Dwight D. Eisenhower1953-1961

"I am the most intensely religious man I know," Dwight Eisenhower, former commanding general of the American forces in World War II, stated after returning to civilian life. "Nobody goes through six years of war without faith. That doesn't mean that I adhere to any sect. A democracy cannot exist without a religious base. I believe in democracy."
Deeply religious, Eisenhower's mother and father were both members of the Brethren in Christ Church, a Mennonite offshoot in Kansas, and were later involved in the "Bible Student" movement, a forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses. Eisenhower recalled that his parents "believed the admonition 'the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.' Their Bibles were a live and lusty influence on their lives." At home and in town, his childhood revolved around religion. Eisenhower wrote of his childhood hometown, Abilene, Kan.: "The schools were three in number; churches abounded. From memory alone I can identify seven and everybody I knew went to church. (The only exception were people we thought of as the toughs -- poolroom sharks, we called them.) Social life was centered around the churches. Church picnics, usually held on the riverbank, were an opportunity to gorge on fried chicken, potato salad, and apple pie. The men pitched horseshoes, the women knitted and talked, the youngsters fished, and everyone recovered from the meal."
Though Eisenhower was not a member of a church when elected president in 1952, he became the first and only president to write and read his own prayer at his inaugural ceremony in 1953. "I did not want my Inaugural Address to be a sermon, by any means; I was not a man of the cloth," he explained. "But there was embedded in me from boyhood, just as it was in my brothers, a deep faith in the beneficence of the Almighty. I wanted, then, to make this faith clear without creating the impression that I intended, as the political leader of the United States, to avoid my own responsibilities in an effort to pass them on to the Deity. I was seeking a way to point out that we were getting too secular."
As the Cold War loomed, Christian leaders encouraged Americans to turn to God and away from secularism. Eisenhower agreed, saying, "Our form of government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious belief, and I don't care what it is." Eisenhower showed his commitment by joining the Presbyterian Church, in which his wife, Mamie, had been a longtime member, just weeks after taking office. He became the first president to be baptized while in office.
The following year, Eisenhower went further, signing a bill to add the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. At the bill-signing ceremony on Flag Day in 1954, he said, "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country's true meaning. Especially is this meaningful as we regard today's world. Over the globe, mankind has been cruelly torn by violence and brutality and, by the millions, deadened in mind and soul by a materialistic philosophy of life. Man everywhere is appalled by the prospect of atomic war. In this somber setting, this law and its effects today have profound meaning. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war."