OOPS
INVITATION

Topics: Freedom; Grace; Prisons; Redemption

References: Matthew 9:10–13; 22:1–14; Luke 4:14–19; Romans 5:6–8; Ephesians 4:7–8

The Republican Party mistakenly invited an Ohio prisoner to a $2,500-a-plate fund-raising dinner in Washington with President George W. Bush. The invitation and a letter from Vice President Cheney were sent to Robert Kirkpatrick at the Belmont Correctional Institution in eastern Ohio. Kirkpatrick, thirty-five, was sentenced last year to nearly three years for drug possession and escape.

“I’m going to tell him that I’d be happy to attend,” said Kirkpatrick, “but he’s going to have to pull some strings to get me there.”

—John Bacon (from staff and wire reports), “Guess Who’s Not Coming to a Bush Dinner,” USA Today (June 5, 2002)