The White House has released a greeting from President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama on Ash Wednesday:
Today, Michelle and I join our fellow Christians in marking Ash Wednesday. Lent is a season of reflection, repentance and renewal, a time to rededicate ourselves to God and one another. We remember the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ. We pray for all those who suffer, including those Christians who are subjected to unspeakable violence and persecution for their faith. And we join millions here at home and around the world in giving thanks for this sacred and solemn season that guides us toward the Easter celebration.
Today, the President is in Springfield, Illinois, where he spoke to the Illinois General Assembly “about what we can do, together, to build a better politics – one that reflects our better selves.”
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The President regularly makes proclamations on Thanksgiving Day, and in various ways recognizes–and sometimes even speaks to–religious groups, including non-Christian groups.
Nowhere in his statement is there any proseletyzing, nor putting down non-Christian religions. He is simply greeting the Christians in America
So much for separation between Church and State
President Thomas Jefferson introduced the term, ‘wall of separation’, when he wrote a letter to a group of baptists in Danbury, CT. (12 years after the Constitution & Bill of rights were ratified.)
The phrase, ‘Separation of Church and State’ appears nowhere in the Constitution or in any debates leading to its ratification.
The 1st Amendment does say, ‘the gov’t shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Americans have always been free to bring their own faith into their public affairs, and that’s why they do, and that’s why they will continue to do so.
Thank you God, for blessing our country with that freedom.
And thank you, God, for giving our Founding Fathers the wisdom to forbid, in the Constitution of the United States, the use of any sort of religious test as a qualifier for any public office in this country.
That said, thank you, President Obama, for tipping your hat to a spiritual occasion marked by (and marking, in this instance) millions of Americans, you and your family included.
I’m not sure how that makes any logical sense at all!
The President also usually attends the National Prayer Breakfast every year.
Congress has chaplains. Chaplains and guest clergy open congressional sessions with prayer.
Sadly that’s your poor interpretation of what it should be. However, none of those things constitutes an establishment of religion, it merely recognizes that some folks are religious.
It makes more sense now that you mention the prayer breakfast and the prayers during the congressional sessions. Legislative sessions should be secular, heads of state and government should not be participating in public religious celebrations or services, keep religion and government functions separate. No mixing of religious ceremonies and government functions, that´s what separation between State and Church is all about, no influence of religious organizations in political bodies or functions, and vice-versa . I don´t think it is that hard to understand
Has any other (recent) President made such an explicit declaration of his Christian faith?
Thank you Mr. President for remembering Ash Wednesday.