The Highest Aspirations of the Human Soul

Three years ago my wife and I traveled to Georgia on a brief four-day vacation. A year before our trip I had read a biography of President Franklin Roosevelt. I had wanted to visit Warm Springs, where the President’s winter home, “The Little White House”, is located. We got to Warm Springs and spent the next day visiting the President’s home, now part of the National Park System, and a state park nearby named for him. We also stopped at the church where he worshipped while in Warm Springs. We then came home.

I was thinking about Roosevelt the other day, when I heard that National Day of Prayer was declared unconstitutional (a decision certain to be challenged). FDR was the longest-serving President, having won four terms. He faced two very great crises: the Great Depression and The Second World War. I had remembered the church he attended and I wondered, “Had his faith been a factor in leading the country through those tumultuous years? What would he think about the National Day of Prayer being declared unconstitutional by a federal judge?”

We will never know for certain what FDR would have thought of the spiritually bereft society that secularists are advancing in America. But there is one act he performed that provides insight.

In March 1941, the President was asked to pen remarks. Not just any remarks. These remarks were to serve as an Introduction to a pocket-sized book. These books were to be published in great numbers and distributed to the troops. Each soldier would receive a copy.

Roosevelt thought about what to write. Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was nine months away, intelligence reports had already come to him indicating that the Japanese were preparing to attack the United States. Just where the attack would occur and when was a mystery and would remain one right up to December 7. Roosevelt was convinced by this time that the United States would eventually enter a state of war with the Axis powers. The President had come to loathe Hitler and had just begun to provide, through Lend-Lease, much needed war material to Great Britain and his friend, Churchill. He knew this was tantamount to declaring war on Germany. Knowing fully well that the soldiers receiving this little book would in all likelihood be facing combat, he wanted the words to have effect.

Before sharing the words selected by the President, it may interest you to know what the full title of the book to be distributed was: The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Prepared for Use of Protestant Personnel of the Army of the United States. The title page further stated “Published under the direction of the Chief of Chaplains (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1942).

President Roosevelt’s Introduction
The White House
Washington
March 6, 1941

To the Members of the Army:
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,
Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the past few years, using “Separation of Church and State” as a pretense, a radical secularism emanating from various sources has aggressively attempted to remove references to the Christian faith from our national life. Franklin Roosevelt’s words remind us that Christian faith, resting upon the scripture, is where strength of personal and national character is to be discovered.

It is from the scripture that the person and the nation attains…
the highest aspirations of the human soul.