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George Washington's religious beliefs debated

Was George Washington a Deist or a Christian? One author thinks he has the answer.

NATASHA ALTAMIRANO

Date published: 9/23/2006

By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO NATASHA ALTAMIRANO

Many myths surround George Washington's boyhood and presidency, including the young Virginian's famed confession of chopping down a cherry tree and his infamous wooden teeth.

Neither tales are true, according to historians at Mount Vernon, Washington's estate near Alexandria.

Washington's religious beliefs are more disputed, and were the subject of a lecture this week at Mount Vernon by the Rev. Peter A. Lillback, who argues that Washington was a devout Christian.

Lillback, president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pa., wrote "George Washington's Sacred Fire," in which he disputes claims of the first president's Deist beliefs and presents evidence of Christian values in Washington's speeches and writings.

Historians mistakenly have characterized Washington, like many of his co-revolutionaries, as a Deist who believed that God created the universe but thereafter disassociated himself from his creation, according to Lillback, who serves as senior pastor at Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Lillback cited Christian symbols at Mount Vernon, such as a bird with an olive branch, a biblical symbol of peace.

Washington's tombstone, Lillback said, is inscribed with a passage from John 11:25-26: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Washington identified himself as a Christian in personal letters, writing, "On my honor as a Christian," Lillback said.

In his first inaugural address as president, Washington spoke of "America's duty to honor God" and "the sacred fire of liberty in the hands of the people," said Lillback, president of the nonprofit Providence Forum, whose mission is to promote a Judeo-Christian worldview in American culture.

Lillback stressed Washington's choice of a sacred versus secular view of liberty.

"Washington is the embodiment of the Constitution," he said to the audience of about 150 people. "The Constitution is faith-friendly."

Phil Chase, senior editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia, said Washington did not explain his religious beliefs in great detail, although it's clear from his writings that Washington did consider himself a Christian.

Over the past 35 years, historians with the Papers of George Washington have published 55 volumes of Washington's journals, letters written and letters received, Chase said. Officials expect a total of 90 volumes upon completion of the project, he said.

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Date published: 9/23/2006