3. His military career was layered with liturgical services, prayer, Christian theological terms, and use of the Book of Common Prayer.
4. His wife, Martha, was a devout Christian, and her children and George’s stepchildren were raised and educated in a Christian environment.
5. He actively served in the leadership of the Anglican Church and sponsored eight children in the Christian sacrament of baptism, something that Thomas Jefferson would not do, because his Unitarianism prevented him from taking the required public vows to the historic Christian faith.
6. He openly encouraged the work of the clergy and chaplains.
7. His theological vocabulary was vast. He spoke of God some one hundred forty times, the divine ninety-five times, heaven one hundred thirty-three times, Providence over two hundred seventy times, and used various honorific titles for God some ninety-five times, and alluded to over two hundred different biblical texts, some of them scores of times, making the instances of his allusion to scripture to be well over three hundred times. Thus the total of the theological clues to Washington’s faith is over a thousand instances!
8. He wrote more than one hundred different prayers in his own hand.
9. His views of religion are discoverable and include an affirmation of revelation, an understanding of both natural and revealed religion, and a strong belief in religious liberty.
10. He understood well the spiritual life of man and the work of the Holy Spirit. He frequently revealed his own spiritual concern for prayer, dependence on Providence, and faith and trust in God.
11. His understanding of the impact of the Enlightenment was revealed in his hostility to superstition, but not to the Christian faith. Thus, Washington’s writings criticized the deistic thought of his day as we saw above.
12. Washington’s faith can be discovered in spite of his habit and principle of humility and his belief that “deeds not words” should be the measure of the man. As his granddaughter said, “His mottoes were, “Deeds, Not Words;” and “For God and My Country.”
13. Martha, as well as Martha’s and George’s adopted grandchildren all affirmed that Washington was a Christian.
In addition to the above historical evidence, we have presented Washington’s own statements about himself that identify him as a Christian.
WASHINGTON’S STATEMENTS THAT IDENTIFY HIM AS A CHRISTIAN
Here we list only some of the instances where Washington calls himself a Christian.
1. Washington openly called himself a Christian. He freely wrote of his own accord, “On my honor and the faith of a Christian....”
2. He encouraged Delaware Indian chiefs that they do well to learn about “the religion of Jesus Christ.”
3. He took oaths as a vestryman, which required him to acknowledge his belief in the historic Christian faith as written in Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion: As a committed Anglican, Washington regularly prayed the General Confession of the Morning Prayer and worshiped with the Book of Common Prayer
4. Washington in various private settings identified himself as a Christian; for example, urging one of his correspondents to be more of “a Man and a Christian.”6
5. Washington, in public settings, openly identified himself as a Christian, calling on his entire army to be “Christian Soldiers,”7 and that “to the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian.”8 (emphasis added)
6. Writing to every governor of all thirteen of the new American states, he consciously and explicitly prayed as a Christian, saying:
...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 do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks 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.9
Washington never once calls himself a Deist or an unbeliever. Instead, he repeatedly identifies himself as a Christian. Who should we believe—the scholars or Washington?
AN INHERITANCE TO OUR CHILDREN
The impact of the secularist revision of Washington’s legacy is profound. To remove Christianity from Washington’s life is to take away his “sacred fire.” It is to strip him of the core of his essence and to leave him a mere hollow shell of an action hero. Indeed, to uproot Washington from his historical context is to distort Washington’s history.
In contrast to this secularist revisionism, Washington was viewed very differently both by himself and his contemporaries. Consider, for example, Major General Richard Henry Lee who wrote in 1799,
Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolution maturely formed, drawing information from all, acting for himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism: his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life...First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting.10
By anyone’s standards, this is the description of a man of great character, as well as a man of piety, who should serve as a role model for our children, our citizens, and our statesmen. The list of the moral tributes of his character are striking: Just, humane, incorruptible integrity, drawing information from all, pious, strong, and sound judgment. Indeed President John Adams agreed:
His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.11
Perhaps Adams should have said, as long as our history is not revised.
THE TESTIMONY OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES
But all of these traits were also formed and informed by Washington’s Christian faith. Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, in an oration delivered at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the request of the inhabitants wrote:
To crown all these moral virtues, he had the deepest sense of religion impressed on his heart – the true foundation-stone of all the moral virtues. This he constantly manifested on all proper occasions. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion;...Let the deist reflect on this, and remember that Washington, the saviour of his country, did not disdain to acknowledge and adore a great Saviour, whom deists and infidels affect to slight and despise.12
We concur with Sewall, the true foundation stone of all the moral virtues and religion were pressed upon Washington’s heart. But this is not hyperbole, for Washington agreed with this assessment as well. He wrote when you “speak of the magnitude of our obligations to the Supreme Director of all human events,” “you speak the language of my heart.”13
And those who knew him best, and experienced him firsthand, agreed. To Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College, the evidence was clear,
For my own part, I have considered his numerous and uniform public and most solemn declarations of his high veneration for religion, his exemplary and edifying attention to public worship, and his constancy in secret devotion, as proofs, sufficient to satisfy every person, willing to be satisfied. I shall only add that if he was not a Christian, he was more like one than any man of the same description whose life has been hitherto recorded.14
Note Timothy Dwight’s astute observation; there is sufficient evidence to satisfy every person willing to be satisfied. Those who demand and require a Deist Washington will never be satisfied with Washington’s own words. They can make the dead do any tricks they find necessary. They will simply refuse to allow their historically unfounded faith to be enlightened by the very words of Washington. To such closed-minded secularists, even though Washington spoke from a soul committed to “honor and the faith of a Christian” his heartfelt words do not matter. The dead Washington must do the tricks the secular historians require. Their view of Washington will not be altered even by the primary sources—the very words of Washington himself.
Yet these high tributes to Washington were not only from individuals alone. We are struck by the declaration of the United States Senate in 1799 at his death:
Let his countrymen consecrate the memory of the heroic General, the patriotic Statesman, and the virtuous Sage; let them teach their children never to forget that the fruit of his labours and his example are their inheritance.
We believe, as did the Senate in 1799, that Washington was a man whose immense sacrifices and extensive labors for his country deserve better of us who have been entrusted with his legacy. A Christian Washington matters because the Christianity of Washington was the very spirit that put the sacred in Washington’s “sacred fire of liberty.” Washington knew well that it had been the struggle of the great diversity of Christians seeking to live together in peace that ultimately gave our nation its spirit of religious liberty, and hence our uniqueness as a nation.
