ROOSEVELT,
FRANKLIN DELANO
(January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), was the 32nd President of the United States, 1933–45, whose Presidential term spanned over 12 years, the longest of any President; the seventh President to die in office; Governor of New York, 1929–33; stricken with infantile paralysis, 1921; Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913–20; New York State Senator, 1911–13; admitted to bar, 1907; graduated from Columbia Law School, 1907; married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 1905; and graduated from Harvard College, 1904.
At his Inaugurations as Governor of New York and his four terms as President, he chose Scripture out of chapter 13 of the Book of First Corinthians.3315 On Saturday, March 4, 1933, in his First Inaugural Address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed to the nation, as it just entered the Depression:
First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. … In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. …
Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men … They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and where there is no vision the people perish.(Pr. 29:18) The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. …
We face arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values. …
In this dedication of a nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us! May He guide me in the days to come.3316
On December 6, 1933, in his address to the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
If I were asked to state the great objective which Church and State are both demanding for the sake of every man and woman and child in this country, I would say that that great objective is “a more abundant life.”3317
In a 1935 radio broadcast, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared:
We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. … [W]here we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.3318
On Wednesday, January 20, 1937, in his Second Inaugural Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
In taking again the oath of office as President of the United States, I assume the solemn obligation of leading the American people forward along the road over which they have chosen to advance.
While this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak their purpose and to do their will, seeking Divine Guidance to help each and every one to give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet into the way of peace.3319
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church, stated:
No greater thing could come to our land today than a revival of the spirit of religion—a revival that would sweep through the homes of the nation and stir the hearts of men and women of all faiths to a reassertion of their belief in God and their dedication to His will for themselves and for their world.
I doubt if there is any problem—social, political or economic—that would not melt away before the fire of such a spiritual awakening.3320
On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms Speech to Congress:
Today, thank God, one hundred and thirty million Americans, in forty-eight States, have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity. …
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first in freedom of speech and expression. …
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. …
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.3321
On Monday, January 20, 1941, in his Third Inaugural Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
A nation, like a person, has something deeper, something more permanent, something larger than the sum of all its parts. It is that something which matters most to its future—which calls forth the most sacred guarding of its present. It is a thing for which we find it difficult—even impossible—to hit upon a single, simple word. And yet we all understand what it is—the spirit—the faith of America.
It is the product of centuries. It was born in the multitudes of those who came from many lands—some of high degree, but mostly plain people, who sought here, early and late, to find freedom more freely. The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase of human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written in the Magna Carta.
In the Americas its impact has been irresistible. America has been the New World in all tongues, to all peoples, not because this continent was a new-found land, but because all those who came here believed they could create upon this continent a new life—a life that should be new in freedom. Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution of the United States, into the Gettysburg Address. …
But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation’s body and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived on, the America we know would have perished.
That spirit—that faith—speaks to us in our daily lives in ways often unnoticed. … The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of prophecy spoken by our first President in his first Inaugural in 1789—words almost directed, it would seem, to this year of 1941: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered … deeply … finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people.” …
We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As Americans, we go forward in the service of our country by the will of God.3322
On January 25, 1941, President Roosevelt inscribed a moving prologue to a special edition New Testament published by The Gideons. This New Testament and Psalms, printed by the National Bible Press, Philadelphia, was distributed to the soldiers as they left for service during World War II. The prologue stated:
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON January 25, 1941
To the Armed Forces:
As Commander-in-Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.
Very sincerely yours,
(signed)
Franklin D. Roosevelt.3323
On August 10, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the Mid-Atlantic Conference, as recorded by Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister:
On Sunday morning, August 10, Mr. Roosevelt came aboard H.M.S. Prince of Wales and, with his Staff officers and several hundred representatives of all ranks of the United States Navy and Marines, attended Divine Service on the quarterdeck.
This service was felt by us all to be a deeply moving expression of the unity of faith of our two peoples, and none who took part in it will forget the spectacle presented that sunlit morning on the crowded quarterdeck—the symbolism of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes draped side by side on the pulpit;
the American and British chaplains sharing in the reading of the prayers; the highest navel, military, and air officers of Britain and the United States grouped in one body behind the President and me;
the close-packed ranks of British and American sailors, completely intermingled, sharing the same books and joining fervently together in the prayers and hymns familiar to both.
I chose the hymns myself—“For Those in Peril on the Sea” and “Onward Christian Soldiers.” We ended with “OH God, Our Help in Ages Past,” which Macaulay reminds us the Ironsides had chanted as they bore John Hampden’s body to the grave.
It was a great hour to live. Nearly half of those who sang were soon to die.3324
In that Mid-Atlantic Summit with Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt led the crew in a singing a rousing chorus of the hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” after having described the United States as:
The lasting concord between men and nations, founded on the principles of Christianity.3325
On January 6, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated in his State of the Union Address:
Our enemies are guided by brutal cynicism, by unholy contempt for the human race. We are inspired by a faith which goes back through all the years to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis—“God created man in His own image.”
We on our side are striving to be true to that Divine heritage. We are fighting, as our fathers have fought, to uphold the doctrine that all men are equal in the sight of God.
Those on the other side are striving to destroy this deep belief and to create a world in their own image, a world of tyranny and cruelty and serfdom.3326
On June 6, 1944, in his address to the nation on the occasion of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
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. …
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.3327
With Thy blessings we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.3328
On Saturday, January 20, 1945, in his Fourth Inaugural Address, delivered on the Portico of the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated:
As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen—in the presence of God—I know that it is America’s purpose that we shall not fail. …
The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.
So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly—to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men—to the achievement of His will, to peace on earth.3329