Five key conclusions
At this time of year we remember the birthdays of two great presidents, and because of them we think about all the presidents of our country. It is important to think about the faith in God that has been a part of the character of most of our great leaders as well as of our great country. To document this and help us remember it, I have taken excepts from inaugural addresses spread over the entire 200 plus year history of our country. This limitation of source material has led to some surprises concerning recent presidents included and not included. Reading all these excerpts and considering them as a whole, one cannot help but reach several very significant conclusions.
- Many of these presidents had deep personal Christian faith that is reflected in their addresses as they chose to quote Scripture, pray or chose particularly symbolic Bibles upon which to swear the oath of office.
- In most of the excerpts chosen, the big concepts such as justice, liberty, equality and peace were shaped and informed by Judeao-Christian tradition.
- These presidents expected to be speaking to a people who understood, cherished and were sympathetic to such beliefs.
- It didn’t matter substantially what party the president represented.
- The first four observations were not only true of presidents in the first few decades of our country; they were also true of presidents at various times in our history and of some recent presidents.
As support for these observations, I gleaned these quotes from inaugural speeches from one of Wall Builders resources. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/inaugurals.php
From George Washington’s first inaugural address:
It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; …