November 26

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Ronald Reagan, 40th President, 1891-1989-Remarks at an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast in Dallas, Texas, August 23, 1984"...I believe that George Washington knew the City of Man cannot survive without the City of God, that the Visible City will perish without the Invisible City. "Religion played not only a strong role in our national life; it played a positive role. The abolitionist movement was at heart a moral and religious movement; so was the modern civil rights struggle. And throughout this time, the state was tolerant of religious belief, expression, and practice. Society, too, was tolerant. "But in the 1960's this began to change. We began to make great steps toward secularizing our nation and removing religion from its honored place..."Today there are those who are fighting to make sure voluntary prayer is not returned to the classrooms. And the frustrating thing for the great majority of Americans who support and understand the special importance of religion in the national life -- the frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and openmindedness. Question: Isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives...Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."