Prayer Breakfast Presidency

A recent Washington Post article by Jon Meacham titled "The Prayer Breakfast Presidency" traces the overlap between faith and politics in the person the the President of the United States throughout history:

For many Americans, the image of presidents at prayer is reassuring; for many others, scenes such as the one last week with Bush and Graham represent an unhealthy mixing of church and state. However, American history suggests that allusions to faith in the political arena are part of what Benjamin Franklin called "public religion," a religion whose God is perhaps best understood as the "Creator" and the "Nature's God" of the Declaration of Independence. This was not the God of Abraham or God the Father of the Holy Trinity, but a more generic figure who made the world, is active in it through the workings of providence, and will ultimately judge how people conducted themselves in life. Taken together, the past reveals that the benefits of faith in God in our public life have outweighed their costs. "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records," said Alexander Hamilton. "They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." As the midterm elections and a new presidential cycle approach, Americans would do well to remember that religion is but one thread in the tapestry of political life. America is neither a Christian nation nor a secular one; it is somewhere in between, and Americans are struggling through a world of change and chance. As Bush senior closed the ceremony with Graham last week, he threw his arms in the air and hollered (there is no other word for it): "Go in peace, and thank you!" -- a benediction blending faith and good manners, rather like America herself.