A German at the US Prayer Breakfast: “We have a different way of living our faith than the Americans”

Frank Heinrich, a leader of the German Evangelical Alliance who has a long experience in politics, joined the traditional National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C on 6 February 2025.

What he saw he shared in an interview with magazine Pro MedienMagazin, translated by Evangelical Focus.

Question. Mr Heinrich, you attended the National Prayer Breakfast. What was your impression?

Answer. I generally felt very comfortable at the Prayer Breakfast. People meet here on the basis of their encounter with Jesus of Nazareth and ask themselves how they can follow him and love their neighbour as themselves. This is lived out here and you notice it in the dialogue.

People here don’t ask whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, they make - nice, decent - jokes with each other on stage. It’s a really respectful way of working together.

Q. Things are not very conciliatory in US politics at the moment.

A. Even Donald Trump shook hands warmly with the Democratic prayer leader as he said goodbye. I noticed this gesture.

The only time such a conciliatory attitude was not noticeable and I would have preferred to disappear under the table was during Trump’s speech.

Q. Why?

A. There were sounds from the campaign, self-praise, he said things like he was a believer or that the first two weeks of his presidency had been more successful than any other president in history. The US had been going downhill for four years, but now - after two weeks, mind you - America was doing better than ever before. The two sentences were less than 30 seconds apart.

Insults, contempt, insinuations and boasting were a very large part of the speech. Even though he said things that made me clap.

My impression was that his speech was not as enthusiastically received as it was five years ago when I last saw him there. The whole time I kept thinking about the Bible verse from James: With the tongue “we praise the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God. Praise and cursing come from the same mouth. It shall not be so, my brothers and sisters”.

Trump makes jokes about his opponents, and not nice ones, but insulting ones. I really can’t understand why people still cheered and applauded him so much.

Q. Is the Prayer Breakfast more likely to lead to reconciliation and people aligning themselves with God, or is it more likely to be instrumentalised by Trump and his ‘Make-America-Great-Again’ followers?

A. Trump instrumentalises the Prayer Breakfast, of course. I didn’t see anything like that in any of the other speakers this year. That’s why: overall, this event is amazing, the people who meet here at the table, how they talk to each other, how they organise receptions at the Hilton, across party lines. It’s simply a hit, also spiritually.

Q. What is your conclusion from the event?

A. The Prayer Breakfast is a complete package with many events and seminars around it. Yesterday, for example, we met with the Hungarians as a German group. Afterwards, at the meal, we were ten people from seven countries. That was marvellous.

Q. Is a prayer event of this size also conceivable in Germany, where the Federal President or the Chancellor speaks at the end?

A. Perhaps it is not yet time. We also have a great deal of godliness in our politics, which many Christians don’t realise.

There will be a church service on 25 March before Parliament is sworn in. Many ministers in Germany still said ‘So help me God’ very clearly when they were sworn in, even if there were fewer of them last time.

But we have a different way of living our faith than the Americans. But it inspires us German participants to speak more courageously and clearly about our faith here.