National Day of Prayer 2009 - Obama vs Lincoln

Posted: May 9, 2009 - 21:10 CT

During his campaign, the (out of the) mainstream media fell all over themselves worshiping B Hussein Obama.  You would have thought it would diminish somewhat after the election, but if anything, it's only gotten worse.  Rather than conducting themselves as objective journalists, they have continued to play the adoring role of Obama cheerleaders.  I had to laugh out loud when I read a quote from John Kerry on why we should bail out the newspapers financially.  He said we can't afford to lose them as watchdogs over the government.  Fortunately, I wasn’t holding any sharp objects when I came across this.

One aspect to the media’s adulation is their constant comparisons of Obama to Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and, of course, the Messiah.  One journalist even reported that Obama becoming president was actually a step down for him.  I sometimes wonder if the administration issues knee pads to the media, or do they have to supply their own?  In light of this, and the press playing up Obama's use of Lincoln's Bible while beings sworn in, we thought that it might be interested (and informative) to compare Obama’s proclamation marking the annual National Day of Prayer with the 1863 Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln.

In comparing the two proclamations, we immediately notice a very reverent and religious undertone in President Lincoln's proclamation, mentioning God 5 times, usually in the context of emphasizing God's authority over the nation.  By contrast, Obama's is predominately secular in nature, although he does manage to finally mention God once in closing, and then only to ask for God's continued blessing.

The differences between the proclamations are obvious from the beginning.  Lincoln’s proclamation begins 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.

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.

Obama opened his document by stating some historical facts and by attempting to draw similarities with Lincoln’s situation:

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.

Lincoln also mentioned the civil war, writing that the war could be punishment on our nation for turning its back on God:

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?

Obama did mention our troops, celebrating that, by their commitment, we have the right not to worship:

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.

Lincoln put his trust in the Sovereign God.  Obama however, chooses to put his trust in a one world government instead:

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... 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.

Lincoln’s proclamation called on people to keep the day "holy to the Lord".

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.

Obama’s proclamation makes no request of anyone to examine themselves or their relationship to Almighty God.  In his only mention of God, he asks us to petition God for His continued blessings.

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.

Obama’s proclamation echoes the thoughts and actions of many of our citizens.  We don’t want God in our government, schools, public or private lives, yet we blame God for not coming to our rescue when trouble strikes.  We want to do our own thing with no accountability to God, including killing innocent babies who are made in His image, then ask Him for His protection and blessing.

These thoughts and attitudes would have been totally foreign to Abraham Lincoln, who also wrote in his proclamation that:

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.

Abraham Lincoln properly understood the problem and that God, rather than government, is the solution.  We must pray that God will give us the wisdom to elect leaders who understand this principle and who encourage the people according to the words of the Chronicler:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2Chr 7:14).
 

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