column on George Washington and religion

Presidents’ Day includes Washington’s Birthday of the 22nd, as it falls between the older celebrations of Lincoln and Washington. I hold few people in higher esteem, not because he was perfect, but that his aspirations in public life were so high, and they lasted a lifetime. I wish to take a brief look at his views on religion and the public realm.

As did many, he held to religion as a basic foundation for a republic. In his Farewell Address, he offered.  “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”  In communications with Indian tribes, he offered Christian religion as a benefit of their interaction with white culture.

More specifically, he took care that chaplains were available in the Continental Army. He thought that they could induce greater discipline among the troops and help to instill courage and bravery in their facing a superior foe. When Congress offered days of fasting and thanksgiving, he acceded to the proclamations.

By no means, did he support religious discrimination. in his famous letter to one of the few synagogues in the United States, he wrote: “"May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid." In the same letter we find:  “for happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

In doing work at Mt. Vernon, he specified that he was seeking good workers, no matter their ethnicity of faith. While he was a committed Episcopalian, baptized as an infant, a longtime member of the church governing board while at home, , he would attend church maybe one third of the Sundays when he was home, but he did not receive Communion. On the other hand, several people report seeing him deep in prayer during his morning devotions. He strikes me as someone who kept his religious observations more private than public.

While he may not have been utterly orthodox in his faith and practice, he certainly had a deep belief in divine Providence. He did not believe that God was distant from human affairs. Indeed he saw a god touching the course of history. He did admit that the reasons for the working of divine providence were inscrutable.  Of course, his belief in providence as an explanatory factor makes some sense. How did the fledgling rebellion defeat the great power of Great Britain? How did the collection of talent at the Constitutional Convention occur?

Yet, it was not Providence but Washington’s decision to work very hard to manage to free his personal slaves within the strictures of Virginia law. Few did so, and he must have realized that here too he was acting as a role model. (See An Imperfect God).

When Washington died, hagiography started in earnest. The father of his country took on some aspects of the fatherhood of the divine. Shrines popped up where Washington visited. Look at the picture where Washington is elevated in an apotheosis into the sky, as an assumption into heaven.