The Founding Believer
Michael & Novak, Jana
BOOKS IN REVIEW treaties to maintain peace, and responded to the outbreak of hostilities with ineffectual pleas for the belligerents to lay down their arms and submit their disputes to...
...Martha was herself indisputably devout in her Christian faith, though she too left few written theological thoughts, in typical Anglican style of the time...
...The Novaks devote a whole chapter to deism, which they explain as a rationalization of Christianity...
...Ostensibly, the nearly 100-year-old widow of Alexander Hamilton testified to her clear recollection of kneeling at the communion rail with the president...
...financially supported both churches and gave considerable personal time over the decades to his work on the church vestry...
...His inflexible neutrality even after the sinking of the Lusitania soon alienated the president and forced Bryan's resignation, freeing him to indulge in unrestrained moralizing-such as his pronouncement that "We Americans should make the Sermon on the Mount the real law of nations...
...So the hagiographers focused on Washington's self-denial, his courtesy, his reliable church-going, his prayer life, and his ardent sense of duty and providential destiny...
...Can killing innocent civilians lead to peace...
...Either trip by carriage involved a couple hours of travel round trip...
...Either Washington actually believed this or he was a "liar," Lodge wrote...
...Exaggeration of Washington's faith and character throughout the 19th century was inevitable...
...We must ask: When has this barbaric tactic ever worked--when has it led to peace and freedom for its perpetrators...
...Even the official symbol of the Palestinian Authority depicts a map of the region in which there is no Israel...
...And his less appealing traits were eventually resurrected as well, in presidential nominees as varied as Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore...
...The Novaks insist, not without logic, that a Washington without serious faith could not have managed this so equitably and successfully...
...Joe Ellis's highly acclaimed His Excellency of last year echoed this theme: "Never a deeply religious man, at least in the traditional Christian sense of the term, Washington thought of God as a distant impersonal force...
...Before long, he was turning his religion against Darwin, with irreparable consequences for his reputation...
...Early fans of Washington, in the wake of his death at the 18th-century's close, sought to explain the first president's Christian faith in the language of the new evangelical era...
...The Novaks (who are father and daughter) remind us that for a century after Washington's death, historians, starting with his first biographer John Marshall, described the first president as a devout Christian...
...Indeed, Hamas' charter states that "Israel will e x i s t . . , until Islam will obliterate it...
...Washington was a different character, and he died as he lived, with understatement and composure...
...Such clarification is long overdue...
...Suicide bombers never claim they kill innocents to solve the Palestinians' economic plight, but there's no doubt that Arabs in Gaza and the disputed territories suffer from heart-rending poverty, corruption, and political oppression...
...But the Novaks assert that Weems, who briefly pastured the Pohick Anglican Church that the Washingtons attended, was only disseminating what was already widely believed to be true...
...Throughout his presidency he regularly attended churches in New York and Philadelphia...
...Above all, Muslims must, as New York Times writer Anne Applebaum asserts, "change the culture that celebrates self-immolation and that sick form of honor and pride...
...N ONE OF WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS express any doubts about orthodox Christianity...
...The death at Mount Vernon contrasted with Alexander Hamilton's several years later...
...By teaching evolution in public schools, he said, his enemies were trying to destroy "every moral standard that the Bible gives us...
...This deity saved the young Washington several times from French and Indian bullets, saved Washington's army from near destruction by the far larger British army, and saved the young republic from chaos and division...
...The Novaks describe 18th-century Tidewater Virginia Anglican culture, in which gentlemen were expected to be church-going but reticent about their faith...
...The Novaks also observe that Washington's taciturnity about religious specifics throughout his life, as on many other issues, allowed him to serve as the indispensable man in whom people of all faiths placed their trust...
...Make no mistake: When well-meaning Westerners speak of Israeli "occupation," they generally refer to disputed territories in the West Bank...
...Shot in a duel, the flamboyant former aid to Washington dramatically requested the presence of an Anglican bishop and demanded the Eucharist while professing his faith in Christ...
...The Novaks write that this was not unusual for the time, and that the Eucharist was infrequently celebrated in churches of the era, even Roman Catholic ones...
...Washington's death, as described by secretary Tobias Lear, occurred relatively quickly, painfully, and touchingly for the servants, doctors, and family who tearfully looked on...
...Washington was indeed tight-lipped about the specifics of his theology...
...Noted psychologist Dr...
...What's the next step toward Arab-Israeli peace...
...Lukewarm Anglican" then as now was a redundancy, they affirm...
...Washington Washington's public utterances about God were unifying rather than divisive and were admired by Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and even jews...
...like Franklin and Jefferson he was a deist.., not believing in the doctrines of the churches...
...Only a few days later, he was dead, peacefully expiring during an afternoon nap...
...Helpfully in their appendix, the Novaks list the more than 100 ways that Washington described God, from "Almighty and Merciful Sovereign of the Universe" to "Wonder-working Deity...
...The absence of clergy during those final hours, and the fact that Lear never ascribed any specific statements of faith to Washington, have reinforced the notion of him as a deist/stoic...
...Indeed most suicide bombers are middle-class, educated and emotionally stable...
...iii ilii iii i...
...Even Douglas Southall Freeman's magisterial seven-volume biography dared not assert that its subject was overly devout...
...Prizing refinement over enthusiasm, even devout Anglicans were and largely still are expected to be tight-lipped and even inarticulate about religion...
...But maybe they've got too much already...
...Hamas and Islamic Jihad--as well as the young men and women they recruit as human bombsmake no secret of their goals...
...Irwin Mansdorf has observed, "While [suicide bombers] may feel oppressed, the stimulus for the act is nationalistic and political, not psychopathological and clinical...
...Study after study shows that the primary motivation of suicide bombers is neither desperation nor depression nor hopelessness...
...The good news is, they work...
...Modern biographers portray Washington as a Roman stoic who performed his religious duties perfunctorily to satisfy the public...
...George Washington's modern biographers are almost uniform in dismissing or minimizing his religious faith...
...He prayed before meals, read sermons out loud to Martha, and bought devotional material for his stepchildren...
...When stepdaughter Patsy was dying, he prayed audibly while on his knees at her bedside...
...It can only be to strike terror in the hearts of its victims, their families and their communities...
...Reserved and emotionally reticent, he left no extant theological treatises on his personal religious beliefs...
...A serious Baptist and conservative Richmond newspaper editor, Freeman presumably did not share the secular biases of more recent biographers but nonetheless was cryptic Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and cautious about and the Father of Our Country Washington's religion, by Michael and Jana Novak Henry Cabot Lodge, (BAsic BooKs, 256 PAGES, $26) well over a century ago, was probably the last Reviewed by Mark D. Tooley major biographer to i insist that Washington was unequivocallya Christian, I based on a single reference to Jesus Christ as "the I Divine Author of our religion...
...Yet the suicide bombings continue, even as Israel withdraws from Gaza and places more territory in the hands of Palestinians...
...Once he left his Bible thumping mother's household he may never have taken any Anglican communion again, yet he went to church frequently...
...Are those who k i l l innocent civilians seeking freedom and peace...
...Some of them are quite creative...
...Now that the avowedly terrorist group Hamas has taken control of the Palestinian Authority, the world community must cut off this funding and limit aid strictly to humanitarian purposes...
...Scopes was convicted, but Bryan was the butt of endless ridicule both here and abroad...
...The Washingtons usually attended Pohick Church near Mount Vernon and sometimes Christ Church in Alexandria...
...68 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2006 You deserve a factual look a t . . . 98 Suicide Bombers in Israel--What Do They Really Want...
...They include references to the divine as "Father" and "Jehovah...
...Washington's public utterances about God were unifying rather than divisive and were admired by Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and even Jews...
...What are the facts...
...Washington's few specific references to Jesus Christ and his lack of Trinitarian language helped fuel the assumption that he was a deist...
...It's easy to sympathize with Arabs in the disputed Israeli territories and Gaza who live in squalid conditions and economic hopelessness...
...Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail...
...Unfortunately, this romanticized image of the suicide bomber doesn't square with the facts...
...Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome...
...The answer is never-never in human history has terrorism succeeded as a military strategy...
...Although not noted bythe Novaks, 19th-centurybiographers often disputed claims that Washington never took the Eucharist...
...A few clergy over the years expressed concern that Washington rarely if ever took communion, even though Martha usually did...
...His spirit, however, made itself known as his party came more and more to embrace his brand of public policy-a form of liberalism that was an electoral liability in 1908 and remains one in 2006...
...or do they have other motivations...
...Some deists remained Christians, while others would follow the European model of strict rationalism...
...Martha responded with the same phrase...
...Only then can we hope for peace . . . in Israel, in Iraq, and in the rest of the world...
...The language of Enlightenment, 18th-century Christianity, especially as employed by refined Tidewater Anglicans, was considerably less flamboyant than what would replace it...
...WI SHINGTON'S GOD by Michael and Jana Novak attempts to clarify the record about the reat man's religion...
...It is telling that Palestinian suicide bombers never claim they are killing to achieve peace with Israel...
...In the case of Islamic terror, [there is] the additional variable of becoming a shahid (martyr), with all its attendant religious rewards...
...It was a noble death and quite Christian in its entire content," the Novaks write...
...Indeed, to this day, the Palestinian Authority still makes reward payments to the families of suicide bombers...
...Methodists, and Baptists, with their emphasis on conversion and transformation, would dominate 19th-century America...
...None are at odds with the Jewish and Christian understanding of a personal God...
...Indeed, many Westerners believe it's this desperate poverty, plus strict Israeli security measures, that drive suicide bombers to blow themselves up in pizza parlors, buses and college cafeterias...
...Their christo-centric language was far more explicit about salvation, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the demand for repentance...
...The Founding Believer A T A CANDLELIGHT DINNER o n the portico of Mount Vernon, Roman Catholic ethicist Michael Novak was reluctantlypersuaded bythe Mount Vernon Ladies Association to write a book about George Washington's religious beliefs...
...In fact, it is terrorist groups known for their outspoken religious and political agendas--like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah and A1 Qaeda--that claim credit for nearly every suicide bombing in Israel and around the world...
...James Flexner, in his famous three-volume work of the 1970s, wrote: "Washington subscribed to the religious faith of the Enlightenment...
...BOOKS IN REVIEW treaties to maintain peace, and responded to the outbreak of hostilities with ineffectual pleas for the belligerents to lay down their arms and submit their disputes to arbitration...
...What do they say they want...
...Billions of dollars have poured into the Palestinian Authority from the U.S., the U.N and European nations, but virtually none of this money has found its way to economic development--in fact, most of it has landed in the bank accounts of corrupt Palestinian politicians or to support terror operations...
...When teacher John Thomas Scopes was tried for violating the state's ban on teaching evolution, Bryan was called by the defense, whereupon Clarence Darrow mercilessly exposed not only his ignorance of science but his superficial acquaintance with Scripture...
...But the 20th-century backlash by increasingly secular historians also went too far...
...He carefully wrote to their congregations, visited their places of worship, and received their delegations, commending their faith and urging their loyalty to the new republic and its promise of religious liberty to all...
...Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C...
...Why do Palestinian poverty and security restrictions continue...
...Who are these suicide bombers...
...The deist God is a creator whose world is governed by natural laws and who desires moral living by humanity, whose conduct will be judged in the afterlife...
...Most of Washington's family, friends, and associates assumed he had at least conventional if not necessarily expressive Christian faith...
...Kazin suggests that a little more Bryanism is just what modern Democrats need...
...Rather, they murder as a " . . . they murder as a matter of honor, as a religious and political imperative~to rid the region of a people they see as infidels...
...Instead of glorifying suicide bombers, the Muslim world, on whose behalf these terrorists claim they are acting, must scorn their barbaric acts...
...This insistence on a religiously ambivalent Washington stretches back over many decades...
...Ultimately, of course, all jihadists--whether in Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or Iran--seek to make the world, including the U.S., a fundamentalist Islamic dictatorship...
...Deism, the Novaks suggest, allowed Protestants to incorporate the language of reason during the Enlightenment...
...66 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2006 BOOKS IN REVIEW The enormously successful hagiographer Parson Mason Locke Weems is routinely credited for generating pious myths about "Washington...
...But he was surprisingly frequent is his references to the Deity...
...Washington's own words frequently could not match these demands...
...In religion, as in statecraft, Washington set the example that all other presidents would follow in some form...
...This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME Facts and Logic About the Middle East P.O...
...They are almost certainly correct...
...Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world...
...Washington's God, as he described Him in his public declarations and personal letters, was quite active and quite personal...
...Interestingly, Jefferson referred to Jesus as the "blessed author of our religion...
...Indeed, it is precisely to prevent murder by suicide bombers that Israel has instituted these stringent security measures...
...The clues must be extracted from Washington's ecclesial habits, his family life, his character, and the numerous references to the Almighty in his public writings and personal letters...
...When Hamas and Islamic Jihad speak of occupation, they refer to all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River--including all of present-day Israel...
...Much of early Protestantism initially rejected Catholicism's use of human reason, choosing instead to focus on faith alone...
...As noted above, Washington contrastingly called Jesus the "Divine Author of our religion...
...He took these things [religion] as he found them existing, and was constant in his observance of worship according to the received forms of the Episcopal Church in which he was brought up," James M adiso n matte r-o f- factly observed of his fellow Virginian...
...Among the over one million visitors each year to Washington's exquisitely preserved estate, the request for such a book is common but largely unrequited, Novak was told...
...His God was not remote or impersonal...
...Washington, as he related the many interventions of his God, clearly believed in a continuously active deity who was more than the detached "clockmaker" of strict deism...
...What is the military objective of randomly killing unarmed men, women and children as they dine, dance or celebrate religious events...
...Unlike Thomas Jefferson, who sometimes declined to serve as a godparent because of his theological doubts, Washington frequently agreed to the spiritual responsibilities of godparenting for the children of relatives and friends...
...Box 590359 I San Francisco, CA 94159 Gerardo Joffe, President FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization...
...The assumption of the last century's scholarship that Washington was irreligious is partly his fault...
...If he had them, he left them unrecorded or confined to his correspondence with his wife, who burned nearly all their letters on his instructions...
...Martha prayed with her Bible at the bedside while Washington uttered his final words: "Tis well...
...matter ofhonor, as a religious and political imperative--to rid the region of a people they see as infidels...
...He had no chance to rehabilitate his damaged public image...
...During Washington's final years, the established Anglican and Congregationalist churches of the East Coast were losing market share to revivalist evangelicals...
...They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines...
...We have virtually no overhead...
...Don't believe, either, that suicide bombers kill civilians to rid Israel of its security fence or to end its many security checkpoints, which cause great inconvenience and frustration for many Palestinians...
...He contrasts with Jefferson and Franklin and even Adams, who privately expressed doubts about orthodox MAY 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 67 BOOKS IN REVIEW understandings of Christ's deity and the Trinity, even as they attended churches and affirmed Christianity...
...The Novaks emphasize that whatever the specifics of the man's personal faith, he said the same things about God in private as he did in public...
...Willard Randall's more recent George Washington: A Life similarly asserts, "He was not a deeply religious man...
...Washington's spiritual life within his family appears to have been conventionally orthodox...
Vol. 39 • May 2006 • No. 4
