Easter is celebrated around the world as one of the most significant Christian holidays and holy days. I thought it would be interesting to research what America’s Founding Fathers thought about it.
First, Brittanica.com rightly states: “Most [Founding Fathers] were Protestants. The largest number were raised in the three largest Christian traditions of colonial America – Anglicanism (as in the cases of John Jay, George Washington, and Edward Rutledge), Presbyterianism (as in the cases of Richard Stockton and the Rev. John Witherspoon), and Congregationalism (as in the cases of John Adams and Samuel Adams). Other Protestant groups included the Society of Friends (Quakers), the Lutherans, and the Dutch Reformed. Three Founders – Charles Carroll and Daniel Carroll of Maryland and Thomas Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania – were of Roman Catholic heritage.”
With that in mind, we know that most attended Easter or Resurrection Sunday church services. And many wrote or spoke about their Easter or resurrection faith, even those often accused of being deist or nominally Christian.
The Library of Congress and National Archives documents what Benjamin Franklin once composed as his epitaph, which compared the theme of his resurrection in the afterlife to his work as a printer of books (he left his death date open at the end, of course):
The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:5
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,6
Corrected and amended7
By the Author.
He was born Jan. 6. 1706.
Died 17
Historian David Barton from Wallbuilders.com cites a few more founders’ representative views on Easter:
Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, viewed Easter as the power for salvation, explaining:
“The approaching festival of Easter, and the merits and mercies of our Redeemer copiosa assudeum redemptio [‘with the Lord there is plentiful redemption’] have lead me into this chain of meditation and reasoning, and have inspired me with the hope of finding mercy before my Judge, and of being happy in the life to come – a happiness I wish you to participate with me by infusing into your heart a similar hope.”
Benjamin Rush, another signer of the Declaration, pointed out how Jesus’ resurrection not only redeemed man to God but also to each other. He noted:
“He forgave the crime of murder on His cross; and after His resurrection, He commanded His disciples to preach the gospel of forgiveness, first at Jerusalem, where He well knew His murderers still resided. These striking facts are recorded for our imitation and seem intended to show that the Son of God died, not only to reconcile God to man but to reconcile men to each other.”
In liberal academia, George Washington is often conveyed as a man who believed in a generic deistic God, one who basically created the world but then let it go to run its course.
But, if anyone knows about the real faith and practice of George Washington, it is the historians at his now national park of Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s actual 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 Washington’s religious life, practice and belief.
Mt. 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.” 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 Mt. 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 worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
Washington tried to set an example by worshipping 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 doesn’t believe God intervenes in the affairs of men? If only other presidents and government officials were as religiously devoted as Washington!
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,” including Holy Week and Easter.
Maybe most telling about his faith is the very tomb that currently contains the remains of Gen. George and Martha Washington. In his will, Washington directed that a new tomb be constructed “at the foot of what is commonly called the Vineyard Inclosure.”
Washington died in 1799. The tomb’s construction was delayed until 1831. When George and Martha’s remains were moved to their new location, the final beautiful brick enclosure of the tomb was completed in 1835.
The following words were inscribed on the back wall above the sarcophagus holding the mortal remains of George Washington for all who still visit the memorial at their Mt. Vernon estate. The words come the Bible, and are at the core of Easter and the Christian faith. They are Jesus’ words from John 11:25: “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
As to the reason those words are inscribed above George and Martha’s burial place, we can rightly assume the Washington family was pointing to their personal belief.
All of America’s founders’ personal belief in Easter or the Resurrection of Jesus was something far more than just about a faith in a past historical fact. It declared their hope that Jesus’ Resurrection assured their own.
As early American clergyman Phillips Brooks, the Episcopalian rector of Boston’s Trinity Church and briefly bishop of Massachusetts, wrote: “Let every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in His resurrection. Let him say not merely, ‘Christ is risen,’ but ‘I shall rise’.”
Every Easter is a powerful reminder of a day that changed history, and I’m not talking about the bunny. The physical Resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian religion and our personal faith. It reset the course of humanity, and has indelibly changed the hearts of billions, including Gena and me.
Through Jesus’ Resurrection, we not only learn that his teachings were true but also his entire ministry. Dying was His reason for living. And by rising from the dead, we understand that He can be our continual Helper and Hope every day. He promised His followers, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
He not only committed to be with us through the good and hard times of this life, but to provide the way and help us as we transition from this life into the next.
Jesus followed up his statement memorialized at Washington’s tomb with a question: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
If we answer Jesus’ question in the affirmative, we will not only have peace with God and be blessed in this life by His continual presence; we will be blessed in the afterlife by the free gift of eternal life. It is a life that will ultimately deliver us from the diseases, toils and tyrants of this world into a life the Bible describes as “no pain, grief, sorrow or tears.” Can you imagine? (As our pastor says, “At death, we just put in for a change of address!”)
Our friend, spiritual mentor and prolific author, Randy Alcorn, explained it in an almost poetic and perfect way:
Hope is the light at the end of life’s tunnel. It not only makes the tunnel endurable, it fills the heart with anticipation of the world into which we will one day emerge. Not just a better world, but a new and perfect world. A world alive, fresh, beautiful, devoid of pain and suffering and war, a world without disease, without accident, without tragedy. A world without dictators and madmen. A world ruled by the only one worthy of ruling.
Now, that’s great Easter news and chicken soup for every soul!
(If you want to explore faith more, I encourage you to download this FREE E-Copy of the book, “God Questions: Exploring Life’s Greatest Questions About God,” which tackles your tough questions about God and gives evidence to go with it. Please click HERE)
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