i want to thank mr. hage for the introduction. i want to thank you for inviting me. thank you to all the religious leaders and excellence that are here. thank you for inviting me and giving me this opportunity to speak this evening. i will begin by saying this. i really wasn't supposed to be here today. we had been asked by the heads of protocol at the white house not to do any official events today given the solemnity having to do with the funeral. we were supposed to cancel all our official events. i talked to the white house and i said, look, i'm speaking to this group on wednesday evening. they said, please cancel. i said, well, it's in defense of christians and i think it would be something that george bush would probably want me to do. [applause] >> and the white house absolutely agreed and insisted that i come. so i want to thank the folks who make those types of decisions tool lou me to be here and speak to you for just a little bit. that being said, why me? most of you probably don't know who i am, and you shouldn't know who i am. my only concern is that som