Richard Nixon's Good-Sounding Words At The Presidential Prayer Breakfast, January 30, 1969

This photo of Nixon being sworn into office appeared on the front cover of the April 1969 Decision magazine, published by the Billy Graham Association. The two family Bibles used for the ceremony were open to Isaiah 2:4 (see below). Graham is on the right.

The lead article in the April, 1969, Decision magazine, "One Nation Under God," consisted of the text of a speech by then president Richard Nixon at the 1969 Presidential Prayer Breakfast, just five years before Nixon resigned in disgrace from his office. Nixon's remarks are examples of how the language of evangelical faith became seamlessly tied to American civil religion.

Here are key excerpts:

As I was preparing my inaugural address I did what I am sure every President who has had this responsibility did: I read the ones that had previously been delivered. They were very different, but one theme was common to every one of them. Each President as he was being inaugurated recognized, in his own way, the spiritual heritage of this nation, and asked for the blessing of God upon the country in its affairs at home and abroad.

...One of the great early presidents, Andrew Jackson, came to the Presidency from the battlefield; perhaps those who have read history are not aware of the deep religious faith that he had, which he perhaps had not then expressed, but to which in his later years, and particularly after he left the White House, he often attested.

...when President Jackson was asked to participate in a dedication ceremony marking the Battle of New Orleans, he refused because the ceremony was set for Sunday. Those who were inviting him said, "Mr. President, you fought the Battle of New Orleans on Sunday." President Jackson answered, "That was a matter of necessity. I am now speaking from choice."

...I say to all of you joining us here today at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast that of the many events in which I will participate, none will mean more to me personally. None, I think, will mean more to the members of the Cabinet and the Congress than this occasion. You have inspired us. You have given us a sense of the  continuity of history that brings us together. You have told us in a simple yet eloquent way that great as are the problems that confront us, with faith--faith in our God, faith in the ideals of our country--and with a deep dedication to what our role is in this nation and in the world, we are going to be able to make these next years great for this nation and great years for the world.

I believe that. And it is to that end that we dedicate ourselves today. That objective transcends all partisan considerations, and I am proud to stand here today in your presence; for you by being here indicate that you have not lost faith in this nation. You have not lost faith in the religious background that has sustained us. We are entering a period when, sustained by that faith, we will be able to meet the challenge that is ours--a challenge such as comes to very few people in the history of man. It is America's now.

Whether we succeed or fail will determine whether peace and freedom will survive in this world. We will meet the challenge. We will meet it because we are going to devote every hour of the day to see that we meet it properly. But we will meet it also because we will be sustained and inspired by the prayers of million of people across this world.

Those prayers do mean something, and through the medium of these words I want to thank the people of this nation and the people of the world for praying for us. We trust we shall be worthy of your prayers and of your efforts.

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The article concludes with the following words by Billy Graham:

Two days ago I spent four hours with one of the theoreticians of the "New Left." We debated, we fought, we disagreed, we agreed. He said that within five years, unless his group's demands were granted, they would burn the country down. Then he added that in his opinion the only thing that would save America would be a religious awakening. With that, at least, I agreed.

When President Eisenhower was in Pittsburgh in 1955 he said, The history of free men is never really written by chance, but by choice--their choice." I believe that we have a choice; that our poverty problem, our race problem, the war problem, are problems of the heart, problems of the spirit. This is the basic crisis, and if we can solve the problem of the spirit, all of our problems can be solved. Therefore I believe it is time that we take our eyes off our shortcomings and our failures and put them on Christ, who said, "You must be born again."

...you can have a new birth, and through you, America and the world can have a new birth.

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Here is the Isaiah 2:4 text (New International Version)!

"He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples. 

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore."