🇺🇸 God And Trump: 5 Revealing Quotes From Inaugural Week 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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(ANALYSIS) God figured prominently — and personally — in President Donald Trump’s second inaugural address.
In fact, Trump mentioned God four times in Monday’s speech — just as he did in 2017, the first time he took the oath of office.
References to God are, of course, not unusual on Inauguration Day — by Democrats and Republicans.
A president’s remarks have neglected to cite God by name only once in the past century, a review by Religion Unplugged found. That occurred at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1937 inauguration.
However, the other three times Roosevelt was sworn in — 1933, 1941 and 1945 — he did mention God.
“The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways,” Roosevelt said in his final inaugural address.
Multiple references to God on Inauguration Day are common, too, including eight times by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, six by President Richard Nixon in 1969 and five by President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013 and Reagan in 1981.
Most commonly, presidents end their speech with some variation of “God bless you, and God bless America.”
That was the case with President Joe Biden in 2021, Trump in 2017, Obama in 2009 and 2013, President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2005, President Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1997, and so on.
One of the nation’s most religious leaders — President Jimmy Carter — made only one reference to God in his 1977 inaugural address.
But Carter’s quotation was powerful, as we noted after his recent funeral.
“Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first president, in 1789,” Carter said, “and I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me a few years ago, opened to a timeless admonition from the ancient prophet Micah: ‘He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.’ (Micah 6: 8).”
Trump’s latest inaugural speech was notable not for its inclusion of God but for the specific personal nature of what he said.
More on that right now as we highlight five revealing quotes from the week’s inaugural events:
1. “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Trump has repeatedly attributed his survival of the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally to God.
“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he said at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, five days after a bullet grazed his ear.
He repeated that belief Monday, saying: “Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. … But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
The Rev. Franklin Graham, who gave an invocation at the inauguration, shared that perspective: “Mr. President, the last four years there were times I'm sure you thought it was pretty dark, but look what God has done. We praise him and give him glory.”
(There was a mini-controversy over Trump not placing his hand on a Bible during his swearing in. Graham offered an explanation.)
2. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Washington, caused a firestorm with that statement at a post-inauguration prayer service Tuesday.
Budde cited concerns by the LGBTQ+ community and migrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
Trump, who was in the audience, responded on social media, saying the bishop “was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people.”
Associated Press religion writer Tiffany Stanley noted:
The strong reactions to Budde’s sermon largely fell along predictable political and religious lines. Progressive people of faith found in her an inspiring example of “speaking truth to power.” Some conservative religious voices found her plea confrontational and disrespectful. Others took issue with a woman in a powerful church leadership role, which their traditions reserve for men.
3. "America! America! God shed his grace on thee."
In case you didn’t know (you undoubtedly do), that is a line from “America the Beautiful,” the patriotic song Carrie Underwood sang at Monday’s inauguration.
The actual quote that sticks with me is this: “I can just sing it.”
That’s what Underwood — my fellow Oklahoman — said after an awkward hiccup with the music.
Underwood’s a cappella rendition impressed many as a beautiful, unifying moment (even if not everyone saw it that way).
4. "'Free at last, free at last. Thank you God Almighty, we are free at last.'"
For just the third time, Inauguration Day coincided with the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, a pastor from Michigan, heavily cited King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in his inaugural benediction.
The African American was a mainstay of Trump’s 2024 campaign, AP noted.
5. “No matter who is in office, we know that God is in control."
So said Tayon Williams Dancy of Apex, North Carolina, as quoted by USA Today.
As thousands watched Trump deliver his inaugural speech in Washington, Dancy and her husband, Bennett Jacoby Dancy, joined hundreds — from the opposite side of the political aisle — who packed the pews at the Metropolitan AME Church across town.
“I take this oath that I will not become like those I'm fighting," the crowd at the historic Black church repeated aloud. “I will peacefully stand against those that want to bring us down."
Inside The Godbeat
NPR had an interesting story last month headlined “Ohio State University football players are leading a religious revival on campus.”
Ohio State defeated Notre Dame 34-23 Monday night to claim its sixth (or is it the seventh or ninth?) national football title and its first in a decade.
The win made the Buckeyes the champion of the sport’s first 12-team playoff.
The Final Plug
Last weekend, my wife, Tamie, and I visited the rural southeastern Oklahoma church where her brother, Tod Dillard, and his wife, Tracie, are members.
I happened to sit next to Carl McAdams, a two-time All-America linebacker at Oklahoma and Super Bowl III winner with the New York Jets. As McAdams pointed out all his children and grandchildren in the row in front of us, I asked if his entire family always attended the little church.
Nope, he said. This was a special day. McAdams, who is 80, was going to be baptized.
That sounded like a story to this religion writer. And it was.
Carl McAdams, in the Oklahoma Sooners T-shirt, poses for a photo with his wife, children and grandchildren after his baptism Sunday. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.