Posted on 11/27/2009 7:00:08 AM PST by two-edged-sword
When the current resident of the White House learned that the Pilgrims invited Indians to the first Thanksgiving he decided to do the same. I think he may have invited the wrong ones. (sarc off)
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans. mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
These people (even on Free Republic) would say that these things have nothing at all to do with our political fate and/or discourse in this country and should not be involved at all in politics (along with those on Free Republic who say that these things should be removed from the GOP, having nothing to do with our public discourse with the nation).
There are those (whom I've also heard on Free Republic) who would absolutely denounce that Christianity and/or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, has anything at all to do with our country, or even exists or has the ability to do, or the concern about, anything in this country, and relegate this "God" to archaic beliefs and to language that has no meaning, at all, in anything real (much less anything to do with politics). And even with some of those, on Free Republic, who would say that there is no meaning to our Creator God, mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, the mention, of which, is only an artifact of language, and not meaning, in reality, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as told to us in the Bible.
The following phrases are those that these people would deny and denounce as being totally useless and even getting in the way of conservatives winning elections in our country and that they must be jettisoned in order to win.
... we are prone to forget the source from which they come ...
... the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God ...
... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.
... It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.
... a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
... offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings ...
... with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience ...
... fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand ...
... as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes ...
And likewise, these very same people mentioned above, would utterly reject the reality of the following mentioned by Lincoln, in his Proclamation, Appointing a National Fast-Day (1863) and would castigate and denounce any of their own conservative politicians who dared utter such things within their hearing...
... devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations ...
... set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation ...
... it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God ...
... to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow ...
... with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon ...
... recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord ...
... we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world ...
... the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people ...
... But we have forgotten God.
... We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us ...
... we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
... Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
... It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power. to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
... day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.
... keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
... let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings ...
... the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country ...
The following is the Proclamation from Abraham Lincoln, in the same year of 1863, regarding the National Fast Day, which preceded the Thanksgiving Proclamation (above).
Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and
Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power. to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State .
President Barack Obama issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon – as required by federal law – marking the day as National Day of Prayer, but the proclamation is in contrast to the original proclamation making the first Thursday in May a national day of prayer and fasting.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama would issue a proclamation but that he did not plan any public appearances or meetings with religious leaders as President George W. Bush did each year of his administration.
On March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation beginning with the words:
“Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.”
In today’s proclamation, Obama opened the document with these words:
“Throughout our Nation's history, Americans have come together in moments of great challenge and uncertainty to humble themselves in prayer. In 1775, as the Continental Congress began the task of forging a new Nation, colonists were asked to observe a day of quiet humiliation and prayer. Almost a century later, as the flames of the Civil War burned from north to south, President Lincoln and the Congress once again asked the American people to pray as the fate of their Nation hung in the balance.”
In Lincoln’s proclamation, God is mentioned five times and emphasizes God’s dominion over the nation, the need for people to repent, and the divine nature of the Bible.
“And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord,” Lincoln wrote.
Obama’s proclamation mentions God once – “I call upon Americans to pray in thanksgiving for our freedoms and blessings and to ask for God’s continued guidance, grace and protection for this land that we love” – and also refers to people who don’t believe in God, which is tied to a reference to the U.S. military.
“On this day of unity and prayer, let us also honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces,” Obama wrote. “We celebrate their commitment to uphold our highest ideals, and we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in a Nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience.”
Unlike Obama’s reference to the Civil War, which states that Lincoln asked people to pray for the nation, Lincoln wrote that the war might be a punishment for a nation that had turned its back on God, despite his blessing on the country.
“And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People?” Lincoln wrote.
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven,” Lincoln wrote. “We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.”
“But we have forgotten God,” he wrote. “We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!”
In his proclamation, Obama does not refer to the Bible but to the “Golden Rule” – or the “ethic of reciprocity” sometimes linked to verses in the Bible and other religious books.
“As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth,” Obama wrote.
Lincoln’s proclamation calls on people to worship God and keep the National Day of Prayer “holy.”
“And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion,” Lincoln wrote.
Obama’s directive is secular in nature:
“Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill,” Obama wrote. “Our world grows smaller by the day, and our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife; and to lift up those who have fallen on hard times.”
Lincoln also called for the nation to reconcile with God.
“It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness,” Lincoln said.
The complete text of the proclamations by Lincoln and Obama are as follows:
[... snipped out, since it's given above...]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 7, 2009
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, 2009
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Throughout our Nation's history, Americans have come together in moments of great challenge and uncertainty to humble themselves in prayer. In 1775, as the Continental Congress began the task of forging a new Nation, colonists were asked to observe a day of quiet humiliation and prayer. Almost a century later, as the flames of the Civil War burned from north to south, President Lincoln and the Congress once again asked the American people to pray as the fate of their Nation hung in the balance.
It is in that spirit of unity and reflection that we once again designate the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer. Let us remember those who came before us, and let us each give thanks for the courage and compassion shown by so many in this country and around the world.
On this day of unity and prayer, let us also honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We celebrate their commitment to uphold our highest ideals, and we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in a Nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience.
Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill. Our world grows smaller by the day, and our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife; and to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.
The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a "National Day of Prayer."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 7, 2009, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon Americans to pray in thanksgiving for our freedoms and blessings and to ask for God's continued guidance, grace, and protection for this land that we love.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
BARACK OBAMA
That’s racist! sarc.....
You properly capitalized Pilgrim,
Same for dropping the P while describing the resident.
As to who showed up? eh.... Did anyone count the silverware afterwards?
How about 0bama’s Kennedyesque touch football game on the White House lawn? (shown in slowwwwwwww motion on tv just to show that he caught it.......). He just can’t stop campaigning or copying, can he. Kerry must be pissed (though he couldn’t catch a football except with his chin)
The late night shows should parody that with sound over from the Six Million Dollar Man.
Does Obama know the difference between a pioneer and a camp follower? I doubt it.
You know, I really wish Emily Litella was still around. I would love to hear her do a confused diatribe on Obama’s “Steak Dinner”. Like how it was outrageous that no beef was being served at the Steak Dinner, how would that even be possible, what were they doing, serving tofu steaks, how yucky is that, etc. Total outrage until told it was a “State Dinner” not a “Steak Dinner”. Never mind.
Thanks,Glad you have a sense of humor. Often we take ourselves too seriously. Cheers!
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