Still another part of that heritage from the church that went unrecognized by most of today's Americans was apparent as they voted for members of Congress. When the Founders adopted the U.S. Constitution, it included a bicameral form for Congress — the House of Representatives and the Senate — similar to the Presbyterian Church model of governance familiar to James Madison, principal architect of that document and prominent member of that church.
From the ensuing Revolutionary War to the present, nearly 43 million Americans have engaged in 14 wars to gain or protect our nation's freedom and its democratic way of life. Some 18.8 million veterans of recent wars remain in our population.
Beginning with our first president George Washington, leader of the Revolutionary Army and a noted churchman who made sure that every regiment had its own chaplain, many of our political leaders have been both military heroes and men of strong faith.
President Washington often called the nation to prayer, as he did as general, and in his farewell address to Congress he warned, "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle" which he declared to be the base of a government of the people.
A man of faith from his childhood days growing up in a family who followed the teachings of the Mennonite Church, President Eisenhower, then a Presbyterian, also influenced Congress to adopt the words, "In God We Trust," as our national motto and make them officially part of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Now, what will the new president do with such a heritage?
Adon Taft taught social studies at Miami Dade College and for 48 years was a reporter, editor and columnist for the Miami Herald.