Faith & the American Presidency Issue 99 | 2008

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Pop Quiz: Which U.S. President does each of these statements describe?

1. He was the first president to use the phrase "this nation under God."

2. The words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance while he was president.

3. He was in favor of removing the motto "In God We Trust" from new minted coins because he thought that the association of God and money was "sacrilegious" and that it "cheapened and trivialized the trust in God it was intended to promote."

4. A group of Baptists in western Massachusetts was so grateful for this president's defense of religious liberty that they presented him with a 1,235-pound cheese made from the milk of 900 "Republican" cows.

5. He was the nation's first Quaker president, winning the election over Al Smith, the first Catholic to run as a major party candidate.

6. His claim to be "born again" drew national media attention and led Newsweek magazine to proclaim his election year "The Year of the Evangelical."

7. He was frequently compared to Moses, Joshua, King David, and sometimes even Jesus.

8. Though earlier presidents set aside days of prayer and thanksgiving, this president's wartime proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November set the precedent for our modern Thanksgiving Day.

9. He was given a Torah by Israeli President Chaim Weizmann as thanks for his recognition of the new State of Israel.

10. Long before the "Jesus Seminar" was conceived, he created his own version of the Gospels by cutting out any passages that related to Jesus' miracles and divinity and leaving in those that showed his moral teachings.

11. He called the Bible "the Magna Charta of the human soul."

12. His wife said during his election campaign, "I think it's ...