President Barack Obama spoke eloquently about faith, the importance of acceptance and delved into American history at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

The event, which began in 1953, is designed to unite political, social and business leaders of the world in one forum and build relationships which might not otherwise be possible. The president’s remarks this morning also focused on former president George W. Bush’s administration’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.

Later today, Obama is expected sign an executive order aimed at ensuring religious groups receiving government money don’t discriminate in hiring. The president will also reportedly appoint 26-year-old Pentecostal minister Joshua DuBois to lead the parternships office. DuBois headed religious outreach for Obama’s Senate office and during his presidential campaign. Critics of the office say the Bush administration allowed groups to consider an applicant’s religion when hiring. Below is the entire transcript from the speech this morning:

Good morning. I want to thank the Co-Chairs of this breakfast, Representatives Heath Shuler and Vernon Ehlers. I’d also like to thank Tony Blair for coming today, as well as our Vice President, Joe Biden, members of my Cabinet, members of Congress, clergy, friends, and dignitaries from across the world.

Michelle and I are honored to join you in prayer this morning. I know this breakfast has a long history in Washington, and faith has always been a guiding force in our family’s life, so we feel very much at home and look forward to keeping this tradition alive during our time here.

It’s a tradition that I’m told actually began many years ago in the city of Seattle. It was the height of the Great Depression, and most people found themselves out of work. Many fell into poverty. Some lost everything.

The leaders of the community did all that they could for those who were suffering in their midst. And then they decided to do something more: they prayed. It didn’t matter what party or religious affiliation to which they belonged. They simply gathered one morning as brothers and sisters to share a meal and talk with God.

These breakfasts soon sprouted up throughout Seattle, and quickly spread to cities and towns across America, eventually making their way to Washington. A short time after President Eisenhower asked a group of Senators if he could join their prayer breakfast, it became a national event. And today, as I see presidents and dignitaries here from every corner of the globe, it strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill.

I raise this history because far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another - as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.

There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next - and some subscribe to no faith at all.

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is in religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

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