Yesterday was Sunday, and I have been thinking why a person of faith might be a better American this week because of it....
This excerpt from Andrew Preston's Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy is moving, and speaks for itself:
"But even before Lend-Lease was finalized, Roosevelt felt it necessary to tell Churchill and the British cabinet that the United States was committed to their survival. In January, he sent Harry Hopkins to London to confer with Churchill and impress upon the British a sense of Anglo-American solidarity. 'The President is determined that we shall win the war together. Make no mistake about it,' Hopkins told Churchill shortly after arriving in an England under siege. 'He has sent me here to tell you that at all costs and by all means he will carry you through, no matter what happens to him--there is nothing that he will not do so far as he has human power.' Weeks later, at a dinner in Glasgow, Hopkins imparted the same message with a great deal more emotion. Rather than try to emulate Churchill's soaring rhetoric, Hopkins simply quoted from a passage in the Book of Ruth (1:16): 'Wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Even to the end.' Hopkins had meant to be reassuring, but the effect of his words was far greater than he had intended. According to Churchill's personal physician, who was at the dinner, the prime minister 'was in tears. He knew what it meant.' Hopkins' impromptu sermon 'seemed like a rope thrown to a drowning man.' Though comments were censored for fear of antagonizing isolationists in the United States, presidential speechwriter Robert Sherwood recalled that 'word of it spread all over Britain.' Lord Beaverbrook, in charge of Britain's wartime industrial production, told Sherwood that Hopkins's biblical pledge 'provided more tangible aid for Britain than had all the destroyers and guns and rifles and ammunition that had been sent previously.' (page 349)"
Now listen to the YouTube video below.
This excerpt from Andrew Preston's Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy is moving, and speaks for itself:
"But even before Lend-Lease was finalized, Roosevelt felt it necessary to tell Churchill and the British cabinet that the United States was committed to their survival. In January, he sent Harry Hopkins to London to confer with Churchill and impress upon the British a sense of Anglo-American solidarity. 'The President is determined that we shall win the war together. Make no mistake about it,' Hopkins told Churchill shortly after arriving in an England under siege. 'He has sent me here to tell you that at all costs and by all means he will carry you through, no matter what happens to him--there is nothing that he will not do so far as he has human power.' Weeks later, at a dinner in Glasgow, Hopkins imparted the same message with a great deal more emotion. Rather than try to emulate Churchill's soaring rhetoric, Hopkins simply quoted from a passage in the Book of Ruth (1:16): 'Wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Even to the end.' Hopkins had meant to be reassuring, but the effect of his words was far greater than he had intended. According to Churchill's personal physician, who was at the dinner, the prime minister 'was in tears. He knew what it meant.' Hopkins' impromptu sermon 'seemed like a rope thrown to a drowning man.' Though comments were censored for fear of antagonizing isolationists in the United States, presidential speechwriter Robert Sherwood recalled that 'word of it spread all over Britain.' Lord Beaverbrook, in charge of Britain's wartime industrial production, told Sherwood that Hopkins's biblical pledge 'provided more tangible aid for Britain than had all the destroyers and guns and rifles and ammunition that had been sent previously.' (page 349)"
Now listen to the YouTube video below.
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