George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
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In his First Inaugural Address, Washington explained that an experiment had been entrusted to the American people. What was at stake in America’s experiment in self-government was the “preservation of the sacred fire of liberty.” This “sacred fire” had been entrusted to Americans by heaven. Liberty’s flame was sacred or holy because it was sustained by heaven’s “eternal rules of order and right.” Washington believed that the great American experiment with the “republican model of government” had no hope of success without regard for these rules and without the aid of the “propitious” or gracious “smiles of Heaven.”
America’s responsibility to keep the divinely given “sacred fire” burning brightly was understood from the birth of our nation. The Continental Congress, of which George Washington was a member, acknowledged this trust in 1774 when they gave their explanation of their understanding of the magnitude of the task on which they were embarking for generations to come,
...it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country, ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve these civil and religious rights and liberties for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died, and to hand them down entire to future generations.2
Is it possible to preserve America’s “sacred fire of liberty” if we strip the divine from our history and suppress our heroic founders’ the concern for the sacred?”
THE REPACKAGING OF HISTORY
Reverend Mason Weems, George Washington’s first biographer, opened his biography of George Washington with these words: “Go thy way old George. Die when thou wilt, we shall not look upon thy like again.”3 Reverend Weems could never have imagined that his words of praise would be ironically fulfilled by the erasure of Washington’s legacy from the minds of America’s schoolchildren and the denial of his Christian faith by many of our nation’s historians.
But this is happening reflecting the adage that “the living can make the dead do any tricks they find necessary!” The re-creation of George Washington into a Deist has been considered necessary by secular historians in order to create a secular America. This is not to say that everyone who treats Washington as a Deist necessarily subscribes to the theory that the founding fathers were secularists by-and-large. In his book, A History of the American People, the esteemed British historian Paul Johnson viewed Washington as a moderate Deist, while Johnson, nevertheless, clearly recognizes the critical role the Christian faith played in the founding of this country.4 But some scholars have essentially become used to quoting other scholars and have not pursued their own original research.5
This enterprise of remaking George Washington, in particular, into a Deist has been one of the most successful repackagings of an historical figure ever. But in the process, a great disservice has been done to our founding father. For no longer can it be said that Washington is “first in war, first in peace, and first in the heart of his countrymen.” This loss of our historical consciousness of Washington’s centrality in our nation’s history was preceded by the denial of his Christian faith. Yet the evidence overwhelmingly establishes that Washington was a devout eighteenth century Anglican Christian.
George Washington’s Sacred Fire, based on Washington’s own words, demonstrates that no other conclusion can honestly and accurately be reached. For if we intend to truly do justice to history, rather than to the hubris of historical revisionism, we must let the words, actions, and primary sources of Washington be determinative in our interpretation of him.
WASHINGTON NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A DEIST
Washington never claimed to be a Deist. In fact, he criticized Deism on various occasions, as we have demonstrated throughout Sacred Fire and as summarized below. And further, he openly and repeatedly claimed to be a Christian. His entire life and words opposed the leading themes that Deism sought to establish. Not only did Washington celebrate Christian character, he attacked both publicly and privately the ethics that flowed from Deism. By way of review, Washington’s rejection of the foundational tenets of Deism can be seen by the following:
• Deism claimed an absentee God. Washington proclaimed an active God of Providence in history some 270 times;
• Deism rejected divine revelation. Washington declared America’s greatest benefit was “the benign light of revelation;” He alluded and referred to the Bible over 200 times;
• Deism held to the non-divinity of Christ. Washington declared Christ to be the “Divine Author of our Blessed religion.” Throughout his life, Washington supported Christian missionary efforts, declaring “and above all learn the religion of Jesus Christ.”
• Deists considered prayer to be useless. Washington composed over 100 written prayers, openly writing of his “pious,” “earnest,” and “fervent” prayers. Washington marveled at God’s providential care for the American colonies.
• Deism affirmed the equality of all religions. Washington called on America “to imitate” Christ, “the Divine Author of our Blessed Religion,” in his “humility, charity, and pacific temper of mind.” He called on Americans to pursue “true religion;” since only in this way could we be “a happy nation.”
• Deism sought the exclusion of religion from government. Washington claimed that “true religion is the surest support for government,” and that “religion and morality are indispensable supports for political happiness.”
• It has been claimed that Washington agreed with Thomas Paine on titles for Deity. But when compared carefully, Washington’s robust and extensive theological vocabulary reflects the Christian clergy of his day, and not that of the Deists who had a meager and truncated vocabulary for Deity. Further, he and Paine had a fatal falling-out when Paine committed himself to the Deistic tenets of the French Revolution.
• Deism reflected an anti-clergy spirit that also reflected itself in non-participation in the churches. Washington was a faithful church attendee and superlative vestryman, with literally scores of friends and correspondents who were Christian ministers.
• Washington, in fact, never even used the words “Deist” or “Deism.” His closest synonym was “infidel.” And when he used that word, he said that a man was “worse than an infidel” who could deny God’s Providence in a specific instance during the War. Referring to the same sort of unbelief, he said, “that man is bad indeed.” In his Farewell Address, he publicly warned Americans of those whose “peculiar Structure of mind” would lead them to remove the “indispensable supports of religion and morality” from government.
In summation, there is not a hint anywhere in Washington’s writings that he ever wanted to be considered anything other than a Christian. His own words show that he desired to be known as an honest man from Virginia who was loyal to his roots, his family, his church, his country, and his God. Those who would transform him into a Deist must produce the requisite written, historical evidence to show that he intended to be viewed as a Deist. Scholars have no authority simply to revise history in an effort to accommodate an increasingly secular America. The facts remain the facts, even when they are manipulated and shaded to hide the truth. And the facts explicitly demonstrate that Washington was a Christian.
We ask every scholar in America this simple request—provide us with only one historically verifiable statement from Washington’s pen where he declares himself to be a Deist. We only ask for one. But the truth is, it cannot be found. There is no evidence for Washington’s Deism. It is a scholarly myth. The Deist Washington is an exemplar of the very worst of scholarly, historical revisionism. Meanwhile, as we will reiterate below, there are numerous instances of his professed Christianity.
A SUMMATION OF THE EVIDENCE OF WASHINGTON’S CHRISTIANITY
Throughout George Washington’s Sacred Fire, we have presented the evidence that proves that George Washington was, without doubt, a Christian. In brief, we have shown that:
1. He was from a British Christian culture and from a Christian family in the Anglican tradition.
2. His childhood home and education were clearly Christian.
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:
