As we approach Thanksgiving, it’s instructive to remember the holiday was first proclaimed by President George Washington as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” prompted by the “duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”
Painting of George Washington praying alone at Valley Forge, said to be based on an actual moment in history.
Since that time, Thanksgiving has devolved into a festival of gluttony and continuous football viewing, both of which I heartily endorse. Yet as forces antagonistic to prayer, expressions of faith, the notion of religion and mere mention of God coalesce and gain power in our society, it’s important to be mindful of the day’s original intent. It is not a day, as Barack Obama describes in his 2010 Thanksgiving Proclamation, merely “to come together — whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors — to give thanks for all we have received in the past year, to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and to share our bounty with others.” Thanksgiving is not a day to drop by the community center and thank Jake down the block for loaning you his leaf blower. It is a day to thank God for all He has created.
“Reasonable” persons tend to look askance when the faithful challenge President Obama for what we perceive as hostility towards religion in general and Christianity in particular. But whether it’s omitting “by their Creator” from a recitation of unalienable rights, misidentifying the motto of the United States, limiting free exercise of conscience for healthcare providers, or trying to pass off a quotation from Aesop’s fables as scriptural support for his phony-baloney jobs bill, Barack Obama keeps slapping the cheeks of American Christians and anyone else who takes his religion seriously.
From the WW II Memorial. Kilroy carries a message too pure to be diluted by any mention of God.
Now word comes that the Obama Administration is seeking to ban a prayer publicly offered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on D-Day from the capitol’s World War II Memorial. FDR had offered the prayer for our troops in a radio address announcing the D-Day invasion to the nation. The Obama Administration claims that a public prayer straight from the Commander-in-Chief for the safety and success of American and Allied troops who were then in harm’s way, fighting and dying for freedom and the future of humanity, would “dilute the memorial.”
If you really want to see “dilution,” hold Barack Obama’s 2010 Proclamation of Thanksgiving up next to George Washington’s. That’s dilution. Even Obama’s own Secretary of Interior personally disagrees with his Department’s rejection of the prayer.The complete text of FDR’s prayer follows. What do you think? Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!
FDR broadcasting his prayer for our troops on D-Day.
“My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
“And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
“And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them–help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
“Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
“Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
“And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
“And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
“Thy will be done, Almighty God.
“Amen.”
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And he will get away with it too. The man is getting away with murder in the White house. Everything our ancestors died for he is making a joke of. A new low for this self righteous punk.
If only we could understand the exceptionalism that has been the miracle of this noble nation’s in less than a 230 year existence, if only we……
If only we understood than no other nation in the existence of our planet has ever achieve this level of cultural evolution…..
If only we could reignite that passion, clarity of purpose, for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness, framed in the emotion of D-Day….
On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a stretch of French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory”, …
….in this the hour of our generations discontent, only our place in history is different. Will we be cowards or champions? How prophetic…..
“Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.”
Pray tell what were we fighting for????….Have we forgotten? If we cannot pray for President Obama to pivot and embrace our unalienable rights, the philosophical foundation of our Judeo-Christian beliefs,….the miracle and treasure of prayer….then maybe we have lost our belief in the “power” of prayer…implied by FDR’s homily.
“We” are “our sons”, let us not make FDR’s leadership than a failure now, his entreaty an exercise in futility, that prayer a lie.
FDR was trying to lift us up, give us hope…maybe today we must look elsewhere…maybe look “inside.” …. “shall (we) return again and again”
So…who ever bans a prayer…they cannot ban “We the People” from praying. Make this a call to “action,” a simple bended knee, a moment of silence, a passing thought? And it is for you I pray.
Prayer will never be banned!
G-d gave us the right to pray as the only means of communication with Him, until the time of His return when He will take His believers Home for eternity. That right can NEVER be taken away nor banned.
Our forefathers used that right, and built the greatest nation in the world. They were able to do that by praying to G-d, our Heavenly Father, and letting Him build this nation through them.
When the leaders and We the People drifted away from prayer and fellowship with our blessed Redeemer, evil, straight from the pits of hell, moved into our nation through leaders that have death to our nation as their agenda.
The ONLY HOPE we have to regain our Republic and return to our Constitution, is to return to our Saviour, ask His forgiveness, and let Him take control once again. We must have an open line of communication by prayer and seeking His will and guidance from His Holy Word, the Bible, and to do this we must have known sins confessed and relationship with Him restored; otherwise, THIS IS IT. AMERICA IS HISTORY!!!
If only YOU folks could understand that America is a secular nation, founded by people who wanted to declare themselves independent of one, and that a lot of its greatness and freedoms stems from its very distinct separation of church and state.
If you guys really want to live in a Christian nation, there are plenty of others to choose from. This one ain’t one. Deal with it.
We could have prayer gatherings across the nation in honor of our armed forces. We don’t need obama to lead it. The prayer might not be at the memorial, but we are the church not the building and we take “the church” with us wherever we go and we can honor our men and women.
We should pray for our leaders, but we do not have to like them, or like anything they do. So far, I don’t like anything he does because everything he has done so far is deceitful, lies, dishonest, pompous, respect for no one but himself, trying to bring down Christianity and our Constitution, destroy families, rewrite our history, and his intent is to destroy America and have us join the New World Order. He was sworn into office saying he would uphold our Constitution, and he has not! that is treason- not considering everything else he has done so far. I do not like those things, and have not included all of them. Please review Agenda 21, the New World Order is no joke. Obama is very involved with Agenda 21.
Please do bend your knee(s), (if you still can) and let us humble ourselves before God and ask for His forgiveness and mercy as a nation, and for a “godly man or woman” to lead America. Godly meaning the God of the Bible. And, that He would touch and save Obama and his family.