Our country has a long lineage of religious faith informing politics. It is not necessary to conduct exhaustive research into the spiritual lives of U.S. presidents to establish that the vast majority of them affirmed repeatedly, in a variety of ways, their belief in a supreme deity. Depending on the president, this deity could be defined as the personal God who pursues intimate relationship with human beings, revealed in Jesus Christ; the covenantal God of the Judeo-Christian tradition; the supreme deity of natural theology, creator and sustainer of the world; the transcendent being whose power and timelessness supersede the frailty of human life; the God of self-help, who helps those who help themselves; or a deistic God, the great watch-maker in the sky, who wound up the universe and left it to run on its own.
What’s God got to do with America? In the context of the religious faith of American presidents, belief in God has consistently imbued our leaders with a sense of accountability to divine authority, responsibility to seek divine guidance, and the hope of divine protection for the life of the nation. God has mattered to our presidents for several reasons. They have recognized that their decisions are answerable in a higher court of appeal than opinion polls. They have affirmed that the advice of advisers, cabinet staff, and joint chiefs, the opinions of spouses, and the dictates of personal conscience don’t add up to enough guidance for the momentous decisions thrust upon them. And in times of crisis, they have admitted that even the very best human efforts and accomplishments are not enough to secure peace and safety for the country.
An interesting way to look at how various presidents viewed divine accountability, guidance, and protection is through their choice of the particular Bible passage on which they solemnly swore at their inauguration.
• Abraham Lincoln, 1865: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1); “Woe unto the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Matthew 18:7); “And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments” (Revelation 16:7).
• Andrew Johnson, 1865: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
• Benjamin Harrison, 1889: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night” (Psalm 121:1–6).
• Theodore Roosevelt, 1905: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass” (James 1:22–23).
