A Plea to the President to Attend Church
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
By Dr. Gary Scott Smith
Dear Mr. President,

Remember all the analysis immediately after your election this past November regarding where you and your family would attend church? Newspapers and websites were filled with stories about where you would go, and numerous congregations in Washington invited you, your wife, and children to attend their Sunday morning services. Although Americans have usually displayed substantial interest in where their presidents attended church while in office, never before had there been such fascination with this issue before a president was inaugurated. At present, this focus seems ironic because you and your family have attended church in Washington only once—on Easter Sunday—since you took office (although you have attended a few services at Camp David).

Americans acknowledge that you are a very busy man with incredibly important responsibilities. We also recognize the typical reasons some of your predecessors have given for not attending church regularly and you have sometimes used: they did not want to divert other worshippers’ attention from God to themselves, they did not want to subject other congregants to metal detectors and security concerns, they found it difficult to worship when others appeared to being watching them, or they wanted to use Sunday morning for other activities such as golf or stamp collecting. However, these reasons have not deterred several of your recent predecessors, and the benefits of attending more than compensate for the problems they involve.

As you know, attending Sunday morning worship enables you to worship God, which for Christians is both a responsibility and privilege. These services help supply you with moral inspiration and spiritual strength, which are vital to your work as president. Attending habitually will also enable your wife and children to receive biblical instruction and Christian nurture. You have repeatedly claimed that your faith is important to you and helps guide your political priorities, policies, and work. You have frequently used religious rhetoric and scriptural principles and passages to support legislation you are promoting. You have also sought to enlist clergy, committed lay Christians, and religious organizations to work to achieve causes in which you believe strongly. Moreover, attending church faithfully would testify to your professed values and help you gain greater credibility with religious Americans.

Equally important, your regular attendance would set a good example for our nation. In other ways your actions have been exemplary. Through White House initiatives, commercials, and magazine interviews you have exhorted men to be good fathers and spend time with their children. Addressing the NAACP this summer, you challenged African Americans not to accept the sense of limitation that discrimination has tried to force upon them and to stop expecting “so little from the world and from themselves.” You instructed parents to take responsibility for their children, help them learn, and encourage them to aspire to be scientists, engineers, doctors, and teachers rather than athletes and rappers. Your recent speech to schoolchildren urged them to develop their “talents, skills and intellect,” set high goals, work hard, and persevere when they fail. You pushed them to do all their homework, pay attention in class, and read a book every day.

As our nation’s first African-American president, you obviously care about being a positive role model. You often use your own experiences, struggles, and accomplishments to prod and inspire others. You invite others to look at your life as an example. Thus, it is especially important to support your profession of Christian faith by fellowshipping and worshipping with other believers.

Before your inauguration, a reporter asked me if you might choose not to attend church. I responded that this was very unlikely because you frequently claimed that your faith is genuine and that you derived insight and direction from worship and prayer. Moreover, you appeared to want to provide a church home and experience for your family. I added that your desire to set a good example and maintain positive relations with religious conservatives, many of whom criticize your positions on various moral and political issues, also made your regular church attendance likely. So far, Mr. President, I have been wrong.

Many of your predecessors attended church faithfully, including several (most notably George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower) who went only sporadically before taking office. They did so in large part to help them deal more effectively with the burdens of their role, gain spiritual strength, and supply a positive example.

In an ABC interview in January, you said, “I’ve got a wonderful community of people who are praying for me every day … but it’s not the same as going to church” and hearing a choral anthem and “a good sermon.” One excellent way to demonstrate your Christian commitment, which some Americans question, and provide spiritual nurture for yourself and for your family, is to attend church consistently.

Sincerely,

Gary Scott Smith

Dr. Gary Scott Smith chairs the history department at Grove City College and is author of “Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush” (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is also a fellow for faith and the presidency with The Center for Vision & Values.

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Since when do we tell Our president what to do and not do when it comes to religion? Where is this seperation of church and state I keep hearing about. I would be insulted if I got a letter like that. I don't know who this guy is, but he has no business treating the president like a child that can't make his own decision.

The older I get the more I shake my head at in your face religion.

I don't think that going to church to get votes is the right reason to go.

Probably since Lincoln or so, when the Empire began to become truly invasive into the average person's life. (16th amendment, civil war, etc.)

I don't care if a president goes to church or not.

I second that

I think the President did have a church home before all the hoopla about Reverend Wright. When you have had a church home for that long, it is hard to just pick up at another church on a regular basis. He is busy with many things, I am sure he has spiritual advisors and also the option to have private ceremonies at home for his family. In any case, I agree that worship is important but not everyone has to follow the crowd and attend a building every week. Its how one lives their life which is morst imporant. When he finds someplace that feels like home, I hope he can fellowship there on some consistent basis.

I think it matters NOT if the prez goes to church... since MOST of the worlds evil starts with the church I would prefer he DIDN'T go.. but that is just me..

but waht IS important is the fact that we are talkin about a guy who was (and I think IS) Muslim.. who was questioned about that fact and then tried to cover it by sayin I was going to this church here (which he can't even claim anymore for the Racism of the pastor)..

and NOW that he is in ofice where he is supposed to uphold the promises of his campaign, he is not keepin the one he made to cover his questionable relegious loyalties....

you REALLY think he is gonna worry about keepin ANY of the rest??

you still wonder where his loyalty lies???

with the ones pullin his strings!!!!

and he IS worshiping from home.. the same lord and master as before... $$$$$ and POWER!!!

I can't believe any american would believe Obama is Muslim in any way.

Why do you think Obama is a muslim?

I agree Boo. I can also see where this will head. In the next election, the Republican base will have moved even more toward the right and brimming with the Evangelicals. They will use topics like this to attack President Obama and try to solidify the "Christian" vote for the right wing.

I was just as shocked when they held that McCain/Obama debate at that Saddleback Church.

I was not shocked by Warren's invitation. But it made me realize how naive Obama is about Religion and it's ultimate agenda. Obama was being used big time.

not sure yet on how you quote things on here yet as this is my second posting... but give me time...

so I will say it like this...

if you actually read up on our Prez yu will find out LOTS of things about the guy theat will make you wonder what the HELL was wrong with people to think this guy was gonna "change" anything to help ANYONE other than the select few rich folks who have gotten rich from controling puppets in power all around the world...

so read up on the facts not just repeat the **** you are told on TV..

this is seriously a bad time in american history...

or a good time if you are awaiting it's demise..
cause we-- just like rome, spain, england and every other corupt tyranical EMPIRE-- are comin to the point where we have over balanced ourselves beyond repair. And the only thing left to do is fall.

but SMILE and keep on routing for your team .. be it politics, CHURCH, sports, beer, race, music or what ever it is you focus your life on.. the powers that be want it that way!!!!

I was constantly investigating Obama before the election. It's ludicrous to even think that he MIGHT be a Muslim. Btw, when I investigated McCain and Obama, I liked to read the most unbiased sources of information that I could find.

Dr. Gary Scott sounds like a phoney Christian to be judgeing others faith and so forth. Sounds like he is just trying to get publicity for his book. This particular letter does not sound like Christian guidance but it does sound like a political, maybe even personal, attack.

I think it is a pretty big assumption that the President is not in fact attending a church of his choice. I do not think God requires anyone to worship publiclly but somewhere I remember where it says where two or more are gather in my name is a church.

Since he has at his constant disposal a military chaplain and probably many other faith leaders to assume that he or his family is not getting religious counsel is pretty short sighted.

Maybe even the one he has for years. I would expect that their services are broadcasted and he, like many, may participate from the privacy of his home with his family.

That Our President is considerate enough not to turn regular worship services into what is basically a logistics nightmare for other congregants seems particularly considerate to me.

The fact that he does not set up his choice of faith as an example of how American's should practice their's is ok with me. I like the idea of seperation of church and state and people following their Oath of Office.

With so many perverted versions of Christianity out there I would like the best chance that I can get to practice my own. Certainly wouldn't be a few that seem to be getting a lot of the airtime and media attention. Been then we are warned about false prophets.

I'm just waiting for someone bustin' him with his prayer mat after his ciggarett break.

Well that would depend on the source. I'd be curious where you got your information.

You would click Quote instead of Reply, then scroll the reply box, add your response AFTER the last quote tag which looks like this [ /quote ]

figgured out the quote thing...

I have recieved most of my info from self done research and following links and leads from and to things on the internet as well as several books on the topics of world domination and the control of the rich and powerful throughout history.

and a lot can be said for watch the TV with a jaded sense of what is being force fed to me and by WHO!!!

you know no matter what magazine or paper .. news channel or network you are watching it all comes through the hands of 5 count them 5 rich guys... you think they would want to own these industies unless they WANTED to influence what you know and become aware of??

Thanks for answering. When I go to the library to look for a books on a specific topic or issue, I find that it depends on where you fall as a liberal or a conservative or whatever, which author or title you will be attracted to.

I look for the issue first, then read about the author, and most of us are pretty good and figuring out where they stand by their bio or the summary of the book. I tend to read books by the the more 'left leaning' last because if I read it first I can be tainted by my own bias.

So I go after the author on the same subject that I don't particularly agree or even like sometimes and read theirs first.

All sides will have a different take on history. It's a bit frustrating because you could spend your entire life reading and doing nothing else just to find the truth. Just as you have to watch both sides on tv then research on top of that to get the truth or something resembling it.

And government is boring to me so it's a task I don't relish.

Unfortunately the extremes on all sides of politics are the influences that get the most attention.