Among today’s numerous tributes to our first President, I’d like to commend a post by Tara Ross and Joe Smith, co-authors of Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State, which is now available in paperback.
Actually, what I really want to commend is the book. Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” metaphor has triumphed so thoroughly that hardly anyone realizes that it didn’t reflect the views of most of the other Founding Fathers, and especially not those of the most respected figure in the early Republic. Under God rescues from obscurity Washington’s concept of the proper role of religion in public life. While firmly opposed to denominational favoritism, he believed that a free nation could not endure without acknowledging and relying on Divine Providence. His words and conduct, both before and after the ratification of the First Amendment, were not at all consistent with the ACLU-approved orthodoxy.
The book also reprints almost every word that Washington wrote about Church-state relations. If nothing else, these selections demonstrate that the man was more than an untutored soldier. His writing is clear and cogent. Circumstances did not make him an intellectual, but there can be no doubt that he possessed a fine intellect.
There’s no chance, of course, that the Jeffersonian view will be abandoned, or very much modified, after so many years. It is useful, though, to be aware that other opinions existed at the Founding and that they were based on reasoning that should not be ignored even today. If George Washington knew much about founding a Republic, perhaps he knew something about keeping one, too.
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