I frequently attended meetings at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC during my years of pastoral ministry. As I entered the church, I often passed by the “Eisenhower kneeler.” President Dwight W. Eisenhower (1890-1969) knelt for baptism on that kneeler ten days after his inauguration as our country’s thirty-fourth president in 1953. He’s the only president ever baptized while occupying the oval office.
President Eisenhower was raised in the River Brethren Church in Abilene, Kansas, an offshoot of the Mennonite faith. Like our founders, he believed religion played an indispensable role in American democracy. He instituted the National Prayer Breakfast and welcomed Billy Graham to the White House. He signed into law the addition of the phrase, “under God” to our Pledge of Allegiance and “In God we Trust” to paper currency.
By all accounts, Dwight was a deeply religious man. He attended worship regularly and referenced Scripture often in his speeches. As Supreme Commander of the Allied forces during the Second World War, he witnessed firsthand the atrocities of war. He said in 1967, “The business of the church is to put us generals out of business.”
President Eisenhower delivered his inaugural address on January 10, 1953, beginning his remarks by leading our nation in prayer. The very idea of a sitting president praying for the nation he was about to lead seems unimaginable in our time. He wrote the following prayer on hotel stationary on the evening before his inauguration: