Video
Twitter
RSS Feed
THE QUESTION
Presidents and Religious Proclamations
Washington and Lincoln proclaimed national days of Thanksgiving to God, but Jefferson declined and Jackson rejected a national day of prayer. Should presidents issue such calls or leave religion to the religious?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on November 19, 2008 1:56 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Give Thanks in a Real Way and Skip Presidential Decrees
The real issue for many people isn't legislation about Thanksgiving, it's how we give thanks in hard times. I don't think any President should legislate about giving thanks to God, but we really do need a time set aside to think and to act on what it means to give thanks.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on November 24, 2008 12:01 PM
WWJD? What Would Jefferson Do?
Thanksgiving proclamations. WWJD? What would Jefferson and Jackson do? They would leave it to those in the faith spheres to call for prayer?
Posted by Gabriel Salguero, on November 24, 2008 10:22 AM
Leave Religion to God and the Faithful
As so often, writing from the other side of the pond where we have a State church- the Church of England- I am left wondering at how deeply evangelized the USA is with no state church, and how irreligious the British are with a State religion.
Posted by Julia Neuberger, on November 24, 2008 9:19 AM
Proper Pride Takes Real Humility
God does not need a presidential proclamation of thanksgiving, but the nation does. Thanksgiving reminds us that our success is not all in our hands. Our leaders, even the ones who mean well, do not control all events. Best reason and best experience shows that cosmic history is complicated.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on November 23, 2008 5:50 PM
Presidents Should Be Free to Call the Nation to Prayer
Fasting, not feasting, was an element in our early Presidents' calls to prayer. Feasting, with the Pilgrim-Indian trappings of the 1621 harvest festival, got added when the accent in presidential prayer-calls moved from penitence to thanksgiving.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on November 23, 2008 4:46 PM
Render Unto Caesar
When politicians start making moral or religious proclamations, the roles are muddied.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on November 23, 2008 1:35 PM
Chill, Everybody
Thanksgiving is both a religious and non-religious word, and makes sense either way. Let our presidents get writers clever enough to speak in a generously inclusive way, and thereby uphold a national tradition.
Posted by William Tully, on November 21, 2008 8:35 AM
Government Should Leave God Out of Thanksgiving
There are many ways to be thankful -- and the government would be best to simply recognize a day of Thanksgiving without specifying to whom.
Posted by Pamela K. Taylor, on November 21, 2008 7:03 AM
National Thanksgiving and Prayer, but not "To God"
Why do so many people presume that for prayer and thanksgiving to be meaningful, God must be invoked? And why for so many others, must the mere mention of prayer and thanksgiving cause an almost allergic reaction of unpleasantness?
Posted by Brad Hirschfield, on November 21, 2008 6:13 AM
The Nation Should Give Thanks
There's nothing wrong with simply calling people to prayer, as our earliest settlers did on the holiday we now celebrate as Thanksgiving. It is suitable and fit for a people to give thanks for what they have.
Posted by Charles "Chuck" Colson, on November 21, 2008 6:01 AM
Thanksgiving Proclamations: Cracks In The Wall Of Separation
Presidential proclamations of thanksgiving to a deity offer one more example of an extra-constitutional custom that has now acquired a quasi-sacred status. The problem with these proclamations is that they pave the way for public acceptance of gross violations of the constitutional separation of church and state.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on November 19, 2008 8:54 AM
All Free to be Thankful to God
People are free to thank their spouse or a president, or no one at all. That's what freedom means: the ability to believe what one wishes and to respond (or not) accordingly.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on November 19, 2008 7:45 AM
Not Occasions for Government to Push Piety
There is nothing wrong with the American people getting together to pray on a designated day, even public officials. In fact every day should be a day of national prayer. The church-state rub comes when the government declares it to be such and exhorts citizens to engage in a religious exercise.
Posted by J. Brent Walker, on November 19, 2008 3:04 AM
Day of Prayer? Neither Here Nor There
Someone in the White House spends hours crafting the proclamations which no reads with care. Quick, now: can you quote one line or refer to the substance of any of them? But let them keep calling for it. Giving thanks is such an intrinsically valuable thing to do, that any doing of it is probably better than not doing it
Posted by Martin Marty, on November 19, 2008 2:37 AM
Expressing or Legislating Religion
Speaking publicly about one's faith and legislating accordingly are two different things. Presidents should not be demonized when they make statements of faith.
Posted by Mark Tauber, on November 18, 2008 3:07 PM
What Do We Mean By Religion?
There is no religion that has the whole truth nor one that is better than the others.
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on November 18, 2008 11:33 AM
Encourage Prayer, Dont Force It
This is something that all of our leaders should encourage. Part of the greatest gift of prayer is that it is entered into freely by each individual, or as a corporate body. Prayer is something that can be encouraged, but not forced on the public.
Posted by Matt Maher, on November 18, 2008 3:52 AM
FEATURED COMMENTS
ThomasBaum: As President I would say that he or she could not issue an official proclamation or an executive order but as a human being and a citizen of...
robinlandseadel: Listen & repeat: Separation of Church & State.
We don't need a national day of prayer. We need a nation holiday---no exceptions---for elect...
Christie2: When presidents are elected doesn’t the public already know their general feelings regarding religion? If people don’t like candidates askin...
