“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 goodwill 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 arrogances. 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.”
Very moving, thank you for posting.
Wait, wait, wait…FDR, icon of the Left was actively establishing RELIGION?!? He was the president of the United States, and using the office of the president he got air time to ask the people of our nation to [i]join[/i] him in PRAYER for the servicemen that were in the act of preserving our RELIGION!
“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, [b]our religion[/b], and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”
How many want to bet we won’t be seeing this in any school textbooks anytime soon? Where are the howls of protest from the Left? Oh, wait…he was a democrat so he falls within the acceptable zone of the double standard. This is yet more evidence of the cognitive dissonance of the radical Left.
I’d be careful about assuming that ‘our religion’ was intended to mean or was understood to mean any religion in particular. I’m sure a large number of Protestants of that day did not think Catholics had the ‘same’ religion. You can easily see how the listener could have understood that to mean ‘my’ religion. It’s a statement carefully crafted to be acceptable to a nation that was heavily religious in some way.
I think the use of the words “our Republic” is more remarkable, because everybody uses the word ‘our democracy’ today, even though the meanings are not synonymous. President Reagan used “republic” on occasion.
I didn’t assume boo. The fact that he said US troops were defending “our Religion” is an amazing contrast to today’s secularist environment, where we have government coerced freedom [i]from[/i] Religion…where it isn’t welcome in the public square at all…where even non-sectarian prayer breakfasts are challenged by the radical Left via the ACLU! Kids today can’t pray in school, yet the president asked the entire nation to pray with him and said the troops were defending “our Religion”. What a marked contrast!
By the way…could his words, “Thy kingdom”, be interpreted as anything but Christian? What other world religion speaks of a kingdom when referencing God?
As a proud Roosevelt Democrat, I humbly confess that there is almost no connection between the Democratic party then and the shambles of a party now (although I am proud of our Arkansas Democrats here lately). At least one key understanding that has been lost is the sustaining role of culture and religion. Absent a culture of character, social engineering is pointless. Roosevelt understood this; we have forgotten. In the early forties he made a beautifully clear and profound statement on the importance of religious practice (even though he didn’t consider it necessary for himself!) and, of course, freedom of religion and conscience was the first of the four freedoms.
Thank you Kendall for posting this. It is even more moving if we remember that World War II was in no small measure the Second War of Progressive Ideology (as contrasted to those horrible Wars of Religion, from which the Enlightenment freed us). Given the strident proclamation of the triumph of regimes that were nominally progressive and in fact totalitarian, there is something deeply moving about the leader of the United Nations, himself wheelchair bound, offering prayer at a moment of decisive turning in the war.
May Roosevelt’s place alongside Lincoln and Washington long be secure!