--- title: Strange Bedfellows at the National Prayer Breakfast description: The National Prayer Breakfast brings together people from the worlds of religion and politics each year in Washington. canonical: https://time.com/3693659/national-prayer-breakfast-obama/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-04T17:38:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:44.418Z article:section: Politics og:title: Strange Bedfellows at the National Prayer Breakfast og:description: The annual event brings together the worlds of religion and politics. og:url: https://time.com/3693659/national-prayer-breakfast-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e853d5963e27b2/69877d5a0b72e350196dd7ca/national-prayer-breakfast-bono-george-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: BUSH BONO og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Strange Bedfellows at the National Prayer Breakfast twitter:description: The annual event brings together the worlds of religion and politics. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e853d5963e27b2/69877d5a0b72e350196dd7ca/national-prayer-breakfast-bono-george-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Strange Bedfellows at the National Prayer Breakfast by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) Feb 4, 2015 5:38 PM UTC  President George W. Bush shakes hands with U2 frontman Bono, who spoke at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast. President George W. Bush shakes hands with U2 frontman Bono, who spoke at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast.Ron Edmonds—AP by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) Feb 4, 2015 5:38 PM UTC  John F. Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president, eats breakfast with Southern Baptist minister Billy Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1961. Abbie Rowe—PhotoQuest/Getty Images  Elizabeth Dole, then the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and later a Senator, spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1987. AP  Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, a Catholic missionary who ran charities in India, spoke in 1994. Raveendran—AFP/Getty Images  President George W. Bush shakes hands with U2 frontman Bono, who spoke at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast. Ron Edmonds—AP  Bono was also seen with then-Sen. Barack Obama at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast. Ron Edmonds—AP  Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, sings and plays guitar at the 2007 National Prayer Breakfast while President George W. Bush and Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II watch. Gerald Herbert—AP  Vice President Joe Biden reaches for milk while sitting next to former Prime Minister Tony Blair at the 2009 National Prayer Breakfast. Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images  Michelle Obama sits with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was the guest speaker at the 2010 National Prayer Breakfast. Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images  Ben Carson, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015\. The talent show that is a presidential campaign began in earnest Saturday as more than 1,200 Republican activists who probably will vote in Iowa's caucuses packed into a historic Des Moines theater to see and hear from a parade of their party's prospective entries. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693659/national-prayer-breakfast-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693659/national-prayer-breakfast-obama/"},"headline":"Strange Bedfellows at the National Prayer Breakfast","datePublished":"2015-02-04T17:38:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:44.418Z","description":"The National Prayer Breakfast brings together people from the worlds of religion and politics each year in Washington. 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