Washington Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, a Catholic abortion-rights supporter who clashed with evangelical leader James Dobson, detailed his spiritual roots Thursday at a prayer breakfast with President Bush and about 3,000 guests.
Salazar, a Democrat, gave one of two opening prayers at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Rock star Bono and King Abdullah of Jordan also spoke at the event.
“My own faith begins with my family,” Salazar told the crowd. “My family founded one of the first settlements in America and named the city Santa Fe, or Holy Faith.
“Over the more than four centuries since that time, my family has sacrificed and endured through war, death, poverty and discrimination,” he said. “During those four centuries, we have survived because of our faith that all of God’s children have within their minds and hearts the ability to create a more perfect and better world.”
Salazar goes weekly to the Senate’s prayer breakfast and was asked to speak at the annual event because “he’s one of our most faithful members,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast.
The weekly prayer breakfast is “one of the few places where people check in their partisan guns at the door.”
The annual event gave Salazar a chance to whisper in the president’s ear. After Salazar’s statement and prayer, Bush praised the Coloradan on his remarks, the senator said. As Bush exited the stage after giving a speech, Salazar leaned in and whispered a similar compliment in the president’s ear.
Speaking at the breakfast let afforded Salazar an opportunity to show he is a moderate Democrat who supports religion, said Bob Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College.
It’s “supporting religion, this kind of event, is just the perfect kind of event for a Democratic senator from a Republican-leaning state to appear at,” he said.
This is an enhanced version of a story appearing Friday in print editions of The Denver Post.
