Did You Know?

Pop Quiz: Which U.S. President does each of these statements describe?

1. He was the first president to use the phrase "this nation under God."

2. The words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance while he was president.

3. He was in favor of removing the motto "In God We Trust" from new minted coins because he thought that the association of God and money was "sacrilegious" and that it "cheapened and trivialized the trust in God it was intended to promote."

4. A group of Baptists in western Massachusetts was so grateful for this president's defense of religious liberty that they presented him with a 1,235-pound cheese made from the milk of 900 "Republican" cows.

5. He was the nation's first Quaker president, winning the election over Al Smith, the first Catholic to run as a major party candidate.

6. His claim to be "born again" drew national media attention and led Newsweek magazine to proclaim his election year "The Year of the Evangelical."

7. He was frequently compared to Moses, Joshua, King David, and sometimes even Jesus.

8. Though earlier presidents set aside days of prayer and thanksgiving, this president's wartime proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November set the precedent for our modern Thanksgiving Day.

9. He was given a Torah by Israeli President Chaim Weizmann as thanks for his recognition of the new State of Israel.

10. Long before the "Jesus Seminar" was conceived, he created his own version of the Gospels by cutting out any passages that related to Jesus' miracles and divinity and leaving in those that showed his moral teachings.

11. He called the Bible "the Magna Charta of the human soul."

12. His wife said during his election campaign, "I think it's so unfair of people to be against [him] because he's Catholic. He's such a poor Catholic."

13. As commander-in-chief of the Continental army, he helped arrange military chaplains of all denominations for his troops and commanded his soldiers to attend Sunday services.

14. He argued that appointing tax-supported chaplains for Congress and the military violated the First Amendment, which he had helped to draft.

15. He was a Disciples of Christ preacher before becoming an anti-slavery politician, military general, Congressman, and finally president for only six months.

16. He was accused of conspiring to establish Presbyterianism as a national church. And he wasn't even Presbyterian.

17. He claimed to have made the decision to annex the Philippines after praying fervently about what to do.

18. Winston Churchill jokingly promised to recommend this president for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury if he lost the next presidential election.

19. He was the first president to appoint an ambassador to the Vatican.

20. He coined the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state."

Pop Quiz answers

1. Abraham Lincoln 2. Dwight Eisenhower 3. Theodore Roosevelt 4. Thomas Jefferson 5. Herbert Hoover 6. Jimmy Carter 7. George Washington 8. Abraham Lincoln 9. Harry Truman 10. Thomas Jefferson 11. Woodrow Wilson 12. John F. Kennedy 13. George Washington 14. James Madison 15. James Garfield 16. John Adams 17. William McKinley 18. Franklin D. Roosevelt 19. Ronald Reagan 20. Thomas Jefferson