PIETY AND PRESIDENTS PT. 2
Despite what many Americans believe, the oath does not end with the words “So help me, God” – although many presidents have chosen to add this phrase – and it’s not necessary for the president to place his hand on a Bible or any other text.
THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
The National Prayer Breakfast is an annual event attended by every President of the United States for decades. The first president to attend was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, but it didn't start out as a presidential institution.
Credit for the idea goes back to Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant and Methodist minister who lived in Seattle. In the mid-1930s, Vereide organized local groups of politicians and businessmen to talk and pray together before work. In 1942 Vereide moved to Washington D.C., where he started breakfast prayer groups for House and Senate members. Once Eisenhower's adviser, Senator Frank Carlson, got involved, it became a staple event for the House, Senate and President to connect and, as some described it, to "ask divine guidance." Learn more here.
REVEREND BILLY GRAHAM
You might've noticed this man's name come up a lot in Piety and Presidents Part 1. William Franklin Graham, Jr. was an American evangelist and preacher who has met with every U.S. president from Truman to Trump.
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From modest beginnings on a North Carolina farm, Graham rose to prominence with a fiery preaching style, movie-star good looks, and effortless charm. His early fundamentalist sermons harnessed the apocalyptic anxieties of a post-atomic world, exhorting audiences to adopt the only possible solution: devoting one’s life to Christ. Graham became an international celebrity who built a media empire, preached to millions worldwide, and had the ear of tycoons, royalty and presidents. At age 99, he died a national icon, estimated to have preached in person to 210 million people. Billy Graham examines the evangelist’s extraordinary influence on American politics and culture, interweaving the voices of historians, scholars, witnesses, family, and Graham himself, to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of a singular figure in the American experience.
Billy is survived by his son, Franklin Graham, who backed Trump and, more recently, has been encouraging evangelicals to get vaccinated.
Billy Graham met with every U.S. president from Truman to Trump. The famed evangelist secured his first meeting with a president on July 14, 1950, when he met with Harry S. Truman. His relationships with the presidents spanned administrations, decades, and political parties. Graham was present for many of the most turbulent moments of the latter 20th century, offering spiritual counsel on everything from personal scandal to war. Click here for a gallery of photographs of Billy Graham with a selection of U.S. Presidents from Truman to Trump.