Pastor Lillback admits that one could never say that Washington was an evangelical Christian, but he did once rise to the level of evangelism when he supported the Anglican mission to the Indians. Vernon state: “Washington’s diaries show no church attendance by anyone in the family after they returned to Mount Vernon at the end of his presidency.” Washington obviously did not follow his own advice to his soldiers when he commanded: “See that the men regularly attend divine worship.”īoth Washington and Jefferson Supported Mission to the Indians In stark contrast to Washington, Jefferson, after his retirement, rode all the way to Charlottesville to church.įor the 16 years that I could get diary evidence (periodic from 1760 to 1791), Washington attended church on average only 10 times a year. Witnesses also noticed that he always put his prayer book in his pocket as he rode off to church. Jefferson attended church more often than Washington did, and he, too, would have joined the congregation in reciting the trinitarian creeds. This fact leads us to believe that the major premise is obviously false. Thomas Jefferson was also a vestryman in the Anglican church and attended church regularly throughout his life, but Lillback would never draw the conclusion that Jefferson was an orthodox Christian. Here is the essence of his argument in the form of a syllogism: major premise: Anglicans are orthodox Christians minor premise: Washington was an Anglican therefore, Washington was an orthodox Christian. Lillback likes to use syllogistic reasoning to refute previous Washington scholars. Lillback really has to stretch the evidence and indulge in a lot speculation to make Washington an orthodox, trinitarian Christian. Washington and Jefferson: Both Nominal Anglicans Indeed, Thomas Jefferson regularly took Communion and he explicitly rejected the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. The fact that a person takes Communion is not a definite sign that they are orthodox Christians. James Abercrombie once criticized him harshly from the pulpit about his refusal to celebrate the Eucharist. The reasons that he adduces have to do with church politics, plus the fact that the Rev. Lillback’s most interesting argument is an alternative explanation of why Washington refused to take Communion at two churches while he was president. But a closer look reveals a series of invalid arguments. It’s the best book on faith and the founding I think I’ve ever read.”ĭid Beck actually read this huge tome? Running almost 1,200 pages with 500 pages of endnotes and 10 indices, conservative Presbyterian minister Peter Lillback’s George Washington’s Sacred Fire certainly gives the impression of thorough scholarship. On his show Beck enthused: “It so discredits all of the scholars and it’s amazing. Thanks to Glenn Beck’s fawning promotion, an obscure self-published book on George Washington’s religion has become a best seller on. He was deafeningly silent, was absent from the temple’s architecture. Washington helped design and construct, but Christ, about whom Religion was one sturdy pillar of the temple of government Old Life Theological Society (Presbyterian) Religion seriously applies only to the “other” side. Lillback’s argument boomerangs on everyone who thinks that taking Rather than scoring points in the culture wars against liberals, Anonymous posting to a review of Lillback’s Sacred Fire Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of IdahoĪs a fellow minister in Peter Lillback’s denomination (conservative Presbyterian), I can tell you that a large number of us are embarrassed by his poor historical methodology. He was Not an Orthodox Trinitarian Christian
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