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Highest Honor: Dr. Frank Wright, left, with Rep. J.C. Watts, recipient of the 2001
Distinguished Christian Statesman Award. The annual honor recognizes committed Christians in public service. |
2001 Distinguished
Christian Statesman Award
Not Ashamed of the Gospel |
Before a packed house in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Dr. D. James Kennedy presented the
Distinguished Christian Statesman award to Rep. J.C. Watts on June 6.
“What an honor it is for me and my family to be recognized by this organization as a Christian statesman,” said Rep. Watts, an outspoken evangelical Christian and ordained minister.
No Apology
“I do not apologize for my personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ,” the Oklahoma congressman declared to the crowd gathered in his honor. He said that while the pressures of politics challenge his Christian faith “on a daily basis,” obedience to the demands of the Gospel is not an optional matter. “You shouldn’t treat your faith like a buffet line,” he said.
And the congressman challenged his listeners to pray for America. “The greatest asset we have is our knees,” he said.
“Rep. Watts exceeded all our qualifications for this award,” said Dr. Frank Wright, the Center’s Executive Director. “He is a committed Christian who is unashamed of his faith. In just over a decade in public service, he has clearly distinguished himself as one of the nation’s leading statesmen, and he continues to follow God’s call wherever it takes him.” |
Rep. Watts began his political career in 1990 when, while serving as a youth pastor in his home state of Oklahoma, he sensed the Lord’s call on his life to run for office. He won and became the first African American elected to statewide office in Oklahoma. Just four years later he was elected to serve in Congress, and today serves as the Republican Conference Chairman, the fourth-ranking position in the House of Representatives.
Dr. Wright commented that honoring Christian statesmanship on Capitol Hill can impact the spiritual and political climate in Washington, D.C. “To have one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill stand before his peers and testify to the high calling of Christian statesmanship is one of the best ways to penetrate the political facade that encompasses this city,” said Wright.
To reach an even wider audience with news of the award, the Center placed a full-page ad in Roll Call, Capitol Hill’s most widely read periodical.
Raising Up Christian Statesmen
Wright adds that such public proclamations of the “inseparable link between one’s Christian faith and true political leadership clearly exemplify the Center’s mission: to raise up a new generation of Christian statesmen in our land who are not ashamed of the Gospel.”
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