The American Left is like a dog with a bone when it comes to attacking religion. Barely a day goes by without somebody holding some totalitarian worldview yelping about how Christianity in the United States is creating a new era of racism or anti-LGBTQism or some other form of generalized hate for something or other.
The Left recently warned that flying the colonial era “Appeal to Heaven” flag is a leading indicator of one who is “extremely invested in the semiotics of American fascism.” No less alarming is how Christianity is fomenting an “ideology that justifies any tyranny that one’s nation might inflict.”
Such dangerous behavior is surely fueled by the irresponsible rhetoric of the Right-Wing political class. Imagine the fevered ravings of a radical Christian Nationalist talking to and through the national media, to practically insist that freedom loving Americans abandon our civic norms with the veiled demand, “I ask you to join with me in prayer."
This extremist invokes the name of “almighty God” with a hubristic request for providential intervention “to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization.” This theocratic rant then leads to imploring this almighty God “to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith,” and this toxic sentiment is punctuated with “O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee.”
Perhaps the darkest passage comes when this man, this threat to democracy, tries to coerce mindless simps into submission saying “Thy will be done, Almighty God,” as if some spirit in the sky has anything to do with anything. He then demands that “people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer,” a hair's breadth away from the establishment of religion. It’s nothing short of a militant call for replacing our cherished freedoms with an oppressive, government-imposed belief system.
In the parlance of the American Left, this is something we might expect from "Christian boogeyman" and House Speaker Mike Johnson or “fake Christian” Donald Trump or an "unhinged" Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene but it’s not. It’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
It was 80 years ago this week that Roosevelt sat before the microphones on the evening of June 6, 1944, to deliver a nationally broadcast prayer for the men who that day came ashore at Normandy to wrest control of Europe from the grip of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers ideology.
FDR was no right-winger, yet he understood the essential role of religion in general - and Christianity in particular - in American society and culture. Just as George Washington and other founders of the republic prayed in times of national peril, so did Roosevelt. He knew it was important but he also knew that it was the right thing for the nation to do, the Left be damned.
Nothing can add to Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer so I’ll leave you with a transcript of it.
"My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
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.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
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.
Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen."