Obama mentions God in Thanksgiving proclamation
Via: Chron.com
Joel Ryan / AP
A turkey visits a wax figure of Obama at Madame Tussauds on Tuesday. |
President Barack Obama issued his presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving Day today. (Continuing the week’s festivities, tomorrow he’s scheduled to pardon a turkey.)
“As we stand at the close of one year and look to the promise of the next, we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for our many blessings, for one another, and for our Nation,” he said in the statement.
This year, Obama made three references to God, compared to last year, when he only mentioned the Almighty in a quote from President Abraham Lincoln, which had some religious folks worrying about the president’s “godless Thanksgiving.”
He also briefly discussed the heritage of the holiday, from the first harvest of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe to the first Thanksgiving declaration, which was made by Lincoln. Obama called on the country to remember Native Americans, members of the armed forces and the poor and needy on Thanksgiving.
The proclamation ended:
As Americans gather for the time-honored Thanksgiving Day meal, let us rejoice in the abundance that graces our tables, in the simple gifts that mark our days, in the loved ones who enrich our lives, and in the gifts of a gracious God. Let us recall that our forebears met their challenges with hope and an unfailing spirit, and let us resolve to do the same.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 25, 2010, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all the people of the United States to come together — whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors — to give thanks for all we have received in the past year, to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and to share our bounty with others.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.
BARACK OBAMA
