Eisenhower: “Any Group…is…a Dedicated, Patriotic Group that can…take the Bible in one Hand and the Flag in the other, and March Ahead”
“We are under tremendous attacks…” stated President Dwight Eisenhower, NOVEMBER 9, 1954.
He added:
“We are attacked by the Communists who in their own documents state that capitalism – democracy – carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction…”
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Eisenhower continued his address to the National Conference on the Spiritual Foundation of American Democracy at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel, Washington, DC:
“We are talking about the spiritual foundations of our form of government…Now Dr. Lowry said something about my having certain convictions as to a God in Heaven and an Almighty power.
Well, I don’t think anyone needs a great deal of credit for believing in what seems to me to be obvious…
It seems to me that this relationship between a spiritual faith, a religious faith, and our form of government is so closely defined and so obvious that we should really not need to identify a man as unusual because he recognizes it…”
Eisenhower added:
“Milton asserted that all men are born equal, because each is born in the image of his God.
Our whole theory of government finally expressed in our Declaration…give the reasons to mankind why we had established such a government: ‘Man is endowed by his Creator…’
No matter what Democracy tries to do in terms of maximum individual liberty…in the economic…in the intellectual…in providing a system of justice, and a system of responsibility…
when you come back to it, there is just one thing…man is worthwhile because he was born in the image of his God.”
Eisenhower concluded:
“The challenges of today…are…because…our spiritual convictions as to the worth-whileness of this form of government, weakens…
Democracy is nothing in the world but a spiritual conviction, a conviction that each of us is enormously valuable, because of a certain standing before our own God.
Now, any group that binds itself together to awaken all of us to these simple things…is, in my mind, a dedicated, patriotic group that can well take the Bible in one hand and the a flag in the other, and march ahead.”
On NOVEMBER 9, 1940, President Franklin D Roosevelt recited an old prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:
“In a year which has seen calamity and sorrow fall upon many peoples elsewhere in the world may we give thanks for our preservation…
Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage;
We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will…
Save us from violence, discord, and confusion…
Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues…”
FDR continued:
“Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government,
that there may be justice and peace at home,
and that, through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth…
In the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; Amen.”
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