I
God in the Inaugural Addresses
For more than 25 years, my wife and I have
researched, written, and performed presentations on 35 of our
Presidential couples. These
we do for various groups across the country, including numerous
Presidential Libraries. Thus we have read a good
bit about our Presidents.
In 2003 when the California court said
they believed that “under God” in our
Pledge of Allegiance was “unconstitutional”, all
the radio talk shows had guests and calls from listeners debating
whether God was an integral part of our nation.
Anyone who has read the works
and letters of our Founding Fathers certainly realizes that they all
believed that God had a hand in the establishment of this
nation. So I knew
that this idea was there at the start of our country, I wondered how
that concept of God (the Almighty, Divine Providence, etc.)
playing a role
in our nation had progressed as our nation developed. I
decided to
look at the one expression of national thought that had been consistent
since
the day George Washington took the oath of office in 1789--the
Inaugural
Addresses of our Presidents.
What I discovered sort of surprised me.
There have been
39 different men who have delivered our 58 inaugural addresses and ALL
of
them, at least in one of their addresses, mentioned God (in one
literary
form or another) and our reliance on Him. In fact, I could only find
three addresses that lacked this thought.
I have created an inaugural address
using one excerpt
from each of the 39 Presidents weaving together their
mentions of God,
in various forms, to create one coherent 13 minute address.
FOR A MOVIE VERSION ON YOUTUBE.COM CLICK HERE
I hope you will enjoy it.
William Parker Wills