What a Democrat President did 71 years ago...
American Minute
Bill Federer
On JANUARY 25, 1941, Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote the foreword to a Special Military Edition of the New Testament & Book of Psalms, distributed to millions of soldiers and sailors by The Gideon's International:
JANUARY 25, 1941
The White House, Washington
To the Armed Forces,
As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.
Very sincerely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Also on JANUARY 25, in the year 1952, Dwight Eisenhower was quoted in The Religious Herald, Virginia, in the article "Presidential Candidates Stress Role of Religion":
"What is our battle against Communism if it is not a fight between anti-God and a belief in the Almighty?...Communists...have to eliminate God from their system. When God comes, Communism has to go."
On JANUARY 25, 1984, in his State of the Union Address, President Ronald Reagan stated
"Each day your members observe a 200-year-old tradition meant to signify America is one nation under God.
I must ask: If you can begin your day with a member of the clergy standing right here leading you in prayer, then why can't freedom to acknowledge God be enjoyed again by children in every school room across this land?'...
America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it's all right to keep asking if we're on His side."
Reagan concluded:
"Carl Sandburg said, 'I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair....I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God.'"
A month later in a radio address, February 25, 1984, President Reagan stated:
"The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people from religion; that amendment was written to protect religion from government tyranny...
But now we're told our children have no right to pray in school. Nonsense. The pendulum has swung too far toward intolerance against genuine religious freedom. It is time to redress the balance."
Reagan concluded:
"Former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart noted if religious exercises are held to be impermissible activity in schools, religion is placed at an artificial and state-created disadvantage...
Refusal to permit religious exercises is seen not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism."