Under God

Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s extraordinary Gettysburg Address. It has been memorized by generations of school children, carved in marble and even made the subject of one of filmmaker Ken Burns’ video projects.

President Obama declined to attend the sesquicentennial ceremonies at the battlefield where is his much-admired predecessor spoke. He did, however, participate in the Burns tribute by taping a reading of the Lincoln address.

Only our 44th president read a version different from the one actually delivered by our 16th. Instead of saying, “…This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,” Mr. Obama’s rendering left out the words “under God.”

Unfortunately, his administration wants the U.S. military not to invoke the Almighty in its oaths of service, either. God help us if it does.