Reddit reviews Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers

Washington's religious views are debated. Some Christians claim he was a devout Christian while others claim his ties to Chrisianity were more pro forma.

From Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America:

>He ascended to such a godly status himself that religious leaders have been jockeying to define him as one of theirs since the day he died. Washington, said convervative minister D. James Kennedy, had a "fervent evnagelical faith." Tim LaHaye declared in his book Faith of Our Founding Fathers that the first president was a "devout believer in Jesus Christ and had accepted Him as Lord and Savior." LaHaye predicted that "were George Washington living today, he would freely identify with the Bible-believing branch of evangelical Christianity that is having such a positive influence on our nation." Both cited many examples of Washington's piety, including the well-known, and oft-painted, story of the Pennsylvanian who came upon Washington on his knees praying at Valley Forge. Secularists, on the other hand, point to Washington's unwillingness to speak about Christianity and other Deistic tendencies he exhibited throughout his life. "Religion seems to have played a reamarkably small role in his own life," wrote Brooke Allen.

pages 56-57

The story about Isasc Potts coming upon Washington praying in the woods near his Valley Forge encampment was invented by Parson Weems who wrote a biography of Washington in which he placed a number of stories he created, such as the one of Washington chopping down a cherry tree as a boy, but admitting to it, because he couldn't tell a lie.

Washington made many references to God, but few to Jesus Christ.

>Washington rarely referred to Jesus Christ or Christianity in his writings. He often spoke of God, Providence, the Great Architect, and other formulations for the deity, but to Christ in only a hanful of instances, which have been widely quoted. At one point, Washington said he hoped the Continental army would consist of people acting like "good Christian Soldiers"; on another occasion he told some Indian chiefs that they would do well to follow "the religion of Jesus Christ."

page 58

*Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers by Brooke Allen also makes the same point.

>...In those letters, Greely pointed out, "even those of consolation, there appears almost nothing to indicate his spiritual frame of mind." Greely found it especially striking that "in several thousand letters the name of Jesus Christ never appears, and it is notably absent from his last will."
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>Greely was correct: the name of Jesus is conspicuous by its absence. Washington's letters to his wife were destroyed after his death, so we are denied any clues to his beliefs that might have been contained in them, but the rest of his very voluminous correspondence, both intimate and official, fails to mention a savior or redeemer...Jesus is not mentioned anywhere in Washington's correspondence.

page 35

The chapter on George Washingon in Founding Faith also states:

>James Madison's view was that Washington was spiritual but not interested in the theological particularities of the Christian faith. Compared with the other Founding Fathers, Washington spent little time on religious exploration or debate...
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>That Washington was reluctant to speak about Jesus or even Christianity was not lost on others. The Reverend Samuel Miller of New York wondered how it could be that "a true Christian, in the full exercise of his mental faculties, [would] die without one expression of distinctive belief, or Christian hope."...
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>Was Washington a "good Christian"? By the definition of Christianity offered by contemporary liberal Christians, he would pass muster. He believed in God, attended church, endorsed the golden rule, and valued the behavioral benefits of religion. More conservative Christians, however, generally believe that being a good Christian means accepting Jesus Christ as personal savior and the Bible as God's revelation. By those standards - those of twenty-first-century conservative evangelical Christianity - Washington was not Christian.

You can also find interesting information on George Washington's religious beliefs in Prayer in America: A Spiritual History of Our Nation by James P. Moore, Jr. who writes:

>In trying to bolster the spiritual credentials of Washington, some of his biographers have helped to perpetuate myths that, over many generations, are now hard to shake off. Certain prayers and pious acts that have been attributed to the country's first president simply never took place. What he did reveal throughout his life, however, was his absolute devotion to God and an unwavering belief in the need for and efficacy of prayer.

page 73

no, he was a deist - which is different from christian. I highly recommend this book for an in depth look at the religion of the founding fathers, showing just how non-christian they really were.