To: Tailgunner Joe
I dont buy it. While not a a "deist" in a strict sense, I'd call him a Christian deist, who believe and practiced the ways of good Christian men, but more as a culture, than a religion.
A telling fact is that on his deathbed, from a lingering illness, he summoned no priest nor clergy.
5 posted on
04/04/2006 6:47:07 PM PDT by
Paradox
(Removing all Doubt since 1998!)
To: Paradox
Where the rubber would meet the road is whether or not Washington indulged in private prayer. I don't deists of any stripe would do that, and private prayer is not just upholding the culture as a public man, or man of affairs.
7 posted on
04/04/2006 6:52:38 PM PDT by
Torie
To: Paradox
You might want to give the book a look. Michael and Jana Novak thoroughly address your very deathbed question. Washington, as were many of his contemporaries, was a very "low-church" Anglican, one who would not see a necessity for Last Rites, yet who was liturgical enough in his sensibilities to practice his faith in a way that was quiet rather than heart-on-his-sleeve. His final words were "'Tis well," the period's Anglican "amen," uttered as his wife prayed over him.
To: Paradox
I'm not buying or selling, but several things I noticed whicle going through the Journals of the Continental Congress and several U.S> Army references, General Washington is the man who pushed for the establishment of the Chaplain Corps in the Continental Army and soon after, to get more clergy to join, it was Washington who got Congress to raise their pay from that of a captain to that of a colonel. Subsequently towards the close of the war, Washington ordered a chapel built at his headquarters at Newburgh, New York with a capacity to hold services for an entire battalion. Apparently, he approved of the blueprint on Christmas Day, 1782 and the chapel, known as the "Temple of Virtue" was completed by February 1783. Consequently it would appear that he held firm religious beliefs.
12 posted on
04/04/2006 8:48:03 PM PDT by
Seniram US
(Quote of the Day: Smile You're An American)
To: Paradox
"on his deathbed, from a lingering illness, he summoned no priest nor clergy."
All that means is that he wasn't Catholic, but we already knew that.
15 posted on
04/05/2006 4:41:48 AM PDT by
RoadTest
(The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light!)
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