All presidents evoke God but none did so more often than Lincoln. His Thanksgiving proclamation was prompted by Lincoln’s concern that America was losing it proper perspective by failing to recognize and appreciate the Divine blessings bestowed upon our nation.
Contrary to popular opinion, our nation was indeed founded on Judeo-Christian principles. It is the bedrock and the inspiration for our pledge to create and maintain a government dedicated to human dignity and compassion by respecting the liberties of all its people; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” All Presidents sworn into office place their hand on a bible. We have never had a president that hasn’t asked that God’s blessings be bestowed upon on us: “And may God bless the United States of America.”
On February 7, 1954, the Sunday nearest February 12 (Lincoln’s Birthday), President Eisenhower attended services at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. This was the church President Lincoln attended. With Ike seated in Lincoln's pew, the church's pastor, George MacPherson Docherty, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address entitled "A New Birth of Freedom".
Docherty’s sermon was an impassioned plea for a recognition of America’s higher purpose.
He emphasized that the concept around our Pledge of Allegiance embraces the sentiments of almost all other countries. He argued that America had a deeper purpose that needed to be incorporated into our Pledge; “But the true strength of the United States of America lies deeper…It is the spirit of both military and people – a flaming devotion to the cause of freedom within these borders.”
Therefore, he concluded; "There was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life." “What… is missing in the pledge of allegiance… was seen clearly by Lincoln: “under God” this people shall know a new birth of freedom, and “under God” are the definitive words.”
The next day, February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill to incorporate “under God” into our Pledge of Alliance. Congress passed the necessary legislation and President Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.
In the last 61 years there exists no evidence that this legislation has been destructive or harmful to this nation in any manner; nor is there any evidence that it will ever pose a threat.
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the bible.” ~George Washington
1. “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”
ReplyDelete~Founding Father George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789
2. “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”
~Founding Father George Washington, letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792
3. “We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition… In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.”
~Founding Father George Washington, letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore, January 27, 1793
4. “The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”
~John Adams, “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” 1787-1788
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5. “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by Founding Father John Adams