday in the Senate, and every Thursday in the House, a small bipartisan group of Senators and members of the House of Representatives gather — two-dozen, often, in the Senate, something I’ve participated in regularly in my 12 years there, and it is off-the-record. There’s no staff, no press, no lobbyists – nobody but Senators and our chaplain, and as a group, we gather to share our concerns about our families and our lives, to pray for each other, to hear a piece of Scripture, read, and to sing a hymn. Then, whoever is that week’s guest speaker offers a witness about the role of faith in their life … and every time that I woke up in Delaware at 5 a.m. during the years I was commuting every single day, in order to get on a train just after 6, in order to make it to the Capitol just after 8 for that breakfast; every time I woke up and thought “really, do I want to do this? What am I going to learn from, say, a [Senator] Mike Lee [R-Utah] or a [Senator] John Barrasso [R-Wyo.]?” I made myself go and was rewarded with some remarkable insights into the heart and the life of another member of the Senate whose politics might be very different from mine, but whose life experience was well worth hearing.

Senator Chris Coons: I do think this reset allows us to focus on the core mission [of the National Prayer Breakfast], which is a celebration of the power of prayer. ... It is not a Christian triumphalist gathering, it is open to all faiths and people of all backgrounds, and my hope is that this year’s guest list will reflect that, that the speakers will reflect that. I’ve offered some input for the President on his remarks and I’m hopeful that his spirit will reflect that to the extent that we can show a spirit of humility, bipartisanship, or even nonpartisanship, and a respect for each other in the inclusive way that Jesus witnessed to the world and opened his arms to the world, and then I think we will have done something good.

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