Franklin D. Roosevelt

Template:Stub Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), was the 32nd president of the United States of America, following Herbert Hoover and preceding Harry Truman. Roosevelt was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected four times and served a few months longer than 3 terms, from 1933-1945, the longest any one man has been president of the United States. He was elected amidst the uncertainty of the Great Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he entered the United States into the Second World War on the side of the Allied Forces. Finally, in April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, due partly to the crippling disease, poliomyelitis, which physically disabled him during his presidency.

Although Mr. Roosevelt was very popular in his time, it has been argued by scholars and analysts then and now that many New Deal relief efforts actually helped to prolong the Great Depression. Mr. Roosevelt started the second wave of the massive expansion of the Federal Government and greatly increased American foreign aid. Some of these policies were viewed as necessary due to the incredibly high level of unemployment in the 1930s and later US involvement in WWII..

Franklin D. Roosevelt, commonly known as "FDR", said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic ...

Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of radio, and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again.

As World War II broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization.

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

At the most dificult point in the War, when American boys were landing on the beaches of Normandy, FDR led the nation in prayer publicy during a radio broadcast.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that self-appointed mandate further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "