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GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1968 7
4 God In The White House’
Cites Faith Of Presidents
NEW YORK (RNS)--A new book on the religious faith of
Presidents makes a timely appearance' while the attention of the
nation is focused on the next occupant of the White House.
The book, “God in the White
House” by- Edmund Fuller and
David E. Green (Crown
Publishers), offers a series of
vignettes on the faith of the 35
men, from Washington to
Johnson, who served as
Presidents of the United States.
In a short chapter devoted to
each Chief Executive, the reader
is treated to anecdotes and
discussions of his religious
history. At the close of the book
the authors present a brief
“scorecard” evaluation of each of
the Presidents, listing those they
feel to be most religious,
moderately religious and least
religious.
Mr. Fuller and Mr. Green do
not cite the criteria they use in
evaluating a man’s faith or
dedication and offer only a most
general definition of religion in
their opening chapter.
However, “God in the White
House,” provides the reader with
moments of easy reading and
relaxation in the profiles of
Jefferson, Lincoln and the others.
Among those who are called
the “most religious” by the
authors is Abraham Lincoln who
as a boy scrawled in an arithmetic
book:
Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen.
he will be good but
god knows when.
The current President, Lyndon
B. Johnson, is a member of-tfte-
Disciples of Christ but is quite
ecumenical in his church
attendance. He quite frequently
attends Episcopal Church services
(the First Lady is an
Episcopalian) and Roman
Catholic Services (daughter Luci
is a Catholic).
His successor to be, Mr. Nixon,
is a non-pacifist Quaker who
attends Methodist and
Congregational services in
Washington and is a very close
friend of evangelist Billy Graham.
Here are the Presidents rated
“most religious” by Mr. Fuller
and Mr. Green: John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy
Adams, Abraham Lincoln,
Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B.
Hayes, James A. Garfield,
Benjamin Harrison, William
McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt,
Woodrow Wilson.
“Moderately religious
Presidents,” they claim, were
George Washington, James
Madison, James Monroe, Andrew
Jackson, Martin Van Buren, John
Tyler, James K. Polk, Franklin
Pierce, James Buchanan, Grover
Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F.
Kennedy and Lyndon B.
Johnson.
Rev. John F. McDonough, President of the Senate of Priests in the Archdiocese of Atlanta is
pictured as .he spoke at the regional meeting of Priest’s Senates held recently in Savannah. Seated
in the front row are members of the Atlanta Senate who attended the meeting; left to right: Rev.
Arthur Murray O.F.M., Rt. Rev. Msgr. Michael Manning; Rev. Paul Kelly. Father Frank Ruff is
pictured on the third row.
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Although Lincoln never joined
any church, he was, the authors
say, one of our most profoundly
religious Presidents.
The authors break down the
formal religious affiliations of the
nation’s Chief Executives. They
list 6 Episcopalians, 6
Presbyterians, 4 Unitarians, 2
Dutch Reformed, 2 Disciples of
Christ, 2 Baptists, 1
Congregationalst, 1 Quaker (soon
to be 2 when Mr. Nixon takes
office) and 1 Roman Catholic.
Eight Presidents, including Mr.
Lincoln, were “unaffiliated with
any Church, though worshipping
in various ones.”
The ‘‘least religious
Presidents,” the authors claim,
were William Henry Harrison,
Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore,
Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A.
Arthur, William Howard Taft and
Warren G. Harding.
Donald P. Mullen, reviewing
the book for United Press
International, regarded it as an
“excellent reference work.”' He
said the authors had avoided
“easy temptation toward
sardonic comment and have
placed each man in the historical
context of a country whose
evolving religious attitudes have
been publicly stern and privately
permissive.”
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