Roosevelt Flayed

Editor Lewis Oliver Hartman of Zion's Herald, 112-year-old voice of Methodism in New England, had heard no "call to prayer from the pen of the present President of the United States." He felt "impressed with the crying need of such a summons at a time like this." So Editor Hartman printed on the cover of his last week's issue a call to prayer by Abraham Lincoln and on his editorial page he sorrowfully flayed Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"To be sure," wrote Editor Hartman, "there is here and there a little lip-service to the Almighty and upon occasion the President worships in a historic Washington church. Doubtless in his private life he recognizes an Unseen Power. But we cannot forget that Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated his term, not by any provision to quench the spiritual thirst of the American people with the water that springs up into eternal life, but with the unloosing of the liquor evil. . . ."

Calling the President's efforts to end unemployment a "noble ministry," Editor Hartman nevertheless declared: "But the whole task of reconstruction has been conceived in materialistic terms. God has been left out. We do not mean by this that His name has not been mentioned, but that there has been a strange and persistent failure to recognize those higher spiritual meanings and values for which the word 'God' stands. Although there are 60,000,000 church members in the United States of America, when has Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an earnest and arresting call . . . for their help in the present crisis? . . . To what extent has the President consulted with churchmen in the course of his interminable conferences with big business men and labor leaders scrambling for material advantage?"

Concluded Editor Hartman : "The President has not yet caught up with the social creed of the churches. He is dillydallying with the profitmakers. . . ."

On Zion's Herald's cover was a proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.* In this, one of at least three calls to prayer uttered by President Lincoln, he reminded the nation that "we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God." Indeed, wrote the President, "may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins? . . ."

Accordingly Abraham Lincoln designated April 30, 1863 as a day of "national humiliation, fasting and prayer." Citizens were to abstain from secular pursuits "and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord." Concluded the proclamation: "All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high. . . ."

*Abraham Lincoln never joined a church. Said he: "Whenever I find a church that takes as its creed, 'To love God with all one's heart and soul and strength and mind and one's neighbor as himself,' I will join that church."

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