George Washington Inspired by God, Researcher Says

BYU NewsNet ^ | 21 Aug 2008 | By Sean Walker

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Despite being born nearly 100 years before the restoration of the gospel, George Washington was inspired by God throughout his life, including during the Revolutionary War, according to a physician-presenter during Wednesday's session of Education Week.

Robert Young, a dermatologist and president of Rocky Mountain Dermatology, said Washington was a necessary step to the Lord being able to restore the gospel in this dispensation.

"All of us have a place in God's kingdom," Young said. "There is a reason you are on the earth today. And I believe the same thing about George Washington.

"There was no other nation on the earth where the Lord could have restored the gospel. And George Washington could not have been replaced."

From personal facts and joking comments about Washington's lifelong battle with gum disease to his preference for the simple life on his farm at Mount Vernon, Young presented a look into the life of the first president of the United States from his lifelong research and love for the man.

"The more you study the life of George Washington, the more you will come to love this man," Young said. "It's similar to the way you can come to love Joseph Smith by studying about his life."

Washington was a wealthy man, but he didn't start out that way. In fact, it wasn't until he married his wife that he became one of the wealthiest men in the Virginia colony. Some historians have speculated that the marriage was strictly out of convenience; Young disagrees.

"Whether he loved his wife as soon as they were married may be arguable," he said. "But he grew to love his wife deeper than any love I have ever known. And she adored him. She was clearly his best friend."

Part of that love was manifest in Washington's care for his stepchildren. After a bout with smallpox in his youth, some historians believe Washington was left sterile for the remainder of his life.

"But he treated his stepchildren as his own," Young said.

The dermatologist and deep researcher of Washington also defended the man's religious beliefs. Many believe Washington to have been strictly dispassionate towards religion and spiritual matters. But numerous journal entries stating times when Washington knelt in prayer and received various personal revelations argue to the contrary.

"I am convinced that George Washington spent much of his life on his knees," Young said. "He was not a Deist! He may or may not have been skeptical about Christianity, but he believed very strongly in God."

Washington's belief in God, and a series of supposed miracles should also lend Latter-day Saints to acquire a deeper understanding of this man, Young inferred.

"He made serious blunders that could have ended the American Revolution in the first week," he said. "But God provided the mightiest storm ever seen and Washington's army was able to flee at the battle of New York."

Making the topic of the lecture personal, Young also stressed the power that God holds over our individual lives.

"Being on your knees means being close to your Heavenly Father and keeping your eyes on the prize," Young said. "The Lord will no more desert you than he did George Washington at Valley Forge."

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