Presidential prayers

I was gratified to hear President Donald Trump recite President Franklin Roosevelt’s DDay prayer (June 5 online, “Trump reads from FDR’s prayer to the U.S. on D-Day”). It reminded us of a time when America acknowledged its belief in Almighty God, when we knew our nation had been especially blessed.

That was a time when all our institutions, public and private, recognized our creator as the source of human rights. Law had to accord with God’s will to be valid. Sundays were set aside for church and family. Both political parties condemned sin and praised virtue. It was a time of greater unity because Americans shared a common worldview based on our Judeo-Christian culture.

What happened? The answers are many: Atheists sued to purge religion from our laws and schools; libertines pushed for radical changes in our sexual mores; Marxists divided us into classes of oppressors and victims.

Seventy-five years ago, America faced dangerous enemies on faraway fields of battle. Today we face an even greater foe here at home. He is Satan, the infernal divider. Let’s hope we can again become one nation, under God, as our Pledge of Allegiance says. Or, in the words of our national motto, E pluribus unum (“Out of many, one”). BRAD TUPI

Upper St. Clair