An oil painting of George Washington taking the oath of office as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, in New York City. Ramon de Elorriaga/Encyclopedia Britannica via Wikimedia Commons
The Conversation
January 08, 2025
On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And then he will probably add the phrase “so help me God.”
Those four little words are not in the Constitution, but for many Americans, the phrase has been a part of the oath ever since George Washington was said to have added it 236 years ago.
But did Washington really say “so help me God?” There is no evidence that he did. In fact, no one said he did until 1854, 65 years later, when Rufus Griswold, an editor and literary critic, told the story in a book titled “The Republican Court”: “[Washington] added, with fervor, his eyes closed, that his whole soul might be absorbed in the supplication, ‘So help me God!’”
As a professor of U.S. history, I don’t care if Washington said it or not; my interest is in how quickly “so help me God” became established in the American national memory.
For a 2014 article titled “In Griswold We Trust,” I used various online databases such as Google Books, Internet Archive, American Periodicals Series and Newspapers.com to search for the phrase. Before 1854, there are no accounts of Washington saying “so help me God” at the end of the oath – at least in the millions of print records covered by the databases. Then Griswold told the story, and by the end of the 1850s, almost a dozen books and magazine articles had repeated it. Griswold’s story was so thoroughly accepted that, through the 20th century, no one, including academic scholars, thought to question it.
The best way to understand Griswold’s mythic insertion of “so help me God” into the presidential oath is through the lens of Christian nationalism. While the phrase is relatively new, Christian nationalism itself has been around for a long time.
Second Great Awakening
Scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry have defined Christian nationalism as “a cultural framework … that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.”
Christian nationalism was big in the early 19th century. Legal scholar Steven K. Green noted in his 2015 book, “Inventing a Christian America,” that the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant evangelical revival movement that peaked in the 1830s, “brought about … a desire to see religious values reflected in the nation’s culture and institutions.”
Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, took things a step further when he told his congregation in 1828 that only leaders “known to be avowedly Christians” should be elected.
In the words of religious studies scholar Richard Hughes, many participants in the Second Great Awakening “sought to transform the nation into a Christian Republic.” In its aftermath, Griswold’s account of Washington prayerfully adding “so help me God” to the presidential oath became part of America’s Christian creation myth.
Another age, another “so help me God” story
Like many cultural ideas, Christian nationalism has waxed and waned through American history. It was popular again in the years just after World War II, a time of increased tensions between the United States and the “godless communists” of the Soviet Union.
Religion was an important weapon in the Cold War. As Sen. Joseph McCarthy said, “The fate of the world rests with the clash between the atheism of Moscow and the Christian spirit throughout other parts of the world.”
In this Cold War context, the U.S. added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, made “In God We Trust” the country’s national motto and created a new version of the Griswold story: that every president, not just Washington, had ended their oath of office with “so help me God.”
On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And then he will probably add the phrase “so help me God.”
Those four little words are not in the Constitution, but for many Americans, the phrase has been a part of the oath ever since George Washington was said to have added it 236 years ago.
But did Washington really say “so help me God?” There is no evidence that he did. In fact, no one said he did until 1854, 65 years later, when Rufus Griswold, an editor and literary critic, told the story in a book titled “The Republican Court”: “[Washington] added, with fervor, his eyes closed, that his whole soul might be absorbed in the supplication, ‘So help me God!’”
As a professor of U.S. history, I don’t care if Washington said it or not; my interest is in how quickly “so help me God” became established in the American national memory.
For a 2014 article titled “In Griswold We Trust,” I used various online databases such as Google Books, Internet Archive, American Periodicals Series and Newspapers.com to search for the phrase. Before 1854, there are no accounts of Washington saying “so help me God” at the end of the oath – at least in the millions of print records covered by the databases. Then Griswold told the story, and by the end of the 1850s, almost a dozen books and magazine articles had repeated it. Griswold’s story was so thoroughly accepted that, through the 20th century, no one, including academic scholars, thought to question it.
The best way to understand Griswold’s mythic insertion of “so help me God” into the presidential oath is through the lens of Christian nationalism. While the phrase is relatively new, Christian nationalism itself has been around for a long time.
Second Great Awakening
Scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry have defined Christian nationalism as “a cultural framework … that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.”
Christian nationalism was big in the early 19th century. Legal scholar Steven K. Green noted in his 2015 book, “Inventing a Christian America,” that the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant evangelical revival movement that peaked in the 1830s, “brought about … a desire to see religious values reflected in the nation’s culture and institutions.”
Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, took things a step further when he told his congregation in 1828 that only leaders “known to be avowedly Christians” should be elected.
In the words of religious studies scholar Richard Hughes, many participants in the Second Great Awakening “sought to transform the nation into a Christian Republic.” In its aftermath, Griswold’s account of Washington prayerfully adding “so help me God” to the presidential oath became part of America’s Christian creation myth.
Another age, another “so help me God” story
Like many cultural ideas, Christian nationalism has waxed and waned through American history. It was popular again in the years just after World War II, a time of increased tensions between the United States and the “godless communists” of the Soviet Union.
Religion was an important weapon in the Cold War. As Sen. Joseph McCarthy said, “The fate of the world rests with the clash between the atheism of Moscow and the Christian spirit throughout other parts of the world.”
In this Cold War context, the U.S. added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, made “In God We Trust” the country’s national motto and created a new version of the Griswold story: that every president, not just Washington, had ended their oath of office with “so help me God.”
The Pledge of Allegiance. United States Government Publishing Office via Wikimedia Commons
Actually, there is no compelling evidence that any president added “so help me God” before September 1881, when Chester A. Arthur was sworn in after the death of James Garfield.
But it was important in Cold War America to prove that it was a Christian nation, so a new story was added to the American creation myth: Through the nation’s history, all presidents invoked God as part of their oath.
A search of the databases shows that this story began in 1948. One of the earliest examples was from Frank Waldrop, editor of the Washington Times-Herald, responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in McCollum v. Board of Education that it was unconstitutional for public schools to promote religion. “Every President from Washington down to Harry Truman has always taken that oath with his hand on the Bible,” Waldrop wrote, “and every President … has added the undeniably religious phrase, ‘So help me, God.’”
Waldrop used the assertion that presidents have all said “so help me God” as an argument for inserting religion into public schools. This is an important point about Christian nationalism: As scholar Eric McDaniel and others have shown, it is not just a view of the past; it is a call for action, specifically to reclaim America as a “holy land.”
Christian nationalism relies on a flawed understanding of the American past, but it has become an increasingly important part of our history.
David B. Parker, Professor of History, Kennesaw State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Actually, there is no compelling evidence that any president added “so help me God” before September 1881, when Chester A. Arthur was sworn in after the death of James Garfield.
But it was important in Cold War America to prove that it was a Christian nation, so a new story was added to the American creation myth: Through the nation’s history, all presidents invoked God as part of their oath.
A search of the databases shows that this story began in 1948. One of the earliest examples was from Frank Waldrop, editor of the Washington Times-Herald, responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in McCollum v. Board of Education that it was unconstitutional for public schools to promote religion. “Every President from Washington down to Harry Truman has always taken that oath with his hand on the Bible,” Waldrop wrote, “and every President … has added the undeniably religious phrase, ‘So help me, God.’”
Waldrop used the assertion that presidents have all said “so help me God” as an argument for inserting religion into public schools. This is an important point about Christian nationalism: As scholar Eric McDaniel and others have shown, it is not just a view of the past; it is a call for action, specifically to reclaim America as a “holy land.”
Christian nationalism relies on a flawed understanding of the American past, but it has become an increasingly important part of our history.
David B. Parker, Professor of History, Kennesaw State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Trump Bible gets new 'Inauguration Day Edition' just in time for Jan. 6
(RNS) — A new ad urges supporters to buy a Bible commemorating Trump's return to the White House. The new edition of the God Bless the USA Bible features Trump's name on the cover and will be on sale until Jan. 19.
FILE - Then former President Donald Trump endorses the “God Bless the USA” Bible in a video in March 2024. (Video screen grab)
Bob Smietana
January 6, 2025
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE
(RNS) — The makers of the God Bless the USA Bible, endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, have issued a new edition just in time for Trump’s second inauguration.
Launched Monday (Jan. 6), the limited-run “Inauguration Day Bible” costs $69.99 — or four copies for $59.49 each — and features an embossed cover with Trump’s name and the date of his upcoming inauguration. The Bible includes the King James translation along with the text of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the lyrics to the chorus of “God Bless the USA,” the 1984 Lee Greenwood hit. It also comes with a DVD of a concert honoring Greenwood’s career.
Trump fans can still order the original God Bless the USA Bible for $59.99. There’s also “The Day God Intervened” edition, embossed with the date of the failed assassination attempt in July. Some of Trump’s supporters have claimed God spared Trump’s life. The website also offers a signed Trump Bible for $1,000, Trump-related apparel and links to Trump-themed guitars and God Bless the USA coins.
RELATED: As Trump hawks Bible, debate over ‘Christian America’ spreads outside church
First announced in 2021 by a marketing company with ties to Greenwood, the God Bless the USA Bible has been a source of controversy ever since. An initial version featuring the New International Version translation was canceled after a number of authors published by Zondervan, which also publishes the NIV, objected. The Bible was then resurrected when the marketing company switched to the King James Version, which is in the public domain.
It was largely forgotten until this past spring, when Trump began hawking the God Bless the USA Bible in video ads, tying it to the need to reverse the decline of Christianity in America. A video ad claims Trump is bringing faith back to the “forefront of American life.”
“Christianity has been experiencing a recent surge, and now more than ever, every home needs to have Bibles readily available,” the ad claims, urging Trump fans to buy the edition before Jan. 19. A press release for the new edition says Trump has not yet decided which Bible to use during his swearing in on Jan. 20.
Trump has a complicated history with the Bible. As a candidate in 2016, he referred to the Apostle Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians as “Two Corinthians” during a speech at Liberty University. In 2019, he created more uproar by signing Bibles during a visit to an Alabama church, while in 2020, police expelled a priest from an Episcopal church near Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., so then-President Trump could have his photo taken with a Bible during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd.
This past fall the state of Oklahoma put out a request to buy 55,000 Bibles that had to include the Constitution and other patriotic documents — a description that seemed tailor-made for the God Bless the USA Bible. That request was later amended.
FILE – Then former President Donald Trump, left, and musician Lee Greenwood on the website for the God Bless the USA Bible. (Screen grab)
The God Bless the USA Bible, like almost all other Bibles sold in the United States, was printed in China, a nation Trump has loudly criticized. In 2019, Bible publishers in the U.S. worried proposed tariffs during the first Trump administration would raise the cost of Bibles, but Bibles were later exempted from the tariffs.
His paid Bible endorsement, in which Trump said “we must make America pray again,” debuted during Holy Week and came about a month after he promised during a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville to return political power to Christians.
“If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before,” Trump told the annual gathering in February.
America’s Christians fueled Trump’s return to the White House, with almost two-thirds of Protestants (63%) and 58% of Catholics voting for him, according to election polls. That included 72% of White Protestants, 61% of White Catholics, 64% of Hispanic Protestants and 53% of Hispanic Catholics.
Black Protestants (85%) were the only major Christian group to support Harris, along with 78% of Jews, 58% of other non Christians and 71% of religiously unaffiliated voters.
While claiming the God Bless the USA Bible is the only Bible Trump has officially endorsed, the site also makes it clear Trump does not own or have any control over the God Bless the USA Bible but instead was a paid endorser
The new ad for the God Bless the USA Bible comes at a time when sales of the Christian Scriptures are booming, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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