On Feb. 22, 1732, George Washington was born to a family of middling wealth in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the second son from the second marriage of a colonial plantation owner.
According to Encyclopedia Virginia and history.com, in 1752, at 20 years of age, Washington joined the British army and served as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War. History explained, “After the war’s fighting moved elsewhere, he resigned from his military post, returned to a planter’s life, and took a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses.”
In 1759, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow, and adopted her two children (she had two other children, but they had passed).
In 1775, at 43 years old, Washington became the commander in chief of the Continental Army, and, in 1783, led America to victory over the British after eight years of war.
As far as his political career, Washington served as a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia from 1759–1774. He was also a member of the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775. But while others were signing the Declaration of Independence, Washington was already on the battlefield fighting for independence. As the president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, however, Washington was the first signer of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States of America. He was unanimously elected by the 69 presidential electors to serve his first term from 1789 to 1793. He was then again unanimously elected for his second term from 1793 to 1797. He declined a third term.
What’s little known about George Washington is just how extensive and sincere his Christian faith and church service were. Most encyclopedias and internet sites say virtually nothing about it. If comments are made, they are few and most relegate Washington to being a deist, one who believed in a generic Divine Watchmaker who created the world and then stepped back for it to take its natural course.
But the truth is there’s much more to his faith and practice than most know. In the midst of his military and political careers, Washington led a devoted Christian life through his service and attendance at five different churches, depending upon where he was at the time in the Colonies and the war.
Though his leadership and placement in the Revolutionary War prompted sporadic attendance at times, one former pastor at his Pohick Church stated, “I never knew so constant an attendant at church as Washington.”
If anyone knows about the real faith and practice of George Washington, it is the historians at his now national park of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate. In the museum and educational center there, one particular video display, which plays on a continuous loop for visitors, highlights some great points about his religious life and belief.
Mount Vernon’s official website describes the video display as “shown on the wall above the reconstructed church pew in the ‘Gentleman Planter Gallery,’ where visitors learn about the role religion played in Washington’s life and his encouragement of religious expression.”
The short video presentation is flanked by displays of the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer on the walls right next to it. The footage explains the following, with the voice of an actor as George Washington every time quotations appear below. It opens with the words:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” [A quote from Washington’s farewell address as president]
Then there’s a slight pause with the words on the screen “George Washington and religion.” Then the narrator proceeds with the following paragraphs:
George Washington was raised in the Anglican Church, the official church of Virginia and the other southern colonies. As in other Virginian families of this period, he appears to have received his spiritual education from his mother using the family bible and other religious works at the time.
He was a member and vestryman of Pohick Church and Christ’s Church in Virginia. When he married Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, it was in a Christian ceremony. At Mount Vernon, their family home, the couple was known to say grace at meal times, and they provided a religious education to Martha’s children and grandchildren.
As president, Washington acknowledged the presence of a Divine hand in the fate of the nation by promoting the celebration of a Day of Thanksgiving: “I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”
During the Revolutionary War, General Washington encouraged the religious convictions of his troops and asked the Continental Congress to support payment for clergymen of many faiths [or Christian denominations] to tend to the spiritual needs of the men. “While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious of violating the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the Judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case are they answerable.”
Washington believed that political and religious freedom went hand-in-hand, and he encouraged the new republic to embrace religious tolerance: “[For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that] every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
Washington tried to set an example by worshiping with different sects [mostly Christian denominations]: Presbyterian, Quakers, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists. In a famous letter to Touro Synagogue, he made it clear that religious tolerance in a new nation was not for Christians alone: “May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants; while everyone shall sit [in safety] under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
It is clear in Washington’s writings that he was a deeply spiritual man, with a strong belief that a benevolent power was acting in his life and in the founding of the United States: “Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
Wow! Does all that sound like it could have come from a deist, who didn’t believe God intervened in the affairs of men? Just the opposite. If only today’s presidents and government officials were as religiously devoted as Washington!
Dr. George Tsakiridis, Ph.D, professor of religion at South Dakota State University, wrote for Mount Vernon: “Washington is reported to have had regular private prayer sessions, and personal prayer was a large part of his life. One well-known report stated that Washington’s nephew witnessed him doing personal devotions with an open Bible while kneeling, in both the morning and evening.”
Mary V. Thompson, Mount Vernon’s Research Historian in the Collections Department, wrote one of the most amazing and inspiring books, “In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington.” In the chapter titled simply “Prayer,” she explained how Washington’s youngest granddaughter, Nelly, admitted to a Washington biographer:
“It was his custom to retire to his library at nine or ten o’clock, where he remained an hour before he went to his chamber. He always rose before the sun, and remained in his library until called to breakfast. I never witnessed his private devotions. I never inquired about them. I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian. He was not one of those, who act or pray ‘that they may be seen of men.’ He communed with his God in secret.”
It is with that in mind that I recommend all Americans to pray the prayer Washington himself prayed for his beloved country. In fact, Mount Vernon’s official website described the origins of this prayer by explaining: “[This] Prayer [was] adapted from Washington’s Circular Letter to the States, which he wrote on June 8, 1783, as the commander in chief, at his headquarters in Newburgh, New York. This circular was directed to the governors and states of the new nation. His reference to them has been replaced by the words ‘the United States.’ Otherwise, the words and the spellings are those of Gen. George Washington of the Continental Army.”
This prayer is actually read aloud each and every day at Mount Vernon’s public wreath laying ceremony at Washington’s tomb. Is that awesome or what? Washington’s heart and passion still pours out for his country as ours does even now as we pray what he penned 240 years ago:
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have the United States in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Amen.
To these words, many public renditions of the ending conclude: “Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
On Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington died of a severe respiratory sickness. His beloved Martha died only three years later, on May 22, 1802. They were married roughly 40 years. Just prior to her own death, Martha destroyed nearly all of Washington’s letters to her, though three did survive.
In his will, he humbly and simply referred to himself as “George Washington of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States, and late President of the same.”
At first, the Washingtons were laid to rest temporarily in a family vault on the estate’s hillside overlooking the Potomac River. But in his will, he specified that their final resting place was to be in a new tomb constructed below his orchard, something that wasn’t completed for roughly 30 years. In 1831, the Washingtons and other family members’ bodies were moved there.
The engraved words over Washington’s new tomb made known the title by which people knew him best back then – not as president but general. The inscription reads: “Within this enclosure rest the remains of Gen. George Washington.” And over the door of the inner tomb is inscribed these large words from Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John (11:25): “I am the Resurrection and the Life, sayeth the Lord. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”
(For further study on Washington’s faith and practice, I also highly recommend Michael and Jana Novak’s insightful “Washington’s God.” And for Washington’s use and quoting of the Bible, please see “Bible” by Dr. and Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach, D.Phil., J.D., at Mt. Vernon’s Official website. I also recommend the exhaustive book, “Sacred Fire,” by Peter Lillback and Jerry Newcombe)
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