Tony Hall is a former Democratic Congressman from Dayton, Ohio, who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies, based in Rome. In his gentle, understated way, he explained how 26 years ago he moved to Washington as a new Member of Congress only to realize how "hollow" he felt.I'll patiently await examples of stories like this appearing in the NYeT. Very. Very. Very. Patiently.
"I didn't know God," he said, and "I was tired of my ambition."
He shared how he attended a prayer breakfast, heard others describe the process they had gone through to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and how that event set him on a spiritual journey that led him and his wife to become Christians.
Hall urged religious men and women of both parties not to be shy about bringing their faith to the office and letting it be part of who they are in public. He described a trip he took to an Islamic country where he was greeted by the U.S. ambassador at the airport. "Congressman Hall," Hall quoted the unnamed ambassador as saying, "I just want to remind you that you're in a Muslim country. Don't talk about religion, or it could really set back what we're trying to accomplish here." Hall said he just nodded politely. When they arrived at the office of the Muslim leader, Hall says he was asked why he had come to the country. "I would like to be your friend," Hall said. "I would like our countries to be friends. And I would like to invite you to the National Prayer Breakfast, in the name of Jesus." The Muslim leader got very excited. He slapped his knee and, according to Hall, said, "That is remarkable. You have come all this way to be my friend and to talk to me about Jesus. That is wonderful. My mother used to talk to me a lot about Jesus when I was a child. We should talk about Jesus more often." Then the leader turned to the Ambassador and said, "Why don't you talk about Jesus?" The audience howled.
And in fact we all know they'll be reduced to a local rag before it happens. So a local rag they will be...
Posts
