The falsified "prayer" has also been repeatedly declaimed on the Senate floor, in 1994 by former Senate chaplain Richard Halverson and in 2002 and 2003 by former Senate chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie. In 2009 Congressional representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), used the fake 'prayer' to attack president Barack Obama.

As president Gerald Ford stated at the 1976 National Prayer Breakfast, 'Let us make it our "earnest prayer," as George Washington did two centuries ago, that "God would graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with charity and humility, and a peaceful temper of mind, without which we can never hope to be a happy nation." ' Did Ford know the origin of the cooked, falsified "Washington's Prayer" that has been held up, for perhaps a century or more, by Christian supremacists claiming the United States was founded as a "Christian nation" ?

Where did the "George Washington's prayer" come from ? Historian Chris Rodda, author of Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, explains:

Well, it's a rewriting of the last paragraph of the circular letter sent by Washington to the governors of the states in 1783, when he resigned from the Army at the end of the Revolutionary War. This paragraph was altered by a church, inserting a few "Thys," "Thous," and "Thees," and adding the "Almighty God" opening at the beginning, and the "through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" closing to the end, thus creating Washington's "prayer for the nation." This fabricated prayer was put on plaques in several churches associated for one reason or another with Washington, then spread to to the Christian nationalist American history books, and eventually to the internet, which is apparently where Michele Bachmann gets her historical "facts."

Here is the text of the falsified "Washington's Prayer, with text that has been added, to the original parent text derived from Washington's Circular Letter, in capital letters:

ALMIGHTY GOD, WE MAKE OUR EARNEST PRAYER THAT THOU WILT KEEP THESE UNITED STATES in THY holy protection, that THOU wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, And finally that THOU wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of Whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. GRANT OUR SUPPLICATION, WE BESEECH THEE, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.

Here is the parent text, from Washington's Circular Letter, with text that has been omitted, in the purported "Washington's Prayer", in capital letters:

"I NOW MAKE IT MY EARNEST PRAYER, THAT GOD WOULD HAVE YOU, AND THE STATE OVER WHICH YOU PRESIDE, in HIS holy protection; that HE would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, AND PARTICULARLY FOR THEIR BRETHREN WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE FIELD; and finally, that HE would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the char