Loosing Lincoln’s Legacy

Yesterday, my family and I had the privilege to travel to Springfield as “Lincoln

lunatics.” We made the pilgrimage to Lincoln’s gravesite (striking), toured his house
(charming), and visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum (amazing!). Truly, that
museum is one of the most excellent museums I have ever visited. Between the quality of
the exhibits and the technological superiority of the presentations, I was both a bit surprised
and sincerely impressed.
Yet, with that said, I am, in reaction to this same experience, deeply grieved. I am
grieved because in His biography, Abraham Lincoln: A Man of Integrity, Joe Wheeler quotes
Lincoln late in his life as saying, “I do not consider that I have ever accomplished anything
without God.” Wheeler also writes the following about Lincoln in the book’s epilogue: “He
led out his years in office as did the prophet-kings in Old Testament times, God being the
ultimate authority in everything.” Please do not get me wrong; I am not grieved by these
statements themselves. On the contrary, I rejoice in these profoundly meaningful truths
about Abraham Lincoln’s character, and I am delighted by the historic manner in which they
highlight one of Scripture’s most foundational truths. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you
can do nothing” (John 15:5). Why, then, am I grieved? I am grieved because the obvious
vitality and centrality of Abraham Lincoln’s faith in the God of the Bible was almost
completely absent from the museum dedicated in his honor. Other than a couple of books
that I hunted down in the gift shop, I scarcely perceived a single reference to his religion
anywhere in that otherwise spectacular museum.
To be sure, Joe Wheeler is definitely not misconstruing history when he infers that, by
the end of his life, Lincoln was a man of God above all else. One need only read what
Lincoln wrote with impartial eyes and hear what he said with unbiased ears, and the
verdict is palpable. Taken from any perspective that is even remotely objective, even the
most ardent critic of Christianity must confess that Christian faith clearly became the
hallmark of Lincoln’s identity. Yet, in that extravagant Springfield museum, which is
allegedly dedicated to depicting accurately the life and legacy of our nation’s greatest
president, the God that he worshipped and the Bible he cherished were all but missing. In
fact, in one presentation, the museum went so far as to credit Lincoln’s frequent use of
Luke 11:17, in which Jesus says, “A house divided against itself will fall,” to Aesop’s
Fables rather than Scripture.
This flagrant omission on the part to the museum troubles me greatly for at least two
reasons.
First, it is so very disturbing because it simply cannot be construed as accident or
mere oversight. As I have already mentioned, the absolute centrality of Lincoln’s faith to
his life and presidency could hardly be more obvious. For example, his faith soars from
his Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, and it vividly leaps from his Second
Inaugural Address, which is often cited as one of history’s greatest speeches. And if those
documents are not enough, then read Wheeler’s book, or travel to the Lincoln Presidential
Library in Springfield an observe how freely Lincoln’s memoirs flow with obeisance to God
and reveal the heart of a man endeavoring to be a humble servant of Christ. I simply
cannot imagine how any intellectually honest person could set out to tell the story of
Abraham Lincoln and omit the God of his life. The only explanation is intentional
expulsion, and that is terribly troubling, indeed, for even in Lincoln’s hometown and in his
own museum, his true story is not being told because it is a story that our secular society
does not want to make known.
Second, this omission is so unsettling because it represents a lost opportunity. As my
family I sat in the gorgeous Union Theater, where stunning technology was employed to
present a 20-minute biography, we sat among at least two large groups of high school
students there on field trips. Although there certainly were mountains of valuable history
accurately conveyed by the presentation, I found its main point to be a betrayal of the nature
of Lincoln’s presidency and an academic injustice to those impressionable teens. Not only
did this presentation not offer the faintest hint about Lincoln’s faith, but worse still, it set out
to teach observers that, like Lincoln, they can essentially “pull themselves up by their own
bootstraps” and become whatever they want to be. While there is certainly value in any
lesson about hard work and determination, and while those were certainly virtues that Lincoln
exemplified, these points alone dreadfully miss the main point. On many occasions, Lincoln
was adamant about his belief that neither any nation nor any person, himself included, can
ever be the source of his own strength. He believed that all real strength comes directly from
the God who made us. As he himself said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees
by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go,” and “I do not consider that I
have ever accomplished anything without God.” The museum, however, did not choose to
tell his story as I believe Lincoln would want it told. Without even mentioning the grace and
mercy of God that Lincoln prized, the museum chose to reiterate the secular rhetoric of self-
actualization that seems to be force-fed to our young people at every turn. What a missed
opportunity!
In short, I really do encourage you to check out the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Museum. It really is spectacular, mostly educational, and well worth the trip. However, at the
same time, I do caution you to prepare to be frustrated by its secularly skewed perspective.
Nobody should expect the museum to proselytize, but we should expect it to tell the truth,
even if that truth makes modern culture uncomfortable. Therefore, when you go, please keep
in mind these words from Lincoln’s Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day—words that
I believe the museum curators would be blessed to reconsider: “We have forgotten the
gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened
us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”