And I don't care what it is: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|And this is how they [the Founding Fathers in 1776] explained those: 'we hold that all men are endowed by their Creator...' not by the accident of their birth, not by the color of their skins or by anything else, but 'all men are endowed by their Creator.' In other words, our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply-felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is. With us of course it is the Judeo-Christian concept, but it must be a religion with all men are created equal.<ref>Henry (1981) p. 41; Henry gives the slight variations found in three reports of the speech.</ref>}} |
{{quote|And this is how they [the Founding Fathers in 1776] explained those: 'we hold that all men are endowed by their Creator...' not by the accident of their birth, not by the color of their skins or by anything else, but 'all men are endowed by their Creator.' In other words, our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply-felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is. With us of course it is the Judeo-Christian concept, but it must be a religion with all men are created equal.<ref>Henry (1981) p. 41; Henry gives the slight variations found in three reports of the speech.</ref>}} |
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Henry concludes that the "I don't care what it is" line meant that Eisenhower was including other religious possibilities, such as a Buddhist democracy.<ref>Henry (1981) p. 41.</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 07:09, 10 April 2014
"And I don't care what it is" is a phrase attributed to U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, and often misquoted.[1] For example, one encyclopedia says: "Eisenhower once remarked that 'America makes no sense without a deeply held faith in God—and I don't care what it is.'"[2] Some commentators, such as Will Herberg, argued that Eisenhower favored a generic, watered-down religion, or ridiculed Eisenhower's banality.[3] What Eisenhower actually said, when he was President-elect, was that the American form of government since 1776 was based on Judeo-Christian moral values. Speaking extemporaneously on December 22, 1952, a month before his inauguration, Eisenhower actually said:
And this is how they [the Founding Fathers in 1776] explained those: 'we hold that all men are endowed by their Creator...' not by the accident of their birth, not by the color of their skins or by anything else, but 'all men are endowed by their Creator.' In other words, our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply-felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is. With us of course it is the Judeo-Christian concept, but it must be a religion with all men are created equal.[4]
Henry concludes that the "I don't care what it is" line meant that Eisenhower was including other religious possibilities, such as a Buddhist democracy.[5]
See also
Notes
- Henry, Patrick. "And I Don't Care What It Is": The Tradition-History Of A Civil Religion Proof-Text," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 1981, Vol. 49, Issue 1, pp. 35-47.
Further reading
- Gunn, T. Jeremy (2008). Spiritual Weapons: The Cold War and the Forging of an American National Religion. ABC-CLIO. pp. 55–56.
