Audio:
"These past few weeks it seems that we've all been
hearing a lot of talk about religion and its role
in politics, religion and its place in the political
life of the Nation. And I think it's appropriate
today, at a prayer breakfast for 17,000 citizens
in the State of Texas during a great political convention,
that this issue be addressed.
I don't speak as a theologian
or a scholar, only as one who's lived a little more
than his threescore ten -- which has been a source
of annoyance to some -- [laughter] -- and as one
who has been active in the political life of the
Nation for roughly four decades and now who's served
the past 3\1/2\ years in our highest office. I speak,
I think I can say, as one who has seen much, who
has loved his country, and who's seen it change
in many ways.
I believe that faith and religion
play a critical role in the political life of our
nation -- and always has -- and that the church
-- and by that I mean all churches, all denominations
-- has had a strong influence on the state. And
this has worked to our benefit as a nation.
Those who created our country
-- the Founding Fathers and Mothers -- understood
that there is a divine order which transcends the
human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form
of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral
order is religion.
The Mayflower Compact began with
the words, ``In the name of God, amen.'' The Declaration
of Independence appeals to ``Nature's God'' and
the ``Creator'' and ``the Supreme Judge of the world.''
Congress was given a chaplain, and the oaths of
office are oaths before God.
James Madison in the Federalist
Papers admitted that in the creation of our Republic
he perceived the hand of the Almighty. John Jay,
the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, warned
that we must never forget the God from whom our
blessings flowed.
George Washington referred to
religion's profound and unsurpassed place in the
heart of our nation quite directly in his Farewell
Address in 1796. Seven years earlier, France had
erected a government that was intended to be purely
secular. This new government would be grounded on
reason rather than the law of God. By 1796 the French
Revolution had known the Reign of Terror.
And Washington voiced reservations
about the idea that there could be a wise policy
without a firm moral and religious foundation. He
said, ``Of all the dispositions and habits which
lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality
are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
(call himself a patriot) who (would) labour to subvert
these . . . finest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere Politician . . . (and) the pious
man ought to respect and to cherish (religion and
morality).'' And he added, ``. . . let us with caution
indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained
without religion.''
I believe that George Washington
knew the City of Man cannot survive without the
City of God, that the Visible City will perish without
the Invisible City.
Religion played not only a strong
role in our national life; it played a positive
role. The abolitionist movement was at heart a moral
and religious movement; so was the modern civil
rights struggle. And throughout this time, the state
was tolerant of religious belief, expression, and
practice. Society, too, was tolerant.
But in the 1960's this began
to change. We began to make great steps toward secularizing
our nation and removing religion from its honored
place.
In 1962 the Supreme Court in
the New York prayer case banned the compulsory saying
of prayers. In 1963 the Court banned the reading
of the Bible in our public schools. From that point
on, the courts pushed the meaning of the ruling
ever outward, so that now our children are not allowed
voluntary prayer. We even had to pass a law -- we
passed a special law in the Congress just a few
weeks ago to allow student prayer groups the same
access to schoolrooms after classes that a young
Marxist society, for example, would already enjoy
with no opposition.
The 1962 decision opened the
way to a flood of similar suits. Once religion had
been made vulnerable, a series of assaults were
made in one court after another, on one issue after
another. Cases were started to argue against tax-exempt
status for churches. Suits were brought to abolish
the words ``under God'' from the Pledge of Allegiance
and to remove ``In God We Trust'' from public documents
and from our currency.
Today there are those who are
fighting to make sure voluntary prayer is not returned
to the classrooms. And the frustrating thing for
the great majority of Americans who support and
understand the special importance of religion in
the national life -- the frustrating thing is that
those who are attacking religion claim they are
doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and
open mindedness. Question: Isn't the real truth
that they are intolerant of religion? [Applause]
They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives.
If all the children of our country
studied together all of the many religions in our
country, wouldn't they learn greater tolerance of
each other's beliefs? If children prayed together,
would they not understand what they have in common,
and would this not, indeed, bring them closer, and
is this not to be desired? So, I submit to you that
those who claim to be fighting for tolerance on
this issue may not be tolerant at all.
When John Kennedy was running
for President in 1960, he said that his church would
not dictate his Presidency any more than he would
speak for his church. Just so, and proper. But John
Kennedy was speaking in an America in which the
role of religion -- and by that I mean the role
of all churches -- was secure. Abortion was not
a political issue. Prayer was not a political issue.
The right of church schools to operate was not a
political issue. And it was broadly acknowledged
that religious leaders had a right and a duty to
speak out on the issues of the day. They held a
place of respect, and a politician who spoke to
or of them with a lack of respect would not long
survive in the political arena.
It was acknowledged then that
religion held a special place, occupied a special
territory in the hearts of the citizenry. The climate
has changed greatly since then. And since it has,
it logically follows that religion needs defenders
against those who care only for the interests of
the state.
There are, these days, many questions
on which religious leaders are obliged to offer
their moral and theological guidance, and such guidance
is a good and necessary thing. To know how a church
and its members feel on a public issue expands the
parameters of debate. It does not narrow the debate;
it expands it.
The truth is, politics and morality
are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is
religion, religion and politics are necessarily
related. We need religion as a guide. We need it
because we are imperfect, and our government needs
the church, because only those humble enough to
admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the
tolerance it requires in order to survive.
A state is nothing more than
a reflection of its citizens; the more decent the
citizens, the more decent the state. If you practice
a religion, whether you're Catholic, Protestant,
Jewish, or guided by some other faith, then your
private life will be influenced by a sense of moral
obligation, and so, too, will your public life.
One affects the other. The churches of America do
not exist by the grace of the state; the churches
of America are not mere citizens of the state. The
churches of America exist apart; they have their
own vantage point, their own authority. Religion
is its own realm; it makes its own claims.
We establish no religion in this
country, nor will we ever. We command no worship.
We mandate no belief. But we poison our society
when we remove its theological underpinnings. We
court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief.
All are free to believe or not believe; all are
free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe
must be free to speak of and act on their belief,
to apply moral teaching to public questions.
I submit to you that the tolerant
society is open to and encouraging of all religions.
And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us,
it makes us strong. You know, if we look back through
history to all those great civilizations, those
great nations that rose up to even world dominance
and then deteriorated, declined, and fell, we find
they all had one thing in common. One of the significant
forerunners of their fall was their turning away
from their God or gods.
Without God, there is no virtue,
because there's no prompting of the conscience.
Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat
world that tells us only what the senses perceive.
Without God, there is a coarsening of the society.
And without God, democracy will not and cannot long
endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation
under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
If I could just make a personal
statement of my own -- in these 3\1/2\ years I have
understood and known better than ever before the
words of Lincoln, when he said that he would be
the greatest fool on this footstool called Earth
if he ever thought that for one moment he could
perform the duties of that office without help from
One who is stronger than all.
I thank you, thank you for inviting
us here today. Thank you for your kindness and your
patience. May God keep you, and may we, all of us,
keep God.
Thank you. "
