The Family: Panama and the Pasadena Prophecy

Another modest document from the Family archives, Collection 459 of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois. These are a few passages from an early 1980s address to a private Prayer Breakfast meeting. They're of significance mainly for the names involved. The speaker was Aquilino Edgardo Boyd de la Gard, heir to one of Panama's oligarchic ruling families and ambassador to the U.S. from 1982 to 1985, representing the military dictatorship of Manuel Noriega, another friend of the Family represented in their archives. He appreciated the contacts the Family brought him with "the Pentagon, the State Department, business and industry"--and the fact that the meetings were confidential. "By and large, the little groups meet on a private basis, completely off the record."

As a result of this association and because of the problems facing the Central American nations, I thought perhaps these friends could be helpful and have invited three of them, General Vessey, Mr. Ellingwood and Mr. Coe, to meet to discuss some Ideas which I believe will interest you. General Vessey has been involved for many years with the leadership/breakfast groups, and now serves as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Herb Ellingwood was a close friend of the President when he was the Governor of California, and now serves in the administration here in Washington.

Mr. Coe, of course, is Doug Coe, the longtime leader of the organization who in his very rare public utterances -- about once every ten years -- disavows any political intentions. General Vessey is John W. Vessey, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from during the same period Boyd was ambassador to the U.S.  Herb Ellingwood was an aide to Family man Attorney General Ed Meese in the Justice Department, who put Ellingwood in charge of the Office of Liaison after congressional opponents blocked his appointment to the Office of Legal Policy--which is saying something, in the Meese Justice Department.

Here's what I wrote about Vessey in The Family:

In 1983, Doug Coe and General John W. Vessey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed the civilian ambassadors of the Central American nations that the Prayer Breakfast would be used to arrange “private sessions” for their generals with “responsible leaders” in the United States; the invitations would be sent from Republican senators Richard Lugar and Mark Hatfield, and Dixiecrat John Stennis, the Mississippi segregationist after whom an aircraft carrier is now named. The Family went on to build friendships between the Reagan administration and the Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, found liable in 2002 by a Florida jury for the torture of thousands, and the Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who before his assassination was linked to both the CIA and death squads. El Salvador became one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the Cold War; U.S. military aid to Honduras jumped from $4 million per year to $79 million. In Africa, the Family greased the switch of U.S. patronage from one client state, Ethiopia, to another that they felt was more promising: Somalia. “We work with power where we can,” Doug Coe explains, “build new power where we can’t.”

That was no joke in Somalia:

A document titled “Siad Barre’s Somalia and the USA,” prepared for the Family and marked “Very Confidential,” is one of the rare Family documents to move beyond what Elgin Groseclose called “the facade of brotherhood.” It is undated but appears to have been written near the beginning of the relationship. Siad, it begins, is the only head of state to have expelled the Soviets, and the only regional leader to offer “full military, air, and naval bases.” He pledges, too, to provide for a  pro-American successor, and to purge his government of all offi  cials linked to Somalia’s former patron, excepting himself, presumably. Then he notes that he has already supplied the Pentagon with a list of armaments he needed to fight the Cubans. Received. 

In 1983, Somalia’s minister of defense went to Washington at Coe’s invitation to meet with the new chairman of the joint chiefs, General John J. Vessey. The United States nearly doubled military aid to the regime, pouring guns into a country that before the decade was out would achieve a moment of unity it has not seen since, when nearly  everyone—politicians, warlords,  children—united in opposition to Siad. He fl ed in 1991, taking refuge in Kenya with arap Moi. One of his last acts as Somalia’s key man was to scorch as much of his enemy’s land as he could, a biblical punishment for a nation that had resisted God’s appointed authority.

Now here's Herb Ellingwood, from the footnote for the Coe-Vessey collaboration referred to above:

Minutes of a luncheon held at the Cedars, the Family’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters, October 19, 1983, collection 459, BGCA; no box number. The luncheon was organized by Aquilino E. Boyd, the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega’s ambassador to the United States. Also in attendance was an  inner- circle member of the Family named Herb Ellingwood, a longtime Reagan aide who had been responsible for “psychological warfare” against student protestors in California. In 1970, Ellingwood was one of the small circle of men who laid hands on Reagan and heard a voice, allegedly God’s, promising Reagan the White  House. (Paul Kengor, God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life [Regan Books, 2004], pp. 135–36.) When Reagan ascended to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he took Ellingwood with him as a deputy counsel. Ellingwood’s advice? “Economic salvation and spiritual salvation go side by side.”

But not, apparently, electoral success: Ellingwood left Reagan and Meese in 1986 to join the presidential campaign of Christian Right leader Pat Robertson. Robertson had a strong showing in the early primaries, but the Republican establishment could not abide a man who'd put morality before money--even a morality that said God wants the poor to be poor and the rich to be rich--and so they closed ranks around a choice nobody was happy about, George H.W. Bush.

Here are some notes I made about better times for Ellingwood, the so-called "Pasadena Prophecy" referred to above, which foretold Reagan's ascendance:

A Sunday. Harald Bredesen, Herb Ellingwood, Pat Boone, wife, George Otis, and the Reagans gathered in the governor’s mansion a month before election for second term. The group form a prayer circle. “Otis, a pastor with High Adventure Ministries in Van Nuys,” recalls awkward seconds that go on a long while. Praying “the things that you’d expect… thanking the Lord for the Reagans…” when the Holy Spirit entered the room and his arm and the hand with which he held Reagan’s began to shake, “tensing,” “pulsing.” He tried to still his arm, but it continued shaking, like a current was zapping through muscle and bone, “a bolt of electricity.” Then, a voice: It was Otis’ own, but the words, tone, the great calm, were not. The voice was not even meant for him, but for the man on his right, Reagan. “My son,” the voice called him. The voice spoke in a diction Otis had learned from the King James Bible. It told Reagan that he was governor of a great land, “indeed, the size of many nations.” But it promised more: “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Brilliant, Jane Brox, 2010

Here's a summer book I'm very excited about: Brilliant, a history of artificial light, by one of the best nature writers I know, Jane Brox. I met Jane a few years ago during a residency at the MacDowell Colony, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. I had to commute down to NYC once a week to teach a literary nonfiction seminar at NYU. One night I drove back to Peterborough in the mid-evening, not noticing until I was pretty far north how dark it was. One doesn't notice the permanent glow of artificial light until it's gone. The effect is all the more powerful in the country, on a winding road between a cliff and a long black lake, where you'd assumed there was no artificial light, anyway. There was. But this night, it was gone, and so the tree branches in the road weren't just the fallen soldiers of a windstorm but sudden, lurching creatures that sprang into the headlights and into the underbelly of the car on a road with no room to swerve. By the time I got to MacDowell, I understood the power was gone, and that big trees had fallen. But from the big house at the heart of the colony I saw a dim glow. Not some warm, welcoming, Thomas Kinkade nostalgia smear, but a flickering light. Inside the main hall I found the artists and writers, meeting by candlelight and oil lantern. And there was Jane, working on her new book, a history of artificial lighting.

That was three or four years ago. I've been waiting for this book eagerly ever since. I'll have more to say when I lay my hands on it.

The Deadliest Catch, 2010

"He will die. He did die." That, apparently, has been the paradox for fans of The Deadliest Catch, a reality show about fishermen. This commentary by Brian Moylan on Defamer, about the death of the ship's captain, is fascinating. It's fan stuff, but it's also a critique of what's at stake in documentary art in the age of reality television.

The Family: Organization

The latest in my series of documents related to my book The Family. This one isn't especially significant except for what it reveals about the historical precision of the movement's organization, in contrast to its claim to have never been more than a casual association of friends. What follows is from the "Summary Report of the Working Session" of an October 27-29, 1967 meeting of what was then called International Christian Leadership in Stockholm, Sweden. It can be found in Box 474 of Collection 459 of the Billy Graham Center Archives.

Douglas Coe described the strength of ICL in number of followers and geographical extension today in terms of Groups and correspondents.  The latter part of the description, he reported, was based on a review of Dr. Vereide’s correspondence during the past eight years.  All names were classified by country in a book that was at the disposal of the meeting.  Groups of correspondents, he said, existed in 68 countries out of 133 and in 15 dependencies out of 111.

Mr. Coe stressed the fact that some national teams set as springboards for extension of the movement in other countries.  Thus, in Latin America, the influence of ICL has spread from Costa Rica to Honduras and Panama, and from Brazil to Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela.  Similarly ICL is expanding from Puerto Rico to the Dutch Indies, Haiti and Santo Domingo; from Korea…and from Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast to the rest of Africa.

The groups work under the leadership of the Congressional group, Senator Frank Carlson being responsible for internal and Representative Albert H. Quie for external affairs.  The leadership of the student organization and labor unions are invited to attend seminars on the occasion of the Presidential Prayer breakfast.

Our movement is not simply duplicative of other prayer group movements, for it is concerned in promoting a “leadership led by God.”

The Two Hands of the Gospel

Part of the Family's defense of its influence in Washington is that its only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast, is resolutely ecumenical. Ecumenical, that is, in that the Family welcomes all to worship its idea of Jesus. A while back I posted this account of the 2005 National Prayer Breakfast from an enthusiastic attendee, who transcribed a card she received as part of her welcome folder: "Jesus Transcends All." Below is a testimony from another satisfied customer, Pastor Joe Fuiten of the Cedar Park Assembly of God mega-church, crown jewel of a network of eight powerful and politically active congregations in Washington state, sermonizing on the 2003 event. I attended that one, myself, and I remember Condoleeza Rice's prayer talk, a comparison of the United States, facing Iraq on the eve of war to the narrator of the old black spiritual, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," facing racism. That's right -- Rice played America as the underdog victim. But Fuiten celebrates another, equally cynical instance of text abuse:

I was greatly touched this past week as I spent Monday through Friday in Washington DC.  Being there gave me opportunity to think about our country and what God is doing.  At another time, when the message is not being recorded, I would like to tell you all about it.  There are a couple of messages that I think will come out of the trip.  One is about America in God’s plan of history and why Washington DC, our capitol, reflects it so clearly.  Being able to spend some time in the Capitol allowed me to see America through God’s eyes.  As a result, I am more convinced than ever that we are living in the last days.  History is coming to its peak and we are part of that peak.

This morning I want to reflect on the culture of America as demonstrated by its key leaders, many of whom I have had the chance to be with this last week. (Don Argue and Philippe Vallerand as well as Jerry and Germaine Korum were together a good part of the week in these meetings).

In private meetings we met with Senators Murray, Clinton, Santorum, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.  We also met with Representatives Insley, Dicks, and Dunn.  We had breakfast at the home of Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, and were thirty minutes from meeting with John Ashcroft when he had to cancel and announce the Orange warning alert.

Our meeting with Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Santorum was my most providential meeting.  Bill Frist called together a group of African government leaders and American Evangelical leaders to discuss the problem of AIDS in Africa.  There were about 25 present.  Before I left for Washington, I had no idea there would be such a meeting but the Lord had been putting something on my heart.    I had asked AG Missionary and African AIDS nurse Suzanne Hurst to write a letter appreciating President Bush’s $15 billion dollar AIDS proposal that he announced in his State of the Union address.  I particularly wanted her to describe why that money should flow through church organizations in Africa.  She sent me the draft Sunday night and I entered the names of each Washington State legislator that I hoped to see with the intention of giving them each a copy the letter.  I printed up one extra letter that was simply addressed “Dear Senator” without any name on it.  Through the influence of Don Argue, I was invited to the meeting.  By God’s grace, I had prepared in advance for a meeting that I didn’t know existed.  I was able to verbally deliver the message personally to Bill Frist and then to give him the letter along with my card.  The message was exactly the topic of the meeting and I was able to deliver it to the man most able to do something about it.  I’ll say more about this miracle at another time. 

The National Prayer Breakfast was an incredible experience.  Any meeting that begins with a prayer by General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in full military dress, has the prospect for being a good meeting.  He prayed, “Help us to be at peace with ourselves and with those around us.”

The CIA director, George Tenet, read the Scripture.  I want to read for you the Scriptures that he read.  Even if he wasn’t head of the CIA, George Tenet looks powerful.  When I think of the CIA in its current context, my mind is drawn to that hellfire missile fired from the Predator drone in Yemen that took out that senior Al-Queda leader.  In a very strong voice, he gets up and reads the following: 

Ephesians 6:10-17 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

            Having read that Scripture, Tenet then turned to Luke 6:35-38 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

            In those two Scriptures you have the two hands of the Gospel.  One speaks of power, the other of forgiveness and loving our enemies.  The Scripture is always powerful, no matter who reads it.  But when a man who commands a virtual secret army reads it, it makes an impression.

Pastor Joe Fuiten

The Family: Reader Mail

Received May 31: 

You have set me thinking about the relationship between religion and empire. Both my wife and I are Episcopal Clergy and after 30 years in Los Angeles we have moved to Canada. I have begun to recognize how my American theology, one which celebrates the revolution, civil war, civil rights... is part and parcel with my understanding of salvation history. It has no traction in a culture that is post empire. Am I capable of faith sans empire? You got me thinking.

I graduated from Hampshire in '72. My dentist at the time had an office across the street from the Congregational Church A-Frame where Edward's church once stood. The good doctor did not believe in Novocaine, I have always wondered if Edward's spirit was lingering around the neighborhood. A sinner in the hands of an angry dentist..

Actually, the dentist was a sweet man who never charged me.

Chas Belknap

Sima's Undergarments for Women

My friend Ilana Stanger-Ross's 2008 novel Sima's Undergarments for Women is out in paperback. I think I would have written something about it here were it not for the fact that I read it around the time my daughter, Roxy, was born. But here's what I wrote to Ilana:

It's stunning! I expected I'd like it, but I had no idea that it would consume me. I read it all with Roxy in one arm and the book in the other, much of it out loud to her. I'd rock her to sleep and then grab the book. If there's any justice in the world -- and there isn't -- it'll win prizes. Beneath the veneer of "charming," as Kirkus puts it, I found a book of surprising pain, reminiscent of Delmore Schwartz' regrets in "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" and Malamud's restraint in The Assistant. I'm deeply impressed at the courage of creation evident in the character of Sima [the aging, disappointed-in-life owner of a lingerie shop], who never grows cute, never a bubbe or a yenta or any recognizable Jewish literary figure; rather a real woman, and a Jewish one. And I think your decision not to really reveal Timna [her gorgeous young Israeli assistant] to us is brilliant; a lesser novel would have done so. I think the closest I got to Timna was the scene in which she tells Sima that it'd be unfair to envy her; but even then, I stay with Sima, her embarrassment, her resentment. Her resentments are profound.

I was impressed, too, by the honesty with which you depicted work. In fact, I can't think of many novels that pay such close, true attention to work, its costs and its rewards and the large but not total role it can play in a life. That's subtly evident in Lev [Sima's retired husband], too, who seems to have been emptied out not just by life with Sima but by an ordinary career as a teacher; he did his work and now he's tired. There's a line near the end that knocked the wind out of me, Sima speaking to Lev: "It's been too late for so long that I don't think time matters anymore."

Of course, there are many such lines. I mention Malamud because he's such a brilliant storyteller without ever showing off. Schwartz, of course, is pyrotechnic; most younger writers are. This novel never calls attention to you, Ilana, which makes it all the more splendid when a line causes the reader to pause, to consider the fragment of things-as-they-are described just so.

I think, too, that it's an important Jewish book, maybe a pivotal one. In part because you describe a world I haven't really seen in books -- the frummy but not frum majority of Brooklyn Jews -- and in part because the book feels so effortlessly Jewish. So plainly and simply and completely Jewish. (The stuff about Israel is very funny. And that's a sentence that's unusual these days.) No shtetl, no bubbe, no identity angst, no folktales, just a couple of Jews in a basement full of bras.

Annotations

Reverend Johanan Ojok Kibuota shows me his well-marked Bible. Kampala, 2010.

David Durenberger and the Family, 1993

Before there was John Ensign, there was David Durenberger. In 1990, the Senate unanimously denounced their Republican colleague from Minnesota for financial schemes sufficiently shady to merit a two year Justice Department investigation. He was also disbarred. At the time this article was written, he was in the thick of a paternity suit over a child that resulted, said the mother, from rape. That wasn't his last affair. One burst into public view when his secretary attacked him with her purse in an airport. He blamed much of his troubles on his wife. His chief regret, he told the St. Pioneer-Press, was that he got caught. But he kept on going until 1994--buoyed by faith and the Family.

It's all "ancient history" now, as my Family friends say of just about any past unpleasantness, but tonight I happened to stumble on a 1993 article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press in which Family leader Doug Coe, seeking to rehabilitate his brother's reputation, is unusually candid. Following are some excerpts.

THE SENATOR WHO SAYS HE IS SORRY//BESET BY SCANDAL, U.S. SENATOR DAVE DURENBERGER TURNS TO GOD - AND THE VOTERS - FOR FORGIVENESS.

--Bruce Orwall, Feb. 28, 1993

U.S. senators have a favorite biblical metaphor to describe the plight of their long-suffering colleague from Minnesota, Dave Durenberger.

``This is our version of Job,'' they say, as one Republican did last month when introducing Durenberger to a stranger.

The allusion seems apt - Job being history's most vivid symbol of steadfast faith. Despite being burdened with a lifetime of trial and despair, he never turned away from God.

Yet each time the comparison is made, Durenberger demurs. He chooses a different Biblical figure to symbolize his struggle.
``Not Job,'' he says. ``Joseph.''

In the Old Testament, Joseph was betrayed by those who were supposed to love him. But using his power as a visionary interpreter of dreams, he returned in triumph to lead his nation, forgiving those who had deserted him.

The ``new'' Dave Durenberger has risen again this winter.

The new Dave surfaces each time the Minnesota Republican finds himself neck-deep in controversy, which is often. This is how Durenberger fends off controversy: by unleashing a torrent of spiritual revelation, oozing New Male sensitivity and sincerity to assure voters that the old Dave - self-centered, egotistical, out of control - is dead and buried.

In his place, Durenberger says, is a man driven by self-improvement. He attends several prayer groups a week. He has a spiritual adviser and a new and improved relationship with God. He's not just a better senator; he's a better person.

Durenberger has turned to this explanation frequently over the years. In early 1986: ``I think in terms of just a `small p' person, I am so much better a person than I was a year ago.'' In 1988: ``My life continues to improve all the time. I couldn't say that four years ago.'' In 1990: ``I am looking forward to making amends the only way I know how: by being the most effective senator I can be, every day I serve in the U.S. Senate.''

Finally, in 1993: ``I spent a lot of time thinking about `The Senator.' Right now, I put a really high value on being `The Senator,' but I put a higher value on being me - whoever that is. And that's coming a long way for me. A long, long way.''

Who has helped him on this journey? Our man Coe, and some of his friends -- ranging from Mother Theresa to Tariq Aziz, a former deputy prime minister to Saddam Hussein currently serving 15 years for his role in the executions of 42 Iraqi businessmen.

Dave Durenberger and his inner circle are heavily invested in the power of faith. They say that a deepened spiritual conviction has carried Durenberger through his darkest days to make him a better, more effective public servant.

``It's his faith,'' says Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming and one of Durenberger's closest Senate friends. ``That's the anchor he has plunged into the sandy earth here. ... He found out where to turn when he didn't know where to turn.''
At the heart of Durenberger's spiritual journey is Doug Coe, operator of the International Foundation, a vaguely defined spiritual center in Arlington, Va.

Coe, 64, is not a minister. He won't say where he gets money for the foundation, which is not affiliated with any religion. He floated from job to job during the 1950s before devoting himself to the spiritual development of public officials through the foundation, which runs prayer groups for politicians and oversees a number of charity projects.

Coe calls the foundation a ``family of friends''' from around the world that gathers to explore the spirit and soul. A key member of that family is Dave Durenberger.

``They're sort of compatriots in a cause,'' says Holderness, the friend from Dorsey & Whitney. ``They're ministering to leaders around the world. I think Doug has been a good counselor and listener and in some ways a minister to Dave.''

The International Foundation also owns The Cedars, a retreat house in Arlington where Durenberger has lived on and off during turbulent personal times.

Described by some as a ``commune,'' The Cedars is nothing of the sort. It features a mansion with a swimming pool and tennis courts on a sprawling campus, where friends from around the world stay when visiting Washington. No one lives there full time; Durenberger was an exception.

``When he and Penny were having difficulties, he needed a place to stay,'' Coe says. ``He was very depressed and he needed some company.''

Together, Coe and Durenberger have traveled the world trying to forge spiritual bonds with world leaders. They have prayed in Jordan with King Hussein, dined at midnight with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz, and explored the power of Jesus Christ with Rajiv Ghandi in India.

It was during that visit to India several years ago that Durenberger met Mother Teresa, and was awed by her personal commitment to the poor. To explain her dedication, Mother Teresa took Durenberger's right hand in hers, counted his fingers and recited: ``I take my hand every night and I say: He-Did-This-For-Me.'' Then she grabbed Durenberger's left hand and counted: ``Then I say to myself: I-Did-What-For-Him.''

``Dave didn't wash his hand for two days,'' Coe says.

The two men have spent long hours together at The Cedars, on what they both describe as an earnest quest to change

Durenberger for the better. The Dave Durenberger that Doug Coe knows does not blame others for his downfall: ``He's saying, `Look, there's something must be wrong with me that I get myself into this sort of stuff.'''

The article continues with Durenberger's childhood as the son of a legendary Minnesota football coach. No special trauma, but Coe works what Durenberger has given him.

Coe, the spiritual adviser, explains the fallout of Durenberger's self-esteem problem with a long discourse on the importance of children being touched and loved. He likens Durenberger's upbringing to that of inner-city children from fractured homes who witness a world of violence and drugs.

``These little children are very emotionally scarred,'' Coe says. ``Now, you say that David didn't come from that. But I don't see any difference in my experience. ... He didn't ever learn about intimacy.''

The resulting scars left Durenberger unable to confront his problems directly, Coe says. And in the depths of a midlife crisis, Durenberger's actions often made him look like a hypocrite. Even as he told the public he was improving his life, he was having an affair and signing off on questionable business deals.

``He would tell you that he was not practicing, in a personal way, his Catholicism or his faith,'' Coe says. ``He would have a technical belief that (his actions were) wrong, just like Prince Charles has a technical belief that he appears and takes communion and does all the things right - but he has a regular bevy of women and so on. He was, I would think, very much like that, just like most of the ballplayers and the Redskins. That's kind of that Kennedy thing.''

Durenberger often avoids confronting people or problems directly - behavior that creates the impression he is dodging accountability. But Coe says it is a form of emotional denial, a trait that has allowed Durenberger to dodge deep pain.

``One of the reasons, in my view, that he's having trouble is that he doesn't want to be hurt anymore,'' Coe says, ``That's not excusing. That's just to say that that's what he has to battle within himself.''

But that was then. According to Coe and Durenberger himself, the new Dave Durenberger of 1993 has won his battle against low self-confidence. His strong spirituality now allows him to experience life in a way he has never known.

``This spiritual experience is giving him, for the first time, the capacity to be intimate,'' Coe says. ``He feels this is the first time he's ever had it, and he's very excited about it. He feels like he's getting a new lease on life in his relationship with God and people.''

...

Doug Coe has faith that his friend and spiritual confidant, Dave Durenberger, will be the Charles Colson of the 1990s.

Colson was the callous White House special counsel under Richard Nixon, best remembered for maintaining Nixon's ``enemies list.'' After serving a prison term for his role in the Watergate coverup, Colson accepted Jesus Christ and now runs a widely acclaimed prison ministry. Coe thinks that Durenberger, like Colson, will overcome the bad influences that have controlled him, and emerge a finer person.

``Everybody wrote every day about what a rat (Colson) was,'' Coe says. ``He was a rat, and he did all those things and a lot more things people don't know about. The thing is, some people are defeated by their errors. Other people grow.

``We're in a process where David is learning and growing. I don't think there's much more that can hurt him.''

A Family Adventure

Following is an account of the 2005 National Prayer Breakfast preserved in a screen save by Chris Rodda of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. I'm reproducing it in near entirety, without commentary -- it's a fascinating document on its own. I will bold some passages, though, and some names, that give a sense of the author's experience of this ostensibly "ecumenical" event


NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
WASHINGTON DC
February 1-4, 2005
 
We never even knew to put this on our wish list of things to do in our life of adventure…till Ike and Trisha Thomas asked us to go to the 53rd National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC.  The experience is beyond what we could hope or think or ask.  Thank you Lord and thank you Ike and Trisha....
 
Sister picked us up at 8:50 on Tuesday for our American Airlines 11:24 flight to Baltimore where our chauffeur awaited, sign in hand… “Ike Thomas”…that would be us.  Baggage collected, we stepped into a gorgeous DC day and into a realllly long black stretch limo.  Trisha had gotten their number from a friend and decided to upgrade at the last minute.  Now that girl knows how to travel!  Tom didn’t want me photograph the limo…might be too big-shotty, but I did get a couple of interior pics.  We traveled the hour and fifteen minute trip through snow covered landscapes and time as Ike told us stories of his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Bill and Karyn Frist; how they met; of the Frist's family's medical heritage; Bill's double major in medicine and political science; Bill's establishment of a heart transplant unit at Vanderbilt University;  Bill's performing volunteer medical services in third world countries each summer; and Bill's venture into politics where he won his first Tennessee Senate race against a strong incumbent.  We would be having dinner with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and his wife Karyn later that night.
 
We arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel around 4:00, freshened up and met downstairs to pick up our Prayer Breakfast packets.  Wow…the first thing we noticed inside our folders was the “Jesus Transcends All” card. “Jesus Christ transcends all religions! Judaism – Islam – Buddhism – Hinduism…He is greater than all these – including Christianity.  Religions are the inventions of men.  They may begin with a great leader in mind – Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha… But human traditions soon reduces the original to a mere set of ethical standards and a dead letter of the law which no one can follow.  The original sin was not murder, adultery or any other action we call sin.  The original sin was, and still is, the human choice to be one’s own god – to control one’s own life – to be in charge – to be religious.  Rising out of this choice evolved religion: mankind’s attempt to please God.   Jesus transcends religion because he is the incarnation of all that is true, good, loving, gently, tender, thoughtful, caring, courteous and selfless.  Jesus does not want you to become a Christian.  He wants you to become a new creation!  There is a great difference between the two.”  Dr. Richard C. Halverson.
 
Wow…so this is how they approach the multi-faiths attending the Prayer Breakfast.  There would be Muslims, Hindu, Jews, Christians…people from entirely different backgrounds and beliefs.  Some come for the experience and adventure of meeting people from around the world, praying the Holy Spirit will touch lives. Others come for the honor of being included in this event where heads of states and those of political and spiritual position will be attending…even knowing Jesus’ name will be lifted up, they come.  Wow.
 
Looking further in our packet… “The Strategy of Jesus”, “Remarks of President Ronald Reagan” and the Vision, Message, Purpose and Power of Agreement of “The National Prayer Breakfast Seminar”.  This pamphlet includes eight New Testament scriptures and one Old Testament.  We admired the subtle boldness and wondered if the foreign packets were the same as ours.
 
Time to depart for dinner at 6:00.  We caught a cab to the restaurant and were given a table upstairs overlooking the park.  We hadn’t eaten since our Friday’s carry-on box lunches on the plane and were ready for a quality meal.  Shortly after our arrival, two secret service men arrived and remained stationed at the top of the stairs facing our table.  Then Trisha’s sister, Karyn Frist, and her husband Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, arrived.  As we dined and conversed, Bill was staying in touch with the Senate via his Blackberry wireless.  “Sorry…just shutting down the Senate for the day.” What interesting folks.  We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and conversation.  They had just been to a wrestling match….wrestling match?  Both Tom and I pictured WWF or perhaps Suma.  But they had just come from one of their son’s wrestling matches.  In the midst of political life, the Frists take time for family.  Balance…one of the things we continue to pursue. Bill was kind enough to autograph a business card for our good friend Joe Mullens who is a big fan.  Joe will just die.  Following dessert we took a group picture and headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we’d meet up with Ike and Trisha at 10:00 A.M.
 
...
 
Our tour of the Capitol began and ended in the Senate Majority Leader's (Frist) suite.  When we first arrived, Speaker of the House Dennis Hasertt and Congressional Majority Leader Tom DeLay and several others came through  the office for a meeting in the Frist conference room. Brook Whitfield, Senator Frist’s assistant, gave us a VIP tour...
 
Returning to the Senator’s office to retrieve our purses and Tom’s hat, we took pictures in Senator Frist's private office which Karyn had decorated beautifully.  A treasure of art and furniture is available in the federal warehouses for use in the offices; Karyn had done a spectacular job of selecting pieces and arranging a perfect office environment for Bill and his guests.  Personal things made it his…a Covelle, a Granbury artist, sculpture of Travis …family photos in the book shelf… one of Ike and Trisha with Karyn and Bill and of course pictures of their three sons…and in the another book shelf, the books Bill had written.  The man is amazing.  In the course of conversation at the dinner Tuesday night, it was evident the Senator had no clue as to who Sharon Stone and other Hollywood personas are...because there is little time for T.V. and movies when time is so filled with other things.  We salute you, Bill…that says a lot about the man...
 
Ike and Trisha went back to the hotel to rest-up for their exciting evening (attending the State of the Union address) while Tom and I took advantage of our time to visit the Lincoln Memorial.  I love that man.  And the Vietnam Memorial, which brought me to tears.  I thought of the fun I was having while they paid with their lives serving our country. 
  
A quarter to four we took a taxi to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office where we met up with Ike. (Trisha went to the Ladies venue that included her sister, Karyn, as one of the speakers…we wanted to do both, but they were scheduled at the same time.)  Her office had extended invitations to the Texas guests of the Prayer Breakfast.  We found Kay to be diminutive and delightful.  As some asked politically based questions, I asked how much the cleaning bill was on the suit she wore in the christening picture above her fireplace.  She laughed and related she had tried three times to break the bottle whose contents burst into activity with every swing and upon the successful contact, filled the air and the Senator’s hair and suit with its bounty.  The papers the next day said she had christened herself.  Cal Thomas, America’s leading political columnist also spoke.  Both told of their belief in Christ and their participation in spiritual things in DC….the Senators have a weekly prayer breakfast and Cal has prayer lunches and invites both Christians and heathens of the media.  We had our picture made with the Senator in front of the United States and Texas flags by a professional photographer.  The pictures are being mailed. 
 
Back to the Hilton where small dinners were being held.  We joined about a hundred and fifty new friends from Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas in the Jefferson East Room.  Eighty percent of the room were Texans.  Great Racer Denny Pearce gave us a great big welcome hug.  He emceed the dinner and also hosted Texas Suite.  We sat by new friends on our left Debbie and George Lee, a banker from Houston, and on our right Mark and Debbie Littlestar from Boerne, friends of our good friends Mike and Tracy Kinchin of Fredricksburg.  Next to them were new friends Tom and Linda Wilson of Ft. Worth.  They’ve been with Young Life for thirty years.  Across from us sat Boone and Peggy Powell.  I knew Peggy from Bible Study at Anne Miller’s some fifteen years ago.  Then Kurt, the youth minister from our Dallas church, Northwest Bible, came in.  What a small world we live in. 
 
There was a table of guests from Argentina, one spoke….and the keynote speaker was Jock, a handsome young dynamic man from Australia, whose father had attended the National Prayer Breakfast years ago and returned a new Christian.  Since that time the son and speaker became a Christian and has traveled throughout the world encouraging other countries to take up the torch of Prayer Breakfasts in their countries.  Jock's home in Australia is always full of guests he’s met on his journeys.
 
After a delicious dinner of chicken on rice and a yummy ice cream cake dessert, the Texans retired to the Texas Suite on the seventh floor to watch the State of the Union Address.  We kept watching for Ike’s big smile and shiny head.  Later we learned he and Trisha had sat about 10 seats behind the First Lady.  We were all so proud of our President.
 
Thursday morning we dressed for the National Prayer Breakfast.  No purse, no cameras… long lines to go through security.  We arrived at 6:45 for a 7:30 breakfast.  Even-numbered tickets sat in the International Ballroom, the largest in DC, and odd numbers sat in the overflow ballroom downstairs and watched via multi-media.
 We were table number two-sixty-eight…Ike and Trisha, number one-thirty-nine.  The tables were set beautifully with perfectly ripened fruits, granola, bagels and sweet rolls, and beverages.  I had two large strawberries.  We sat by new (and really cool) friends Richard and Susan Davis who have a church in Zurich Switzerland.  He sold his Harley just before they moved there seven years ago.  It would be fun to rent a motorcycle in Europe and visit them.  They are central to so many day trips into the Alps and other countries.
 
The Prayer Breakfast began with black singer Wintley Phipps (amazing).  The pre-breakfast prayer was given by  Emanuel Cleaver, House of Representatives, Missouri; opening remarks by Jo Ann Emerson, House of Representatives, Missouri; the opening prayer was given by Tom Osborne, House of Representatives, Nebraska; opening remarks – Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; Senator Dianne Feinstein gave a reading from  Jewish spiritual literature; Wintley Phipps sang again; Army Sergeant Douglas Norman read from the Bible; Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, a Christian, prayed for our national leaders; Tony Hall, Ambassador, United States Mission to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies gave the main message.  He was awesome.  Tom told me while Tony was serving in the House of Representatives he had gone on a hunger strike until  legislation was passed to help starving children in Ethopia who were literally dying by the thousands daily.  He didn't eat for thirty days; then our President, George W. Bush spoke to our hearts.  His message is included in another section of this book; Wintley Phipps then sang the most amazing Amazing Grace.  Wintley pointed out it was written by the Captain of a slave ship and many think the melody is an African chant.  He began the song with a chant of sorts in his deep rich baritone…sang the hymn as a Negro Spiritual….it was awesome.  Lincoln Davis, House of Representatives, Tennessee closed in prayer.  Most Impressive...Each prayer lifted Jesus name and was given in His name.  No "side-steps" were made in deference to our guests from other nations and faiths.  To You be the glory, Lord.
 
I whispered in Tom’s ear I was going to make a quick trip to the Ladies Room before we were served, to which is response was, “We’ve eaten.”  I later learned those in the downstairs ballroom viewing by screens were served a full breakfast to my two strawberries.  Ike and Trisha said they should have warned us.  We met them up near the stage and as we exited I got to speak to Chuck Colson, telling him we still use his taped talk comparing the Watergate 12 to the disciples.  We had seen him at the Interstate Batteries Convention in Orlando.  What an incredible ministry he has.
 
The Texas Suite was next on our personal agenda.  We met fascinating folks from Houston, Louise, daughter Vicki and her aunt Carolyn, who kept us entertained for the next hour and a half.  Ike and Trisha joined us briefly, then took off for a meeting with retiring Attorney General John Ashcroft, who spoke to an intimate group of about thirty.  Between meals various small groups of spiritual leaders met in the mini-meeting rooms.
 
Lunch was back in the International Ballroom.  It was by far our best meal of the trip…main course – salmon…my favorite.  Amazing that a wait staff of two hundred served three thousand a hot meal so efficiently.  Rick Warren, who wrote Purpose Driven Live and Purpose Driven Church, spoke followed by the keynote speaker, the President of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro Joest of the National Party  – a Christian. 
 
We anticipated a late night so we all took long naps after lunch, and met up for dinner back in the International Ballroom.  Tom and I met the most interesting lady, Pauletta from DC, who teaches defense in the Department of Defense and who travels to many foreign nations in upheaval.  I asked if she was a Black Belt, to which she answered, “Surrounding yourself with men with guns is the best protection.”  To my left was new friend Lynda Keese who lives in DC …and next to her was her new friend Carol from Oklahoma.  We had steak, mashed potatoes and green beans and the best dessert – my favorite – chocolate mousse cake.  Ike and Trisha were at the table next to us and when they rose at 7:30, so did we.  A seven-time dove winner was performing and we missed the speaker, now Chaplain of the Senate, Barry Black, but we had a dessert date at the Frists.
 
Ike and Trisha’s friends Warren and Lenore Carter, who provided our four invitations this year, picked us up at the front door.  We drove past the National Cathedral, where Ronald Reagan’s funeral had been held, and arrived at the Frist’s right on time – 8:00.... 
 
Bill gathered us all in the dessert room to welcome us and thank us for coming to a no-agenda gathering of Christians (most of whom were spiritual leaders) from various parts of the United States.  After his talk, Franklin Graham led us in prayer for the future of Bill and Karyn…and for each guest present and for their ministries.  Tom and I made note to add Bill and Karyn to our daily prayer list right behind the President.  It would be so awesome if the office of the President continued to be filled with God fearing committed Christians who consult our Father for direction and wisdom and who will run the country on Christian principles.  At dinner on Tuesday night we had repeated the words of one of Bill’s fans who had said… “You go for it!”
 
Among the guests were Franklin Graham (Billy Graham’s son); Luis Palau (Evangelistic Association); Chuck Colson (Prison Fellowship Ministry); David Barton (Wall-Builders); Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life); Lloyd John Ogilvie (Author and past Chaplain of the Senate); Ted Haggard (President of the National Association) and Richard Land (President of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention).  All of these men would be among the list of twenty-five most influential evangelicals in the February seventh issue of Time Magazine currently on stands…five of them are on the cover.  May the Lord continue to empower them for reaching the world for Christ through their various ministries.   We also met other pastors we just fell in love with…especially the black ministers.  Their hearts and love for Christ literally beamed on their faces.  What an open book and joy filled soul they each had. 
 
One of our favorites was Wellington Boone, a pastor from Norcross, Georgia.  He has written a book published by Doubleday called “Your Wife Ain’t Your Mama” and promised to send us a copy.  His new book on shelves soon is titled “Woman – The King Maker”.
 
We missed David Barton…Ike saw him leaving before we got into the other room to even know he was there.  What a shame as he lives just down the road from us in Aledo, and we’ve used his video transcripts on America’s Godly Heritage in our Bible Study at the UpTop.  Now there’s a man everyone needs to listen to.  Our government has gotten our heritage so mixed up, and he reminds us of the documents, actions and beliefs of our founders and fore-fathers.
 
I visited with Franklin Graham.  “Franklin, I had the honor of hearing your Daddy at the Lobo Stadium in Longview, Texas, circa 1958, and they were coming forward by the hundreds even back then.”  He responded with enthusiasm… “You’re from Longview?  I went to Le Tourneau Tech for two years and still fly back in and get some Bodacious BBQ to go.”  I told him I had lived in the Le Tourneau barracks when my daddy was going to school there.  And how was his Daddy?  He had missed his first Prayer Breakfast this year.  He said he was doing OK.  I thanked him for all he does in the name of Christ.
 
We talked to Chuck Colson.  Tom asked Chuck for advice on how to begin a ministry in the Granbury jail as our new Christian sheriff, Gene Mayo is wide open for Jesus. Chuck referred us to the Prison Fellowship office in Dallas for assistance.
 
Our visit with Rick Warren was one of our favorites.  Rick is an "old rocker", and he is a hoot.  Turns out he plays the guitar and when we told him about Granbury Live, Rick  said he would come to Granbury if he could play onstage.  Tom told him, "Consider it done, you'll be perfect with Mo and Bro, the Blue Suede Brothers."
 
We finished our evening with a few pictures with new friends and a thank you to our hosts for an incredible evening in their beautiful home Karyn had decorated perfectly.  To the hotel and in bed by midnight.
 
Friday as Ike and Trisha were in route to Cancun to receive a Turf Grass award for Ike and as Karyn was on her way to New York to a red dress fashion show with the First Lady, and as the Senate Majority Leader attended to the business of the day, Tom and I ate breakfast at Union Station and boarded first class Amtrak for our twenty-seven minute trip to Baltimore.  Tom carried the luggage on and stepped back off the train to proclaim… “The first face you’ll see is ‘My Kinda Woman’”…a line from Granbury Live’s “God Bless Texas”:  “One thing you’ll never hear in Texas… The tires on that truck are too big, That song needs a little more French horn, That Hillary is my kinda woman.”  Sure nuff….there sat Hillary with her perhaps secretary and the secret service.  We had the option of sitting facing her or going on back to a private table.  We chose privacy, were served cranapple juice, diet Pepsi and the New York Times before we disembarked at BWI Baltimore where a too chatty lady cabby took us to the airport for a full flight home.
 
Sister picked us up, and we stopped for the much missed Mexican food of Abuelo’s and then home to the more than missed Granbury Live Family…where we played “God Bless Texas” and the lines “what you’ll never hear in Texas.”
 
Thank you Lord for a blessed adventure with Ike and Trisha, and thank you Ike and Trisha for choosing us to share your adventure, making it ours.  It was a blast!
 
                                              Tom and Sandi