Obama joined 61 noted individuals, including every living president to recite the Gettysburg Address for an official video to commemorate the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech.
It’s comforting to know that everyone delivered the address as Lincoln had written it – including the phrase, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” You can watch that video, here.
Via WMAL, his omission is at the 1:35 mark.
Obama has come under fire in the past for his habit of editing God out of the national motto and the Declaration of Independence.
In December of 2010, he was chastised in a letter by Lawmakers belonging to the bipartisan Congressional Prayer Caucus, for telling an audience at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta that the US national motto is “E Pluribus unum,” when the national motto is actually “In God We Trust.”
“In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum – out of many one,” Obama said, later adding, “our nations show that hundreds of millions who hold different beliefs can be united in freedom under one flag.”
“For the President of the United States to incorrectly state something as foundational as our national motto in another country is unacceptable,” said Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), founder and chairman of the Prayer Caucus.
The letter also noted that “three times in the fall”, Obama had misquoted the Declaration of Independence by leaving out the words “by our creator” in the passage about inalienable rights.
In next week’s Thanksgiving address, Obama will also likely eschew any direct statement thanking God (the central reason for the holiday) as he has done for the past four years.
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