I am really trying to not focus on politics on my blog, and this is not meant to be political. However, one of my pet peeves is how our nation's history is being rewritten by liberal revisionists and this article on the first inauguration  fits in with that theme. I received it in an email from Wallbuilders. Wallbuilders is an organization who's goal is to remember "America's Religious Heritage". Again, it is rather lengthy, so I will start it off and then leave the link if you are interested and want to finish it.

America's Religious Heritage

As Demonstrated in Presidential Inaugurations

Religious activities at presidential inaugurations have become the target of criticism in recent years, ¹ with legal challenges being filed to halt activities as simple as inaugural prayers and the use of "so help me God" in the presidential oath. ² These critics - evidently based on a deficient education - wrongly believe that the official governmental arena is to be aggressively secular and religion-free. The history of inaugurations provides some of the most authoritative proof of the fallacy of these modern arguments.

In fact, since America's first inauguration in 1789 included seven distinct religious activities, that original inauguration is worthy of review. Every inauguration since 1789 has included numerous of those activities.

The First Inauguration

Constitutional experts abounded at America's first inauguration. Not only was the first inauguree (George Washington) a signer of the Constitution but numerous drafters of the Constitution were serving in the Congress that organized and directed that first inauguration. In fact, just under one fourth of the members of the first Congress had been delegates to the Convention that wrote the Constitution. ³ Furthermore, the identical Congress that directed and oversaw these inaugural activities also penned the First Amendment. Having therefore produced both the Constitution and all of its clauses on religion, they clearly knew what types of religious activities were and were not constitutional. Clearly, then, the religious activities that occurred at the first inauguration may well be said to have the approval and imprimatur of the greatest collection of constitutional experts America has ever known. Therefore, a review of the religious activities acceptable in that first inauguration will provide guidance for citizens in general and critics in particular

www.wallbuilders.com

To finish this article, or to find our more about Wallbuilders, click on this link.

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Recently I emailed our soon to be outgoing president to thank him for his years of service to our country. As a tribute to him, I would like to share that email with you.

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Yesterday I was very pleased to hear (on Fox News of course!) that the Obama's went to church and are actively seeking a church to regularly attend. That was very encouraging! I continue to pray for the President Elect and his administration and hope, for the sake of our country, that his presidency is a Godly, successful one.

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President Abraham Lincoln has been in the news a lot lately. In an interview recently, President Bush remarked that he has studied our 16th president much during his own presidency. Our soon to be 44th president, Barack Obama, has also spoken of him frequently. It is no secret that president-elect Obama is a great admirer of Lincoln's. He mentioned him several times during his campaign; he and his family quietly visited the Lincoln Memorial late in the evening last week; he is even being sworn in with his hand resting on the exact Bible that President Lincoln was sworn in on. Fox News (who else?) just had a professor who opined at how similar their individual roads to the White House have been.

Although I have enjoyed the study of history and politics since my youth, I must admit that I have not taken a deep look into Abraham Lincoln's faith until recently. I have seen the pictures of Lincoln with his head bowed and heard the commentary by others about his Christianity and knew that he was a believer in God. However, all of the recent talk has prompted me to research how much of a part God actually played in Lincoln's presidency. My research has been brief and certainly not thorough and there are many views, favorable and unfavorable regarding his presidency, but there are three things that most of the researchers agree upon regarding his faith:

1. He regularly attended church.

2. He daily sought God's help, through prayer, in making decisions regarding our country.

3. He constantly referred to God in his speeches and in his writings.

It was interesting to learn that both our soon to be out going president and our soon to be president both admired Abraham Lincoln. It will be left up to the historians to determine how President Bush's presidency compares to Lincoln's and time will tell how similar Lincoln and President-elect Obama are. I sincerely pray, though, that, out of the many good qualities that Lincoln had, our new leader chooses to follow him in the above three areas. Recent reports about Obama's church attendance are not encouraging. Unfortunately, he seems to be more interested in his exercise regime than going to church. But, it has always been my honor to pray for our elected leaders whether I agree with their politics or not and I will continue to do so. This is certainly a historic time for the United States. For the first time in our history, we will be inaugurating an African American as our president. It is a great day for America. I think Abraham Lincoln would be proud. I sincerely hope, though, that President Obama will see fit to not only follow Lincoln politically, but spiritually as well. If he does, despite political affiliations, President Obama's term in office will be prosperous and great. That is something that we can all pray for.

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Mood:  don't ask

If there were a magical way that you could see my face as I am writing this, you would see a very frustrated face. The emoticon above comes close (although I am not quite to the skeletal stage yet)!

Anyway, I must have spent 30 - 45 minutes the other day trying to find a way for John Allen's shooting pictures to show up. I thought they were finally posted. Well, I am at the library and just checked the website, and the pictures aren't working! If you click on any one of them, you only get the first picture in the album. I am so sorry for those of you who have clicked on the links and gotten nothing. I am going to try and figure it out when I get home tonight, but in the meantime, if you want to see JA's pictures, click on any one of the links that I now have and you will come to the first picture in the album. Click on the album, and the three pictures are numbers 75, 345, and 520.

Sorry again. I will try to get it corrected as soon as possible.

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