George Washington began his 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation by declaring that “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor” so that a special day might be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country” as well as “for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”

Oh, how times have changed.

That, while “acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God,” continued Washington, America might “unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations” in a concerted effort “to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.”
You with me, Supreme Court?

Now, lest there be any confusion as to the identity of “the great Lord and Ruler of Nations” to Whom Washington referred, President John Adams, Washington’s successor, ordered, in 1799, a day of “solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer,” wherein he proclaimed that Americans should, “on that day abstain as far as may be from their secular occupations, devote the time to the sacred duties of religion in public and in private: That they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that, through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come.”

“Separation of church and state”? Not so much.

I know. Calm down, atheists. It wasn’t a theocratic dictate requiring that you bow your knee before Jesus. Christians don’t force conversion. After all, contrary to Barack Hussein Obama’s claim otherwise, we are not a “Muslim country” – yet. It was just a firm suggestion. As for bowing before Christ, God will see to that later.

Imagine if anti-Christian outfits like the ACLU or the so-called “Freedom From Religion Foundation” (FFRF) had been around back then. At a time when Americans’ freedoms were protected under an authentic First Amendment application, these counter-constitutionalists would have been laughed out of town (or worse) upon their first frivolous “Establishment Clause” lawsuit.

Still, George Washington’s myriad “declarations of American dependence” upon God were not all sunshine and fuzzy bunnies. Many took on a decidedly somber tone, clearly intended to warn both his patriotic contemporaries and, most especially, future generations.

America’s reluctant first chief executive sought to forestall the predictably devastating consequences of a national break from America’s Judeo-Christian moorings.

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