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Reagan confidante speaks at local church on religion's role in nation's founding Date published: 7/5/2004 By KRISTIN DAVIS
When America's founders signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, they underscored spirituality and God. That was the message former Attorney General Edwin Meese III delivered during a church service at Spotsylvania's Resurrection Lutheran Church yesterday morning. The local church asked Meese, a lifelong Lutheran who served under President Ronald Reagan, to speak at its Independence Day celebration. Meese focused on religion's role in the making of the nation. He said that the men who penned the U.S. Constitution "were all men of faith." Their efforts resulted in "the most significant and long-lasting constitution in the history of the world," Meese said, whose working relationship with Reagan began in 1967; that year, Meese went to work as the new California governor's legal affairs secretary. Later, Meese became the GOP governor's chief of staff. Meese came to Washington in 1981, serving as the president's chief policy adviser for four years before becoming the nation's attorney general. In 1992, Meese published a book of memoirs, titled "With Reagan: The Inside Story." "Reagan believed he had a spiritual mission," Meese told church members, many of whom were dressed in red, white and blue, yesterday morning. "He recognized the importance of religion in [the nation's] early history," Meese said. He noted that when George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, he required his soldiers to attend worship services. All the early presidents "made public professions of their faith," Meese said. He also noted the references to God in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, signed 228 years ago yesterday: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The nation's founding fathers believed "we are one nation under God," Meese said. Outside, hundreds of tiny U.S. flags lining the church's driveway fluttered in the wind. To reach KRISTIN DAVIS: 540/368-5028 kdavis@freelancestar.com
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