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==Religion and character==
==Religion and character==
In a speech in 1911 Roosevelt said the King James Version was "the book to which our people owe infinitely the greater part of their store of ethics, infinitely the greater part of their knowledge of how to apply that store to the needs of our every-day life." The former president was characteristically dramatic:
Like his Roosevelt ancestors, Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church (denomination). His mother was a Presbyterian, another Calvinist denomination like the Reformed. In Oyster Bay there was no Reformed church, and so from 1887 onward he went to Christ Church (Episcopal) with his wife Edith and the children, where he took part in the service, loudly singing the hymns. But in Albany Roosevelt attended a Dutch Reformed church, while Edith went to an Episcopal church. In [[Washington]] he attended nearby Grace Reformed Church, a German Reformed church, close to the Dutch, while Edith, as First Lady attended St. John's Church, Lafayette Square (Episcopal), the "church of the presidents," across from the White House.<ref>[http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Religion.htm THE RELIGION of THEODORE ROOSEVELT]</ref> Relative little has been written on Roosevelt 's religion, although a book, ''ROOSEVELT'S RELIGION'' by Christian Reisner,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=-rVEAAAAIAAJ&dq=ROOSEVELT%27S+RELIGION+by+Christian+Reisner&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=NaRpPqwPWv&sig=v-mVzmOukGfPAKjq6jZgfo4q3aM&hl=en&ei=x8-CSpiCOsaltgfD_rjMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Extract and search]</ref> provides recollections from his friends and others on the subject.
:"No other book of any kind ever written in English—perhaps no other book ever written in any other tongue—has ever so affected the whole life of a people as this authorized version of the Scriptures has affected the life of the English-speaking peoples."
Roosevelt based his conclusions less on specific Christian reasoning than on broad humanitarian appeal. He urged his auditors to study the Bible, not necessarily "as an inspired book," but as an essential volume for every person "who seeks after a high and useful life."<ref>Mark Noll, "'The Most Democratic Book in the World'" ''Christian History & Biography'' 2008 (99): 26-29 in [[EBSCO]]</ref>
Like his Roosevelt ancestors, Roosevelt was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. In Oyster Bay there was no Reformed church, and so from 1887 onward he went to Christ Church (Episcopal) with his wife Edith and the children, where he took part in the service, loudly singing the hymns. In Albany and Washington Roosevelt attended a Dutch Reformed church. <ref>[http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Religion.htm THE RELIGION of THEODORE ROOSEVELT] Relative little has been written on Roosevelt 's religion, although a book, ''ROOSEVELT'S RELIGION'' by Christian Reisner, [http://books.google.com/books?id=-rVEAAAAIAAJ&dq=ROOSEVELT%27S+RELIGION+by+Christian+Reisner&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=NaRpPqwPWv&sig=v-mVzmOukGfPAKjq6jZgfo4q3aM&hl=en&ei=x8-CSpiCOsaltgfD_rjMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Extract and search]</ref> provides recollections from his friends and others on the subject.</ref>
Roosevelt was not sworn in on a Bible. He remains the only president in history to do so.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pinotable.html Library of Congress Presidential Inauguration Precedents and Notable Events]</ref>
Roosevelt was not sworn in on a Bible. He remains the only president in history to do so.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pinotable.html Library of Congress Presidential Inauguration Precedents and Notable Events]</ref>
:''Now to you men, who, in your turn, have come together to spend and be spent in the endless crusade against wrong, to you who face the future resolute and confident, to you who strive in a spirit of brotherhood for the betterment of our Nation, to you who gird yourselves for this great new fight in the never-ending warfare for the good of humankind, I say in closing what in that speech I said in closing: We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord''<ref>A Confession of Faith, delivered in Chicago, Illinois, 6 August 1912</ref>
:''Now to you men, who, in your turn, have come together to spend and be spent in the endless crusade against wrong, to you who face the future resolute and confident, to you who strive in a spirit of brotherhood for the betterment of our Nation, to you who gird yourselves for this great new fight in the never-ending warfare for the good of humankind, I say in closing what in that speech I said in closing: We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord''<ref>A Confession of Faith, delivered in Chicago, Illinois, 6 August 1912</ref>
==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==