On capitol hill, Forbes is the point man for prayer

In 2005, U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes founded the Congressional Prayer Caucus, a bipartisan group that has 25 members. (courtesy photo)

By Steven G. Vegh
The Virginian-Pilot

There are plenty of special interests at work within Congress, and U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes is point man for one of them: the Congressional Prayer Caucus.

The caucus, a formal congressional group Forbes founded in 2005 , helps the Chesapeake congressman fight what he calls the “constant, dripping erosion” of the nation’s heritage of prayer and faith.

Just last month , the caucus swung into action when an official deleted “God” from a certificate accompanying a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol .

Forbes and the caucus argued that neither law nor history justified the deletion of religious language . The official wouldn’t budge.

“Ultimately, we began writing letters and getting people involved around the country,” and the official dropped the policy, Forbes said.

Congress has more than 100 official caucuses, each a collection of

legislators sharing special interests. Groups include the prominent Congressional Black Caucus and the more obscure dietary supplement and songwriters caucuses.

The prayer caucus Forbes founded is probably the first of its kind in congressional history, said Laura Olson , a Clemson University political scientist.

The caucus is bipartisan, but most of its 25 members are evangelical Christians representing districts “with siz able populations” of evangelicals, she said. The group includes at least one Jew and one Catholic.

The prayer caucus reflects Forbes’ convictions as a Christian who has taught adult Sunday School for 20 years at Great Bridge Baptist Church.

“Randy believes that prayer is what changes things and our country needs to be on our knees in prayer,” said the Rev. Allan Campbell , the church’s music minister.

Forbes said that after his election to Congress in 2001 , he met like-minded legislators who agreed that America’s government had “an enormous history that was built in faith and commitment to pray.”

Forbes shared their worry that Americans were “losing our spiritual will” even as “well-funded and orchestrated” movements were attacking when and where people could pray.

To Forbes, the threatening trends were cause for setting partisan politics aside. In early 2005 , he mustered sympathetic members and called for action.

“I said, 'I think that we need to come together, Republicans and Democrats, and pray for our country at least once a week,’” he recalled.

A third of his audience said they didn’t have the time. Another third eagerly pledged to attend – then failed to show.

Gradually, the remainder began praying weekly in Room 219, conveniently located near the floor of the House of Representatives.

Once word of the doings in Room 219 trickled out, tips on where religion seemed threatened – a prayer-free football game here, a town council barring prayer there – began flowing from private citizens to the group’s members.

To Forbes, it all made a compelling case for an official prayer advocate in Congress.

“Never before in history had we ever had a prayer caucus,” he said, “but we needed one now.”

The Republican-dominated House gave permission for the caucus in 2005 . After the 2006 election, the House’s new Democratic leadership renewed that approval.

The caucus is separate from the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit that Forbes recently launched to promote prayer by private individuals.

Forbes said he spoke for the foundation, not the caucus, when he led a Capitol news conference last March that urged Americans to pray five minutes a week for the nation.

The caucus, which has no paid staff, acts as a religious Paul Revere – on watch for challenges to prayer, warning members and arming them with information they can use to fight back.

This fall, the caucus alerted members after the National Cemetery Administration ruled out a flag-folding recital mentioning God at veterans’ funerals in national cemeteries.

Outraged, members recruited noncaucus colleagues in Congress to send protest letters to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The department subsequently clarified its position, saying religious content provided by survivors could be read at burials.

U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones , R-N.C., who represents eastern North Carolina, said the caucus backed his recent fight to let military chaplains pray in the name of Jesus Christ in any setting.

To Jones, a Catholic in the caucus, membership in the group is not about politics or religion.

“It’s about whether this person as an individual believes God is the only hope for this country’s future – not Washington, D.C., but God,” Jones said.

At Americans United for Separation of Church and State – a group Jones blamed for lawsuits questioning public prayer – the Rev. Barry W. Lynn disputed any need for the caucus.

“It was created to give the appearance that if they didn’t protect the right to pray, that right would somehow disappear,” Lynn said. “There’s no war against religion in general or Christianity in this country.”

At The Rutherford Institute , which defends public religious expression, president John Whitehead said he’d never heard of the prayer caucus.

But he said it was needed to help fight anti-religious political correctness and preserve the country’s spiritual heritage.

“The people who started the country believed in God and believed it was an important part of American life that you acknowledge that,” he said.

There are probably political benefits for Forbes if constituents know of his prayer advocacy, said Larry Sabato , director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

“Forbes isn’t going to lose any votes by founding the prayer caucus and will probably gain a lot, because it’s a fairly conservative district,” Sabato said.

But Forbes said the caucus is not a vehicle for political gain or personal publicity.

“This is going to remain pure, this is going to remain good, because we believe in what we’re doing,” he said.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417,