American Minute

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Born a slave in New York in 1797, she spoke only Dutch until she was sold at age 11. Suffering hardships, her third master made her marry an older slave with whom she had five children. In 1827, she escaped to Canada. After New York abolished slavery, she returned as a domestic servant and helped with Elijah Pierson's street-corner preaching. In 1843, Sojourner Truth heard "a voice from Heaven" and began spreading "God's truth and plan for salvation." In Massachusetts, she worked with abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. After the Emancipation Proclamation, she moved to Washington, D.C., met Lincoln and helped former slaves. In 1850, she dictated her biography, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, stating: "When I left the house of bondage I left everything behind. I wanted to keep nothing of Egypt on me, and so I went to the Lord and asked him to give me a new name." Sojourner Truth continued: "I set up my banner, and then I sing, and then folks always comes up 'round me, and then...I tells them about Jesus." Her last full day on earth, NOVEMBER 25, 1883, Sojourner Truth would begin her messages "Children, I talk to God and God talks to me."

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A week after Congress approved the First Amendment, President George Washington issued the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789: "Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me 'to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness;'" Washington continued: "Now, therefore, I do recommend...Thursday, the 26TH DAY of NOVEMBER...to be devoted by the People of these United States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be;" Washington concluded: "That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks...for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government... particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue."

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During World War I, Britain was ineffective manufacturing explosives, until a breakthrough in synthesizing acetone was made by Jewish chemist Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who was born NOVEMBER 27, 1874. In gratitude, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, establishing a Jewish homeland. President Woodrow Wilson wrote to Rabbi Stephen Wise, 1918: "I think all Americans will be deeply moved by the report that...the Weizmann commission has been able to lay the foundation of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem." President Harry S Truman wrote to Dr. Weizmann, November 29, 1948: "I remember well our conversations about the Negeb...I agree fully with your estimate of the importance of the area to Israel, and I deplore any attempt to take it away from Israel. I had thought that my position would have been clear to all the world, particularly in the light of the specific wording of the Democratic Party platform." Truman continued: "I have interpreted my re-election as a mandate...to carry out...the plank on Israel... In closing, I want to tell you how happy and impressed I have been at the remarkable progress made by the new State of Israel." Dr. Weizmann wrote: "I think that the God of Israel is with us."

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Following the hated Stamp Act of 1765, the British committed the Boston Massacre in 1770, firing into a crowd, killing five. Colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The British then blocked Boston Harbor in 1774 to starve the city into submission. The President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was James Warren, husband of Revolutionary ear author Mercy Otis Warren. Warren proposed Sam Adams form Committees of Correspondence to inform the nation of injustices in Boston. President James Warren, who died NOVEMBER 28, 1808, approved the Massachusetts Resolution: "In Provincial Congress, Watertown, June 16, 1775- As it has pleased Almighty God in his Providence to suffer the calamities of an unnatural war to take place among us...the most effectual way to escape those desolating judgments...will be that we repent." The Resolution continued: "Among the prevailing sins of this day, which threaten the destruction of this land, we have reason to lament the frequent prophanation of the Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath...It be recommended by this Congress, to the people...that they...pay a religious regard to that day, and to the public Worship of God thereon."

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His death went unnoticed, as he died the same day John F. Kennedy was shot, but his works are some of the most widely read in English literature. Originally an agnostic, he served in World War I and became a professor at Oxford and Cambridge. He credits his Catholic friend and fellow writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of "Lord of the Rings," as being instrumental in bringing him to faith in Christ. Among his most notable books are: The Screwtape Letters; Miracles; The Problem of Pain; Abolition of Man; and The Chronicles of Narnia, which include The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. His name was C.S. Lewis, born NOVEMBER 29, 1898. Over 200 million copies of his books have sold worldwide and, 40 years after his death, continue to sell a million copies a year. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote: "All that we call human history - money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery - is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." C.S. Lewis wrote: "Christianity...is a religion you could not have guessed...It is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have."

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"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country" was his first popular story, written while in San Francisco. He then sailed to the Holy Land and wrote Innocents Abroad. While on this trip, he saw the picture of his friend's sister, Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York, and fell in love. Immediately upon his return, he met and married her. His name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, born NOVEMBER 30, 1835. In Innocents Abroad, 1869, Mark Twain wrote: "We dismounted on those shores which the feet of the Saviour had made holy ground...One of the most astonishing... observations is the exceedingly small portion of the earth from which sprang the new flourishing plant of Christianity." Mark Twain continued: "The longest journey our Saviour ever performed was from here to Jerusalem-about...one hundred and twenty miles....He spent His life, preaching His Gospel, and performing His miracles, within a compass no larger than an ordinary county of the United States." Mark Twaiin wrote: "In the starlight, Galilee has no boundaries but the broad compass of the heavens, and is a theatre meet for great events; meet for the birth of a religion able to save the world."

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The Confederates won the Second Battle of Bull Run, crossed the Potomac River into Maryland and captured Harper's Ferry. But the Confederate drive was halted at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of fighting in American history. In total, over a half million lost their lives in the War. Abraham Lincoln responded by issuing his Emancipation Proclamation. In his Second Annual Message, DECEMBER 1, 1862, President Lincoln stated: "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free...We shall nobly save-or meanly lose-the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain...a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." At Independence Hall, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861, Lincoln said: "The Declaration of Independence gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence...I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it."

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A thirty-three year old conquistador landed in Mexico with five hundred men. He was shocked to find the Aztecs taking prisoners of the weaker tribes, ripping their hearts out atop temples, and in a frenzy eating their bodies. The conquistador freed the prisoners, knocked down idols, and erected crosses. His name was Hernando Cortez, and he died DECEMBER 2, 1547. His personal secretary, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, recorded how Cortez spoke to the Tabascan tribe through his interpreter, Jeronimo de Aguilar, a Catholic priest who had been shipwrecked on the Yucatan eight years earlier: "Cortez told them of their blindness and great vanity in worshiping many gods and making sacrifices of human blood to them, and in thinking that those images, being mute and soulless, made by the Indians with their own hands, were capable of doing good or harm. He then told them of a single God, Creator of Heaven and earth and men, whom the Christians worshiped and served, and whom all men should worship and serve." Gomara's report on Cortez continued: "In short, after he had explained the Mysteries to them, and how the Son of God had suffered on the Cross, they accepted it and broke up their idols."

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President Thomas Jefferson, author of the phrase "Separation of Church and State," asked Congress to ratify a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians, which they did DECEMBER 3, 1803. Negotiated shortly after the Louisiana Purchase by future President William Henry Harrison, the Kaskaskia Indian Treaty stated: "And whereas the greater part of the said tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually, for seven years, one hundred dollars toward the support of a priest of that religion, who will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to instruct as many of their children as possible, in the rudiments of literature, and the United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars, to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church." Later in 1806 and 1807, two similar treaties were made with the Wyandotte and Cherokee tribes. On April 26, 1802, Thomas Jefferson extended a 1787 act of Congress in which special lands were designated: "For the sole use of Christian Indians and the Moravian Brethren missionaries for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity."

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Father Jacques Marquette arrived in Quebec from France to be a missionary among the Indians. Governor Frontenac commissioned him to explore the unknown Mississippi River. He traveled by canoe from Lake Michigan, across Green Bay, up Fox River to the Wisconsin River and down to the Mississippi, where they floated as far as the Arkansas River, deciding not to go further for fear of Spaniards. On their return trip up the Illinois River, Father Marquette founded a mission among the Illinois Indians. Caught by the winter weather on DECEMBER 4, 1674, Father Marquette and two companions erected a rough log cabin near the shore of Lake Michigan. The settlement would afterwards grow into the city of Chicago. In an account written by Father Dablon of the Society of Jesus, 1678, Marquette met with over 500 chiefs and "explained to them the principal mysteries of our religion, and the end for which he had come to their country; and especially he preached to them Christ crucified, for it was the very eve of the great day on which he died on the cross for them." In 1895, the State of Wisconsin placed a statue of Father Jacques Marquette in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall.

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A signer of the Constitution licensed to preach? This was Hugh Williamson, delegate from North Carolina, born DECEMBER 5, 1735. At age 24 he studied theology in Connecticut, was admitted to the Presbytery of Philadelphia and preached two years, visiting and praying for the sick, till a chronic chest weakness caused him to seek another career. He traveled to London to study medicine, but not before seeing the Boston Tea Party, of which he testified before a Privy Counsel that if Britain did not change its policy, the Colonies would rebel. Dr. Hugh Williamson was a Surgeon General, caring for wounded North Carolina troops during the Revolution. He helped Ben Franklin conduct electrical experiments. In 1784, during the Congress of the Confederation, Williamson helped write the Northwest Territory laws, forbidding slavery and "reserving the central section of every township for the maintenance of public schools and the section immediately to the northward for the support of religion." In 1811, Hugh Williamson wrote "Observations of the Climate in Different Parts of America," giving scientific explanation for Noah's flood and the events of Moses' exodus. He was buried at Trinity Church.

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Greek Orthodox history tells of Nicholas being born to a wealthy, elderly couple in what is now Turkey in the year 280 AD. When his parents died, he generously gave to the poor. Upon hearing that a merchant went bankrupt and that creditors were planning on taking the merchant's daughters, Nicholas threw some money in the window at night to provide a dowry for the daughters to get married, thus saving them from a life of forced prostitution. When the father discovered who gave the money, Nicholas made him promise not to tell, thus inspiring the tradition of secret gift-giving on the anniversary of Nicholas' death, which was DECEMBER 6, 343 AD. Nicholas became the Bishop of Myra, was imprisoned during Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians, and was freed by Constantine. He attended the Council of Nicaea, helped write the Nicene Creed and preached against the worship of the fertility goddess "Diana" at Ephesus, resulting in her temple being torn down. In the 12th century, when Muslims Seljuks invaders killed Christians and turned churches into mosques, the bones of Nicholas were shipped to Italy, thus introducing the traditions of Saint Nicholas to Western Europe and eventually America.

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"DECEMBER 7, 1941- a date which will live in infamy- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." Thus spoke President Franklin D. Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbor by over 350 Japanese aircraft. Five American battleships and three destroyers were sunk, 400 planes were destroyed and over 4000 were killed or wounded. President Roosevelt concluded: "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory...We will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us." FDR continued: "Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces- with the unbounding determination of our people- we will gain the inevitable triumph- so help us God." (As a note, FDR's phrase "So help us God" is not on the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Of the over 500 words inscribed, the designers chose not to include any mention of God.)

[Soldier4Christ]

On DECEMBER 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan to accept back into the Union those who had been in the Confederacy. He wrote: "Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States...Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion...that a full pardon is hereby granted to them...with restoration of all rights of property...upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath...to wit: "I, ____ ____, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves...and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves....So help me God."

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The Play, "Fiddler on the Roof," tells the story recounted by President Benjamin Harrison on DECEMBER 9, 1891: "This Government has found occasion to express...to the Government of the Czar its serious concern because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in Russia. By the revival of anti-semitic laws, long in abeyance, great numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon their homes and leave the Empire by reason of the impossibility of finding subsistence within the pale to which it is sought to confine them." President Harrison continued: "The immigration of these people to the United States-many others countries being closed to them-is largely increasing...It is estimated that over 1,000,000 will be forced from Russia within a few years." Harrison went on: "The Hebrew is never a beggar; he has always kept the law-life by toil-often under severe and oppressive civil restrictions. It is also true that no race, sect, or class has more fully cared for its own than the Hebrew race." President Benjamin Harrison concluded: "This consideration, as well as the suggestion of humanity, furnishes ample ground for the remonstrances which we have presented to Russia."