'America's Enduring Prayer' — 19 Years Ago

After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon 19 years ago, on Sept. 14, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld offered this “Prayer at Cabinet Meeting” on our “National Day of Prayer and Remembrance”:

Ever-faithful God, in death we are reminded of the precious birthrights of life and liberty You endowed in Your American people. You have shown once again that these gifts must never be taken for granted.

We pledge to those whom You have called home, and ask of You-

Patience, to measure our lust for action;

Resolve, to strengthen our obligation to lead;

Wisdom, to illuminate our pursuit of justice, and;

Strength, in defense of liberty.

We seek Your special blessing today for those who stand as sword and shield, protecting the many from the tyranny of the few. Our enduring prayer is that You shall always guide our labors and that our battles shall always be just.

We pray this day, Heavenly Father, the prayer our nation learned at another time of righteous struggle and noble cause-America’s enduring prayer: Not that God will be on our side, but always, O Lord, that America will be on Your side.

Amen.

Secretary Rumsfeld was paraphrasing President Abraham Lincoln’s famous admonition to one of his advisers in the heat of the American Civil War: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

On this 19th anniversary of our “National Day of Prayer and Remembrance,” we all should remember not only those who have died in defense of our liberty, but we should also remember that Congress has directed by statute (5 U.S.C. §3331) that every “individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath” (as explained in my last article, the President’s oath is prescribed by the Constitution itself):

“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

In my Independence Day “Support and Defend” article, “1775 Declaration Foreshadowed Current Need for Unity,” I explained how the term “domestic enemies” is deeply embedded in American history. For example, in our July 6, 1775, “Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms,” Thomas Jefferson and his co-authors observed that “schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us,” and in that context declared that, “We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. — The latter is our choice. — We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.”

May our Heavenly Father continue to bless this great nation as we face new forms of civil strife and other threats to our liberty, fomented by “foreign and domestic” enemies of our Constitution, including “invisible enemies.”

And may we always “be on God’s side, for God is always right.”