Eisenhower Praised For Spiritual Efforts UNION CITY, N. J. Calling him A Prayerful President, The Sign, national Catholic magazine, salutes President Eisenhower as the man who has brought spiritual values to the forefront of government more than at any time since the early years of the Republic. In an article prepared for its August issue by John C. OBrien, veteran Washington newspaper man, the. Catholic magazine singles Eisenhower out as the first President to affiliate with a church while a resident of the White House. Recalling that the President joined the National Presbyterian Church the day before the Inauguration, OBrien adds he has been a regular attendant ever since. But it is not Eisenhowers faith or churchgoing although he is the first steady churchgoer to occupy the White House in many years that gives a spiritual stamp to his leadership, OBrien declares. Rather it is his repeated and sincere exhortations to the country to return to the Christian principles of the founding fathers. He quoted Senator Carlson, a fellow Kansan who has known Eisenhower intimately for many years as saying the President was expressing concern over the national drift from its religious moorings long before he ever thought of running for President. The Senator recalls, OBrien reports, that Eisenhower said to him, Frank, I dont believe our country will ever be the country that our forefathers had planned it, that God has intended for us, unless we get back to those fundamental principles. Eisenhowers religious faith, OBrien continues, is grounded in a strict religious upbringing. The Presidents grandfather, who led the migration of the Eisenhowers and many other Mennonite families out of Pennsylvania into Kansas, was a preacher. His father was a deep student of the Bible, his mother a deeply religious woman. In the Eisenhower home one night a week was set aside for family Bible study. . . . The President got to know the Bible well and later in life surprised his friends by his ability to quote long passages. Asserting that American presidents, by and large have been men of faith, OBrien tabulates nine as Episcopalians, five Presbyterians, four Methodists, four Unitarians, two Baptists, two Dutch Reformed, one Congregationalism one member of the Society of Friends and one communicant of the Disciples of Christ.