The Gift of Unity and Freedom

From the Desk of Chuck Fuller

In December 1971, at age 13, I sat in a circle with my peers inside Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, NC, for the Aversboro Road Baptist Church annual youth retreat, my first.

Like most 13-year-olds, I was unsure of myself, trying to navigate a world that seemed to grow bigger by the day. But I felt a strange, overpowering presence as I sat in the circle that night, like a spotlight was on me. I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing precisely what I was supposed to do. It was an entirely unknown feeling for this introverted teenager. 

I would lie in bed at night in the days and weeks to follow, dreaming about how to share what I had experienced. It may sound odd or even dissonant today, when there seems to be so much cultural focus on the “self” and less on the greater good, but I truly wanted to positively impact other people’s lives. Perhaps that meant leading when necessary or following when prudent. But leaving a positive impact would be my north star – that was my realization at that retreat.

Looking back these many years later, I realize the gift that night – the confidence of feeling like I was on the right path, which has never waned since – was the best gift I could ever receive. 

Fast-forward to 2024, today, we can predict that around 2,000 people will receive this message. The function of TRC Nexus is among the outputs of the gift I was given that night in 1971. Specifically, it is my deep and personal privilege to share with others the anecdotes that point me in the right direction, often using history as an example. These special holiday messages differ from our typical coverage, and I hope are timely and welcomed. Rick Warren says, “When you see the world with spiritual eyes, you see it not as it is but as it can be, as it should be, and as God wants it to be.” This is my purpose in writing today’s message.

Allow me to share an impactful unity story from 80 years ago, as described in American Gospel by John Meacham. It is about how America came together as a nation to give the gift of unity and freedom to our people and others worldwide. The story includes examples of essential leadership, the importance of family when facing big decisions, the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of others, and peace and freedom from fear. This is the Christmas story lived out here in America:

“The drinks were strong, the company congenial, the evening lovely and moonlight. On the first weekend of June 1944, Roosevelt slipped away from Washington to spend a few days at Kenwood, the estate of his aid General Edwin Watson, in the rolling Hills outside Charlottesville, Virginia. It was a favorite spot of the Roosevelts, so much so that Watson built a simple but comfortable Guest house for the president. Accompanied by his cousin Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, his daughter Anna, and her husband, John Boettiger, Roosevelt had important business to take care of as he tried to relax for a few days: across the Atlantic in southern England, Allied forces were preparing to launch Overlord, the cross–channel operation that Churchill called “the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place.” This reckoning was at hand; D-day, with the Allies hope to be the beginning of the end of Hitler’s fortress Europe, was scheduled for Monday, June 5th. Twenty thousand men might die in the first waves to strike the beaches of Normandy; failure would be catastrophic, perhaps bringing down Churchill’s government in London, costing Roosevelt the presidential election in November, and giving the Nazi world enough time to finish the work they had begun in the death camps of Eastern Europe and possibly complete an atomic bomb on their own. If there was ever a moment for prayer, no matter what one’s conviction or creed, this was it.

Feeling at home among family and friends, Roosevelt began composing a prayer to read to the nation on the day of the invasion. The result, delivered by the president over the radio on the evening of Tuesday, June 6, 1944 – the attack had been delayed for a day because of weather –was an eloquent six-minute-long appeal to a Super-intending Providence.

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day has set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, And to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith. They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tired, by night and by day, without rest – Until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good-will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into the kingdom…

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – A peace invulnerable to the scheming of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. 

Thy will be done, Almighty God. 

Amen.

The White House released the text to the afternoon newspapers with a request that the audience – estimated at 100 million Americans – read it along with the president. If that estimate is right, then on that Tuesday in June, Franklin Roosevelt led what was, at the time, one of the largest single mass prayers in human history.

The moment invested the sacrifice of so many young lives with the peculiarly religious combination of hope and humility. Their mission could not have been nobler – before the year was out, the same men liberated Nazi death camps, and Roosevelt, confronted with the newly unthinkable responsibility of sending so many lives in harm’s way, chose not to take the occasion to justify the war or offer the troops platitudinous praise. Like Lincoln before him in the fading winks of the Civil War, Roosevelt thought it wise to draw on the language and ritual of public religion to do the best one could at an hour when events were beyond the control of any president: help Americans see the crisis in the largest possible context, reminding them that nothing would be easy but the cause was worth the sacrifice.

Roosevelt knew his audience. “With uncanny awareness of gesture,” Newsweek said, “America turned to prayer.” From dawn forward, correspondents wired word of spontaneous religious devotion back to the magazine’s headquarters in New York. Churches and synagogues were full. A girl knelt in prayer at an intersection in Detroit. In Covington, Kentucky, women said the rosary. A family in Coffeyville, Kansas, fell to their knees on their front porch. In Corpus Christi, Texas the parents of 50 soldiers crawled two blocks on their hands and knees in an act of penance. Time magazine agreed. “Across the land, generally the mood was solemn,” it said. “There was no sudden fear, as on that September morning in 1939 when the Germans marched into Poland; no sudden hate, as on Pearl Harbor day. This time, moved by common impulse, the casual churchgoers as well as the devout went to pray.”

The Allies were fighting for many things in World War II, among them the cause of spreading the rights and insights of our own Founding to other parts of the world. As Roosevelt was preparing his 1941 State of the Union speech, he was at work with his aides Samuel Rosenman, Robert Sherwood, and Harry Hopkins. As Rosenman recalled it, the president said to his secretary, “Dorothy, take a law,” and began: “We must look forward to a world based on four essential freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want… The fourth is freedom from fear….”

…..

The opportunity and purpose of sharing this message with you was given to me many years ago. People will receive different takeaways based on this story about President Roosevelt. The takeaway for me is this: Join me in providing essential leadership, whatever your situation in life, recognizing the importance of family, sacrifice on behalf of others, and offering peace and freedom from fear to everyone you meet. Thank God for His blessings to us and for the sacrifices made long ago, from the Minutemen of the Revolution to D-Day to the warriors in the dark corners of the world today. Thank God for our freedom, and for the freedom to share in a common mission, no matter our faith. See the world not as it is but as it can be, as it should be, and as God wants it to be.

I still see America as a bright and shining star in a world that needs light and hope. May you share this hope with those around you at this spectacular time of year.

As I close, please know how much I value each person reading this message, and how personally I cherish the gift of being able to share my thoughts with you.

May each of you have a Merry Christmas! And for my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah!


Chuck Fuller is the Founder and CEO of The Results Company, he can be reached at cfuller@theresultscompany.com.