-
My Rahm Reunion
May 16, 2013 | 16 comments
-
The Left Hates Us
May 9, 2013 | 143 comments
-
Such a Dynamic Duo
May 2, 2013 | 49 comments
-
The Continuing Crisis
May 1, 2013 | 0 comments
-
Calvin Coolidge: His Times Are Our Times
April 26, 2013 | 22 comments
The Current Crisis
God and Man and FDR
Could an American President offer a prayer on behalf of all Americans today?
WASHINGTON — Warren Kozak, the author of LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay, wrote a memorable piece in the Wall Street Journal on June 6, 2012, that cries out for comment. On the 68th anniversary of the Allies’ invasion of Europe over the bloody beaches of Normandy, he reminds us of an unthinkable act by President Franklin Roosevelt on that day. At least it is an unthinkable act today. The President did not call a press conference to notify Americans huddled before their radios of what our military was doing. They already knew from news reports, though they might have learned even more from their president. Nor did President Roosevelt boast of how he had marshaled our troops and given the order to action, as the present occupier of his office is prone to do.
Instead, Roosevelt offered a prayer, a prayer of unthinkable dimensions nowadays. I suspect if I were of voting age in 1944 I would have been a Republican. Yet, as President Roosevelt spoke he would have spoken for me. Transported back to the battle of Normandy, I would have taken heart in his words. Would a Barack Obama, similarly transported back across the decades, have taken heart? Or would he and millions of other miraculously transported Americans from the present have squirmed? Would they have filed lawsuits through the American Civil Liberties Union? Is this not another of those church and state conundrums that we conjure up today?
These thoughts occurred to me as I read the recent polling results from the Pew Research Center. It claims that Americans’ “values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years.” Certainly they are more polarized than they were 68 years ago. How could an American President offer a prayer on behalf of all the American people today, much less a Democratic president, much less the most revered Democratic president of all time, FDR?
According to the Pew poll, “Roughly three-quarters of Democrats (77%) say they ‘never doubt the existence of God.’” That is down by 11 percent over the past decade, which is quite a lot. Among white Democrats it is down 17 percent, from 85 percent in 2002 to 68 percent today. Meanwhile, among Republicans 92 percent say they never doubt the existence of God. The same percentage as ten years ago, and, in fact, the figure is unchanged from 25 years ago. On some things Republicans are rock solid. Were today’s Republicans transported back to Roosevelt’s America on June 6, 1944, he could count on us for support and even our gratitude for his remarks.
He prayed with confidence and piety for all Americans. “Almighty God,” he began, “our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion (sic), and our civilization (sic), and to set free suffering humanity.
“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.”
And on the President went. “Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into thy kingdom.” Kozak writes, “This was an American President unafraid to embrace God and to define an enemy that clearly rejected the norms of humanity.”
Nor apparently was President Roosevelt alone in his piety. He continued, “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.”
A lot has happened since 1944. America went on to win the Cold War peacefully. We ended segregation. We have had years of peaceful prosperity, prosperity beyond even Roosevelt’s dreams. There have been technological advances beyond the imagination of that prayerful President, and in medicine too. The average American can now expect to live decades beyond FDR’s mere 63 years, but he, unlike many contemporary Americans, knew why he was here and where he was going.
In some ways President Roosevelt would have been a typical Republican.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
More Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
More Articles From The Current Crisis
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/06/21/god-and-man-and-fdr
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Appleby| 6.21.12 @ 7:07AM
Today begins the Million Rosaries for Religious Freedom, when Catholics all over North America will be praying together (we prayer warriors call it "Storming Heaven"), lining up in the heavenly barricades AGAINST the President and his minions. How times have changed.
My Dad and five of his brothers -- all who were old enough -- went off to World War II and they all came home at the end. I never fail to thank God for this, and when I look out over the Veterans Cemetery where Daddy is buried, my heart fills with prayers of thankfulness for them all.
God bless the USA.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.21.12 @ 7:11AM
Here is a comment from Jeremiah Wright, Obama's personal preacher for 20 years, and that perhaps explains the change in temperament in America. If you read the clip below you will understand why we have a President who refers to citizens as gun toters who cling to their religion:
In a sermon delivered shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, :
"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News. This is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out — did you see him, John? — a white man, he pointed out, ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true — America's chickens are coming home to roost."[15]
Von Mises Jr| 6.21.12 @ 8:34AM
I suggest that Mr. Tyrrell read "The Forgotten Man" and "FDR's Folly," as well as some economics from Mises and Hayek. FDR's policies, like ObaMao is doing today, turned a financial reset and recession into a Depression.
Woodrow Wilson and his policies created a deep recession and Warren Harding turned it into a boom with Supply-side economics.
Jimma Carter and his policies caused stagflation and Reagan's policies of Supply-side economics turned into a 25 year boom.
But ObaMao follows in the footsteps of Hoover and FDR. Most people do not know that the dramatic losses to the stock market in 1929 were a fall from 381 to 198 or 48%. But it recovered to 294 or 77% of the high by 1930. The Depression occurred in the 1930's due to Hoover/FDR's policies.
And in 2008 we saw the stock market drop by over 50% from 14K to 6,500 ranges. The market has rebounded to 12,770 as of yesterday, or 91% of the high, but the economy is suffering the same overall problems as under FDR: no jobs, no investment, no growth, and no confidence.
In fact, Barry's economy may make Hoover/FDR look good by comparison if he is re-elected.
fmm| 6.21.12 @ 9:18AM
Agree wholeheartedly. It is a long stretch say FDR may have been a typical republican in any form. However, the fact that FDR gave the prayer in Tyrrells example does serve to show how small certain segments of the political spectrum in this country have become.
Al Adab| 6.21.12 @ 11:28AM
Those were the days in which the cultural consensus still held true. Even with political differences and debates over priority and what government actions may or may not be allowed, it was still agreed between the parties and the American people just what it meant to be an American.
Sadly we have, over the last fifty years or so, lost that cultural consensus and find ourselves in a world where no longer is there an agreed upon definition. In fact, one of the major parties could even be defined as in active, hostile, opposition to what was once that consensus. This leaves a society adrift, pummelled by the vagaries and winds of popular fads and fashions without a moral compass by which to steer. It is the purpose of The Conservative Movement to conserve that compass and to restore a sense of cultural unity to the American body politic. May God grant that we have the tenacity and courage to see the battle through.
dickdata| 6.21.12 @ 3:36PM
Do you guys just make this stuff up??? Gerald Ford was the originator of the "WIN" button - where "WIN" stood for "Whip inflation now." Are you suggesting that his button should have been "WIWJCGIO" - "Whip inflation when Jimmy Carter gets into office"???
CJW| 6.21.12 @ 5:47PM
Von,
You are correct. It seems though that we conservatives are so shocked to see a Democrat pray and show patriotism that we say he could be a Republican. After Clinton and Obama who could blame us.
cuban pete| 6.21.12 @ 8:42AM
"They come not for lust of conquest,but to end conquest."
Al Adab| 6.21.12 @ 11:29AM
...and the only land they claimed was the cemetaries to bury their dead.
benny havens| 6.21.12 @ 9:22AM
Sorry Mr. Tyrrell, the best FDR could be is only a RINO, in my humble opinion.
Anthony| 6.21.12 @ 11:12AM
FDR's call to prayer were the facile words of a polished pol looking to bond with the hoi polli, whose sons and daughters were in harm's way.
You give FDR too much credit; his religion was a shallow as his politics.
JD| 6.21.12 @ 11:50AM
The ACLU would have had no issue with a prayer by a Democratic idol like FDR or Obama. The ACLU is a purely liberal organization that only complains about things done by conservatives.
Who Knows?| 6.21.12 @ 11:53AM
Thank you for your services, over the years.
Dannyboy| 6.21.12 @ 1:22PM
Don't know if I have said this before at this site, but, JFK said alot of things in his inaugual address that ar politically incorrect today and probably won't be said or at least make alot of people squirm. The democrat party was hijacked and taken over by liberals after the demise of Kennedy, also the media, holleywood, newpapers, magazines and learning institutions from kindergarden to and through college. We have alot of work to do to correct this and like FDR and Kennedy I know we are lost without the help and mercy of our Creator God. Be first in prayer and then in action.
JP| 6.21.12 @ 2:27PM
If a President today was to say a prayer for this nation, he would include a lesbian witch, an Iman, a defrocked Marxist Priest, and a transgendered multi-culti Yale Law professor.
Cobalt| 6.21.12 @ 8:31PM
....and have to pray to both Father God and Mother God.
Dixon| 6.21.12 @ 2:37PM
FDR a 2012 Republican?
FDR was a lib/prog/statist/elitist....and would be today.
Certainly not a 2012 Conservative...but an establishment Republican? Hold on, hold on...I'm thinking....
Al Adab| 6.21.12 @ 3:45PM
Indeed it is a measure of how far the republicans have fallen that both FDR and JFK could easily be considered establighment republicans of today. The Conservative Movement is not synonomous with the GOP and at best comprises a third of the party. The chasm which seperates the two is the legitimacy of the social-welfare state. The republicans want to accomodate it and manage it better; The Conservatives question its validity and morality.
CJW| 6.21.12 @ 5:44PM
Al Adab
It is also a measure of how far left the Dem party has moved. JFK cut taxes, complained about a "missile gap," and appointed a conservative to the Supreme Court, Justice Byron White, who was an All-American football player and played for the Steelers. The Truman Justice Dept prosecuted Alger Hiss, and Truman had no qualms about using the A-bomb to end the war.
Since then we have the party of McGovern, Dukakis, Clinton, and Obama.
Carl Boren| 6.21.12 @ 2:40PM
Beyond his awesome responsibilities as President in a World War the outcome of which was often in doubt and whose final triumph he would not live to see, Mr. Roosevelt fought a daily, courageous battle with polio. Such a man is no stranger to prayer.
Frank Natoli| 6.21.12 @ 3:36PM
FDR's prayer was noteworthy only in the very different context of today's unrelenting hostility and contempt that all of the MSM, virtually all of academia, and a large majority of one of the two political parties and its voters have for any recognition of Christianity.
While there has been much written of late of Woodrow Wilson being the first all powerful central government Democrat, in fact, Wilson only spoke of it.
FDR did it.
cuban pete| 6.21.12 @ 3:51PM
Always good to hear from you, Frank.
Carl Peter Klapper | 6.21.12 @ 4:24PM
Cousin Franklin came from a family of mixed political background. His father was a Democrat and his maternal grandfather Warren Delano was a Republican.
Marvin E. Fox | 6.21.12 @ 7:01PM
Your article is very good and timely. FDR made a beautiful prayer for those terrible days. This Republic needs every reminder it can get to look to our Lord and God for help in these terrible times.
I remember when it was more common to hear the following personal priority mentioned.
God
Family
and Country.
God created the individuals. God created the family. The familys created the country.
Marvin E. Fox
Brooksifier | 6.21.12 @ 8:16PM
FDR was not an honest person.
His prayers were rather empty.
C Smith | 6.22.12 @ 12:51AM
Friday, December 7, 2007
For God and Country
... And as the sun rose on “December 7, 1941,” most of the Oglala crew, including her commanding officer, was still “out on the town.” However, the men in the boiler room, the cook, the second in command, and a few others including David were at their stations. When the sound of revving planes and whistling bombs punctuated the morning tranquility, General Quarters was sounded. The second in command screamed, “Man the Guns”! David screamed back: “What guns”! Someone found the keys, unlocked the magazine, and after some fumbling a 3"/50 cal. A.A. gun and three .30 cal. machine guns were manned and returning fire….
http://popularapostasy.blogspo.....untry.html
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way” ” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as quoted in None Dare Call It Conspiracy, Gary Allen & Larry Abraham, 1971).
“They hit us harder than we expected” (Eleanor Roosevelt, as quoted in Harry Elmer Barnes (editor), Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Its Aftermath, 1953).
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy...." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt before Congress seeking a declaration of war against Japan, December 8, 1941)
Nightwinger| 6.22.12 @ 11:39AM
There is not a single word about GAWD in the U.S. Constitution.
Not one.
DaveE| 6.26.12 @ 8:22PM
Sorry Emmett. A lack of religion is not the answer, it's basically that there has been an erosion of morality. I will grant you that our view of morality is based on the Judeo/Christian morality but that makes sense not because of its religious base but because it simply makes sense. Don't shit on your neighbour and do unto others.
DaveE.
DaveE| 6.26.12 @ 8:43PM
Addendum.
The commandments 5 to 10 pretty much cover everything.
Do we really need ever more complex laws to govern our behaviour? I suspect not.
DaveE.