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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
God figured prominently — and personally — in President Donald Trump’s second inaugural address.
In fact, Trump mentioned God four times in Monday’s speech — just as he did in 2017, the first time he took the oath of office.
References to God are, of course, not unusual on Inauguration Day — by Democrats and Republicans.
A president’s remarks have neglected to cite God by name only once in the past century, a review by Religion Unplugged found. That occurred at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1937 inauguration.
However, the other three times Roosevelt was sworn in — 1933, 1941 and 1945 — he did mention God.
“The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways,” Roosevelt said in his final inaugural address.
Multiple references to God on Inauguration Day are common, too, including eight times by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, six by President Richard Nixon in 1969 and five by President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013 and Reagan in 1981.
Most commonly, presidents end their speech with some variation of “God bless you, and God bless America.”
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
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