Dr. Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and the former president of the American Enterprise Institute, delivered an impassioned speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday, calling all Americans to help usher in “national healing.”
Surrounded by politicians, including President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Brooks, who is a political conservative and a Catholic, spoke about the importance of “loving others,” regardless of political disagreement.
“I’m a follower of Jesus — the Jesus who taught each of us to love God and who taught us to love each other,” Brooks said. “The biggest crisis facing our nation … [is] the crisis of contempt and polarization that’s tearing our societies apart.”
Watch the speech at the 55-min mark:
But he went on to say that this crisis can also usher in an amazing opportunity to bring people together, and he pointed to Jesus — “history’s greatest social entrepreneur” — as the litmus test for positively moving forward.
“Here’s what [Jesus] said,” Brooks recapped, quoting from the Book of Matthew. “‘You have heard that it was said, ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I tell you ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’”
The professor noted that these words have had a shocking impact on human history — one that continues to reverberate today.
“It changed the world starting 2,000 years ago,” Brooks said. “And it is as subversive and counterintuitive today as it was then.”
SOURCE: Christian Post; Pureflix.com, Billy Hallowell
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