Allen succumbs to what her six heroes rightly feared — zeal — in her prosecution of today’s religious zealots. In a grating anachronism unworthy of her serious argument, she calls the founders “the very prototypes, in fact, of the East Coast intellectuals we are always being warned against by today’s religious right.” (Madison, an NPR listener? Maybe not.) When she says “Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, among other recent American statesmen,” have subscribed to the “philosophy” that there should be legal impediments to an atheist becoming president, she is simply daft. And when she says that Bible study sessions in the White House and Justice Department today are “a form of potential religious harassment that should be considered as unacceptable as the sexual variety,” she is exhibiting the sort of hostility to the free exercise of religion that has energized religious voters, to her sorrow.
That first sentence proclaims, about five ways from Sunday, that George Will is a jerk.
Franklin probably was a Deist. Jefferson and Washington were both Anglican. Both served on the vestry of their parish. Adams came close to a deist; he was a Unitarian. I have no clue about Madison.
Jefferson attended church services in the rotunda of the capital. He did have problems with his faith after he left office and the death of his daughters.
It seems to me that if you are going to compare the Founders to modern "east coast intellectuals" then you ought to not only compare their supposed kindred philosophy, but also compare their words and actions.
I'm sure many FReepers can give many examples, but there were certainly many references to "providence", and not in an abstract, euphemism for "luck" sort of way, but an active, participatory deity/spirit/whatever. That many of the founders eschewed or were suspicous of the organized religions of the time, doesn't necessarily put them into the same camp as atheists or anti-Christians, which IMHO is an apt generalization of most "east coast intellectuals".
I believe it is also well-known that the Founders had no problem utlizing public buildings for religious services. Somehow, I don't think the "east coast intellectuals" would let that slide.
"Will's journalistic ethics, along with those of the newspaper that syndicates his column, The Washington Post, have also been questioned by conservative critics at Accuracy in Media (AIM). In their Media Monitor, AIM revealed that in December of 2004 The Post, in an article related to the Indian Ocean tsunami, claimed that, after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Catholic priests "roamed the streets" hanging suspected heretics, whom they blamed for the quake. Such a charge appears nowhere in the historical record, and The Post was duly informed of that fact. Not only did The Post fail to retract the calumny, but its columnist, Will, quoted as fact the same charge as it appeared in the 2005 book A Crack in the Edge of the World, by the English author Simon Winchester. Though notified of the complete falsity of the charge, neither Will nor Winchester, unlike others who mistakenly made the claim, have taken any steps to correct his error."
I don't think we want a state religion. Why? Invariably, someone will get the idea to forcibly convert others. Then we will have a rebirth of the Inquisition (an American version, but an inquisition, nonetheless).
I dont know what the Founding fathers thought about God, I do know they didnt try to stop others or interfere with others who believed like todays ACLU.
The tumult and the shouting dies
The captains and the kings depart
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
Far-call'd our navies melt away
On dune and headland sinks the fire
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
- Recessional, Rudyard Kipling
The Christian conscience is evident througout the correspondence and papers of the Founders. Any attempt to deny it is pure revisionist claptrap.
God: Missing in Action From American History
Was George Washington a Christian?
George Will is a flaming Lib. How he ever became associated with the right I'll never know.