BOSTON (February 3, 2010)--The son of the late evangelical scholar Francis Schaeffer, Frank Schaeffer, says President Barack Obama should not have agreed to speak at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast in Washington because the secretive group that hosts the annual gathering, known as the Fellowship or the Family, has Ugandan members who support legislation that could condemn gays to execution.

Schaeffer, who has renounced the conservative Christianity of his youth, joined openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and other gay rights advocates Tuesday at the National Press Club to announce plans to hold separate prayer gatherings Thursday in Washington and other cities.

U.S. presidents have spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast since its inception in 1953.

A spokesman for the prayer breakfast says it never supported Uganda's anti-gay legislation.