Back in the 1980's I read an article, which made quite an impression on me, even though I don't remember who the author was, nor am I sure of the magazine (The Nation or the New Republic are the most likely). The writer was incensed that President Ronald Reagan, in a public speech, had invoked "our Lord Jesus Christ." In the author's opinion, Reagan had violated an unwritten national consensus that goes all the way back to our first president, George Washington.
In that author's opinion, we do have a national religion. Every president has publicly invoked the Diety, albeit in most general terms, but no president, until Reagan, had publicly invoked God in His Christian form. It is impossible to examine every presidential address that every president has delivered since 1789, but it is possible to examine every single inaugural address. And by examining each and every inaugural address, all 56 delivered since 1789, we learn that every president has invoked the Deity in some form in his inaugural address or addresses. Let us review some of these inaugural addresses.
George Washington, 1789. What is remarkable about the very first inaugural address is that Washington spent nearly half of it calling upon the blessings of the Deity. Our first president had barely begun his speech when he invoked the Divine blessings that, in Washington's view, were bestowed upon our country:
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, 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
And he concluded:
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.
Thomas Jefferson 1801. Although condemned by his Federalist opponents as an atheist, the Deist Jefferson belied his enemy's attacks in the middle of his first inaugural address:
acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter—with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?
And his conclusion:
And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.
Abraham Lincoln 1865. Lincoln's Second Inaugural address is not only one of the greatest speeches in American history, but is in itself one of history's great religious texts. Lincoln begins by noting the religious devotion of both North and South:
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.
And then he asks the question, a question similar to what many of us today ask of those who wear their religion on their sleeve but spurn the hungry, the poor, the unemployed:
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."
Lincoln quotes Matthew 18:7.
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
But how could a loving God give us this horrible war, killing over 600,000 Americans? Lincoln dares to answer the question:
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Lincoln here is quoting Psalms 19:9. And, still invoking the Deity, the immortal conclusion:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Calvin Coolidge 1925. Calvin Coolidge was obsessed by laissez faire, Social Darwinist ideology, but for that reason remains a hero to today's right wing ideologues,
most notably Michele Bachmann. When he became president, Ronald Reagan removed Thomas Jefferson portrait from the cabinet room, and guess who took TJ's place? That's right, Calvin Coolidge. But reading over Coolidge's 1925 inaugural address, one is struck by a major difference between the right wingers of the 1920's and their ideological heirs of today - the right in the 1920's was not obsessed by religion. Remember, it was the left wing William Jennings Bryan who fought the battle to ban the teaching of evolution in the public shools. For Coolidge and his millionaire backers, "the business of America was business," and that meant more money to be grabbed by the privileged few with little time left for doing God's will. In fact, Coolidge made no mention of God until the very end of his speech:
America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953. Eisenhower came the closest to defying the conventions of our national, very generalized, religion, by being the only President to open his inaugural address with a prayer:
My friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads:
Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the Executive branch of Government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere. Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race or calling. May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.
And President Eisenhower concluded what had by 1953 become the standard conclusion of presidential inaugural addresses:
This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God. My citizens--I thank you.
Barack Obama 2009. In his 1801 inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson saluted our newly formed nation for "having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered." Barack Obama hearkened back to his great predecessor in proclaiming:
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.
And Obama concluded with the standard invocation to the Lord:
With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end; that we did not turn back, nor did we falter. And with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
We can be certain that President Obama, come January 20th, will intone similar very generalized invocations to a generalized God - that is our national religion. And, Heaven forbid, Mitt Romney will be the man taking the oath of office, he will almost certainly do the same - though his fundamentalist base would be overjoyed to hear an invocation to God in his Christian form. But, remember, this man was the governor of a state whose Jewish population is the second largest, pecentage wise (third largest if you inclue DC)
of all the states. Romney knows that Sheldon Adelson, the uber rich casino magnate who was shocked, shocked, absolutely shocked,
to discover that prostitutes were working in his casino in Macao, would not take kindly to his bought and paid for president invoking the Christian Diety. And Romney did, of course, recently praise the cultural superiority of us Jews. So a newly inaugurated President Romney will certainly follow his 44 predecessors by invoking a generalized God, but he will almost certainly not be invoking the name of Jesus.