Eisenhower: National Defense Must Begin with “Spiritual Weapons”

Secular societies can spend unlimited amounts of taxpayer money to motivate people in order to make them behave.  Television can attempt to inculcate morals through “social justice” programming.

      News shows can highlight exemplary “acts of kindness” and praise those who are “making a difference.”  But these clumsy attempts at social engineering can never hope to fill the void if a society lacks religious guidance.

      During more spiritual times, religion was integrated into American public education.  This moral training was all free.  Then the segregationists showed up to ban religion from the public square, separating church and state.  Academic motivation has been in a free fall ever since.

      Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the same dynamic in the military.  For him, religion provided a moral ballast that reinforced patriotism at every level.  God and country were synonymous.  Soldiers showed up with a motivation that was far from mercenary.  God was part of the same arsenal that included tanks, bombers, bazookas, and submarines.  It too was free.  There was less fear among combatants who had strong faith.  To die in battle meant a one-way ticket straight to heaven, where God is waiting to comfort and embrace.

      On June 14, 1954 (Flag Day) President Eisenhower signed an order to add the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance: “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”