George Washington, the Constitution, & Spiritual Tyranny

As we begin the final week of our month-long series on the Founding Fathers, Spirituality, and Religion, we turn our attention to George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and of course the first President of The United States. A fierce advocate of personal liberties, General Washington worried over the tyranny of establishments and institutions in all matters, especially regarding politics and religion.

As such, Washington belonged to no political party and in fact wished that America would not form parties, not simply out of a fear of tyrrany but also because he felt a party system would encourage conflict and prevent governments from getting things done. Looking at the current sad state of political affairs, we see that Washington’s concerns were very prescient.

The following passage is from a letter dated May 10, 1789, written to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia. Here we find Washington emphasizing that we worship by the dictates of our own consciences, not by the dictates of organized church bodies or religious establishments, which are more than capable of inflicting spiritual tyranny on their congregations. Washington held the belief (common among many of the Founding Fathers) that the individual alone is responsible for his or her relationship to God.

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that every person, conducting themselves as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for their religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of their own conscience.

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The Living Hour’s SBNR motivational series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives on Progressive Christianity and spirituality. Sign up by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page.

Benjamin Franklin’s Religion & Jesus of Nazareth

Continuing with The Living Hour’s month-long series on the Founding Fathers’ reflections on God, Christianity, and Religion, we move today to some commentary from that SBNR Progressive Christian Benjamin Franklin. The following passage is taken from a letter Franklin wrote to the reverend Ezra Stile in 1790, when Franklin was 85 years old, and Stile was serving as president of Yale College. Here we find Franklin discussing his perspectives on religion and the significance of Jesus of Nazareth.

Considering Franklin is 85, it is especially interesting to note his statement that this is the first time he has been questioned about his religious beliefs. True to form, Ben Franklin’s answers reveal the reasonable common sense approach that the candle-maker’s son took towards life, as well as the calm and good natured temperament for which he was well-known.

You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I do not take your curiosity the wrong way, and will try in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, creator of the universe; that He governs it by his providence; that He ought to be worshipped; that the most acceptable service we can render Him is to do good to his other Children. And that the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religions, and I admire them, as you do, in whatever sect I meet them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, to be the best the world has ever seen, or is likely to see. But I believe it has received various corrupting changes, and I am in accord with the present dissenters in England in having some doubts regarding Jesus’s divinity: although it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon the opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.

I see no harm however in it being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed. I shall only add respecting myself that having experienced the Goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long Life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, even though I hold not the smallest conceit of meriting such Goodness.¹

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The Living Hour’s SBNR motivational series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives on Progressive Christianity and spirituality. Sign up by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page.

1. Some very small edits were made to the above passage to make it more easily read by the modern reader. [↩]

The Founding Fathers On Christianity, God, & Religion

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States could be best described as SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Progressive Christians. We at The Living Hour often look back to them for inspiration, for they were leaders who possessed a solid sense of reason that was backed by an understanding of the divine nature of creation and their place in it. As such, they strongly demonstrated all the characteristics of the truly progressive Christian.

Therefore for the next month, our SBNR Motivational series will be featuring passages from Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and other early Americans, on the subjects of Christianity, God, and Religion. To get the ball rolling, let’s begin with the following passage from Thomas Jefferson, taken from a letter to Moses Robinson, the governor of the Vermont Republic who helped usher Vermont to statehood.

In this passage we find Jefferson commenting on the Christian clergy, the Church, and the State, comments which still are very relevant today. Jefferson’s hope that “good sense” will prevail among orthodox Christians is unfortunately still waiting to be realized:

The Eastern States will be the last to come over, because of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge in reveries that can never be realized in the age of science. If, indeed, they could have prevailed on us to view all the advances in science as dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising groundwork would have been laid.

But I have hopes that their good sense will show them that since the mountain will not come to them, they had better go to the mountain: that they will find it in their interest to acquiesce to the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.

I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied.¹

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The Living Hour’s SBNR motivational series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives on Progressive Christianity and spirituality. Sign up by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page.

1. Some very small edits were made to above passage to make the reading easier for the contemporary reader [↩]

Luke – Gospel 18 – Kingdom Belongs to the Childlike

Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never despair. 2 “There was,” he said, “in a certain town a judge, who had no fear of God nor regard for man. 3 In the same town there was a widow who went to him again and again, and said: ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a time the judge refused, but afterwards he said to himself, ‘Although I am without fear of God or regard for man, 5 Yet, as this widow is so troublesome, I will grant her justice, to stop her from plaguing me with her endless visits.’”

6 Then the Master added: “Listen to what this iniquitous judge says! 7 And God—will not he see that his own people, who cry to him night and day, have justice done though he holds his hand? 8 He will, I tell you, have justice done them, and that soon! Yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

9 Another time, speaking to people who were satisfied that they were religious, and who regarded everyone else with scorn, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up into the temple courts to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax-gatherer. 11 The Pharisee stood forward and began praying to himself in this way: ‘O God, I thank thee that I am not like other men—thieves, rogues, adulterers—or even like this tax-gatherer. 12 I fast twice a week, and give a tenth of everything I get to God.’”

13 Meanwhile the tax-gatherer stood at a distance, not venturing even ‘to raise his eyes to heaven’; but he kept striking his breast and saying, ‘O God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 This man, I tell you, went home pardoned, rather than the other; for everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, while everyone who humbles themselves shall be exalted.”

15 Some of the people were bringing even their babies to Jesus, for him to touch them; but, when the disciples saw it, they began to find fault with those who had brought them. 16 Jesus, however, called the little children to him. “Let the little children come to me,” he said, “and do not hinder them; for it is to the childlike that the kingdom of God belongs. 17 I tell you, unless you receive the kingdom of God like a child, you will not enter it at all.”

18 And one of the Presidents asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what must I do if I am to gain Immortal Life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” answered Jesus. “No one is good but God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not say what is false about others, Honor thy father and thy mother.’”

21 “I have observed all these,” he replied, “from childhood.” 22 Hearing this, Jesus said to him: “There is one thing still lacking in you; sell everything that you have, and distribute to the poor, and you shall have wealth in heaven; then come and follow me.” 23 But the man became greatly distressed on hearing this, for he was extremely rich.

24 Seeing this, Jesus said to his disciples: “How hard it is for men of wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

25 It is easier, indeed, for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God!”

26 “Then who can be saved?” asked those who heard this. 27 But Jesus said: “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

28 “But we,” said Peter, “we left what belonged to us and followed you.” 29 “I tell you,” he answered, “that there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, on account of the kingdom of God, 30 Who will not receive many times as much in the present and in the age to come, life everlasting.”

31 Gathering the twelve round him, Jesus said to them: “Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem; and there everything that is written in the prophets will be done to the Son of Man. 32 For he will be given up to the Gentiles, mocked, insulted and spat upon; 33 They will scourge him, and then put him to death; and on the third day he will rise again.” 34 The apostles did not comprehend any of this; his meaning was lost to them, they did not understand what he was saying.

35 As Jesus was getting near Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road-side, begging. 36 Hearing a crowd going by, the man asked what was the matter; 37 And, when people told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, 38 He shouted out: “Jesus, Son of David, take pity on me!” 39 Those who were in front kept telling him to be quiet, but he continued to call out the louder: “Son of David, take pity on me!”

40 Then Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. And, when he had come close up to him, Jesus asked him: 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Master,” he said, “I want to recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said: “Recover your sight, your faith has delivered you.” 43 Instantly he recovered his sight, and began to follow Jesus, praising God. And all the people, on seeing it, gave glory to God.

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To read the next chapter of the Book of Luke, please go to The Gospel of Luke – 19.

This Online New Testament Gospel of Luke is excerpted from the book The Living Hour: The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life (with New Century Gospels). Including over 200 bookmarked citations from the canonical Gospels, this Progressive Christian book appeals to the Unitarian spirit at the heart of all faiths.