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I thought the same thing of you awhile back in this conversation. Just to let you know I did not and will not read any of the rest of what you wrote. You began this digressed I'm sure the rest only gets worse from here.
Originally Posted by George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, Jared Sparks, editor (Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, Publisher, 1838), Vol. XII, pp. 399-411.
I shall here insert a letter on this subject, written to me by a lady who lived twenty years in Washington's family and who was his adopted daughter, and the granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. The testimony it affords, and the hints it contains respecting the domestic habits of Washington, are interesting and valuable."
Woodlawn, 26 February, 1833.
Sir,
I received your favor of the 20th instant last evening, and hasten to give you the information, which you desire.
Truro [Episcopal] Parish is the one in which Mount Vernon, Pohick Church [the church where George Washington served as a vestryman], and Woodlawn [the home of Nelly and Lawrence Lewis] are situated. Fairfax Parish is now Alexandria. Before the Federal District was ceded to Congress, Alexandria was in Fairfax County. General Washington had a pew in Pohick Church, and one in Christ Church at Alexandria. He was very instrumental in establishing Pohick Church, and I believe subscribed [supported and contributed to] largely. His pew was near the pulpit. I have a perfect recollection of being there, before his election to the presidency, with him and my grandmother. It was a beautiful church, and had a large, respectable, and wealthy congregation, who were regular attendants.
He attended the church at Alexandria when the weather and roads permitted a ride of ten miles [a one-way journey of 2-3 hours by horse or carriage]. In New York and Philadelphia he never omitted attendance at church in the morning, unless detained by indisposition [sickness]. The afternoon was spent in his own room at home; the evening with his family, and without company. Sometimes an old and intimate friend called to see us for an hour or two; but visiting and visitors were prohibited for that day [Sunday]. No one in church attended to the services with more reverential respect. My grandmother, who was eminently pious, never deviated from her early habits. She always knelt. The General, as was then the custom, stood during the devotional parts of the service. On communion Sundays, he left the church with me, after the blessing, and returned home, and we sent the carriage back for my grandmother.
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" [Matthew 6:5]. He communed with his God in secret [Matthew 6:6].
My mother [Eleanor Calvert-Lewis] resided two years at Mount Vernon after her marriage [in 1774] with John Parke Custis, the only son of Mrs. Washington. I have heard her say that General Washington always received the sacrament with my grandmother before the revolution. When my aunt, Miss Custis [Martha's daughter] died suddenly at Mount Vernon, before they could realize the event [before they understood she was dead], he [General Washington] knelt by her and prayed most fervently, most affectingly, for her recovery. Of this I was assured by Judge [Bushrod] Washington's mother and other witnesses.
He was a silent, thoughtful man. He spoke little generally; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war. I have often seen him perfectly abstracted, his lips moving, but no sound was perceptible. I have sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits. I was, probably, one of the last persons on earth to whom he would have addressed serious conversation, particularly when he knew that I had the most perfect model of female excellence [Martha Washington] ever with me as my monitress, who acted the part of a tender and devoted parent, loving me as only a mother can love, and never extenuating [tolerating] or approving in me what she disapproved of others. She never omitted her private devotions, or her public duties; and she and her husband were so perfectly united and happy that he must have been a Christian. She had no doubts, no fears for him. After forty years of devoted affection and uninterrupted happiness, she resigned him without a murmur into the arms of his Savior and his God, with the assured hope of his eternal felicity [happiness in Heaven]. Is it necessary that any one should certify, "General Washington avowed himself to me a believer in Christianity?" As well may we question his patriotism, his heroic, disinterested devotion to his country. His mottos were, "Deeds, not Words"; and, "For God and my Country."
With sentiments of esteem,
I am, Nelly Custis-Lewis
More if you guys are interested.
George Washington, The Religious Opinions of Washington, E. C. M'Guire, editor (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836).
William Johnson, George Washington The Christian (1917).
William Jackson Johnstone, How Washington Prayed (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1932).
The Messages and Papers of the Presidents, James D. Richardson, editor (Published by the Authority of Congress, 1899), Vol. I, pp. 51-57 (1789), 64 (1789), 213-224 (1796), etc.
George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States, Late Commander in Chief of the American Army, to the People of the United States, Preparatory to his Declination (Baltimore: George & Henry S. Keatinge, 1796), pp. 22-23.
George Washington, The Maxims of Washington (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1855).
George Washington, The Religious Opinions of Washington, E. C. M'Guire, editor (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836).
William Johnson, George Washington The Christian (1917).
William Jackson Johnstone, How Washington Prayed (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1932).
The Messages and Papers of the Presidents, James D. Richardson, editor (Published by the Authority of Congress, 1899), Vol. I, pp. 51-57 (1789), 64 (1789), 213-224 (1796), etc.
George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States, Late Commander in Chief of the American Army, to the People of the United States, Preparatory to his Declination (Baltimore: George & Henry S. Keatinge, 1796), pp. 22-23.
George Washington, The Maxims of Washington (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1855).
Don't you find it interesting that even his contemporaries were so unsure of his beliefs that a relative would even pen such a letter? And yet she asserts that Washington never confided in her what his actual beliefs were, and she never inquired. So she just assumed he shared her convictions.
This letter tells us alot about Nelly. It does give us insight into Washington's personal habits. And it reinforces what we all already know, that Washington considered his religious convictions to be personal and private, and did not share his actual beliefs with anyone, even when asked point-blank to confirm that he was a Christian, he did not do so. That's rather telling, as well.
Don't you find it interesting that even his contemporaries were so unsure of his beliefs that a relative would even pen such a letter? And yet she asserts that Washington never confided in her what his actual beliefs were, and she never inquired. So she just assumed he shared her convictions.
This letter tells us alot about Nelly. It does give us insight into Washington's personal habits. And it reinforces what we all already know, that Washington considered his religious convictions to be personal and private, and did not share his actual beliefs with anyone, even when asked point-blank to confirm that he was a Christian, he did not do so. That's rather telling, as well.
What you say is very true but did you notice the publishing dates of all Nomander's sources? In case you didn't maybe you should see that all came before the progressives really got started. It is them that want to make sure we don't believe Washington was a Christian. It bothers me that all these things were written before Wilson was in office but two, the 1932 and the 1917 ones.
The more I look at the progressive situation the more I realize that the Democrats are about to explode with the progressives against the rest of the party. I am now listening to Beck and am more convinced than ever.
That is what you see. What I see, "but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself", and "in the onlysense in which he wished anyone to be"
I see Jefferson following what Christ taught. I see Jefferson was inspiring to be Christ-like and that is what being a Christian is all about. Or so I have been told.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is not what most educated Christians believe, and above all it is not what the Christian right believes. For a good deal of history you could've been put to death for defining Christianity that way.
Quote:
And the clarifying of the word "system" by someone who thought that word would mean Christianity within the context has an agenda.
It did mean "Christianity" in that context. Read the whole context.
What you say is very true but did you notice the publishing dates of all Nomander's sources? In case you didn't maybe you should see that all came before the progressives really got started. It is them that want to make sure we don't believe Washington was a Christian. It bothers me that all these things were written before Wilson was in office but two, the 1932 and the 1917 ones.
The more I look at the progressive situation the more I realize that the Democrats are about to explode with the progressives against the rest of the party. I am now listening to Beck and am more convinced than ever.
I did notice the dates, and I think the letter is a perfect contemporaneous example of how the assumptions of the day can become part of the historical record without any independent validation. I respect the strength of your convictions with regards to your religious beliefs, but because Washington studiously avoided making his convictions public, I don't think we can positively assert that Washington was a Christian. Just because Nelly is a historical figure doesn't mean that she wasn't biased. Her Christian values infused the way she lived her life. It's only natural that she would project her own Christian beliefs on to a man she loved, admired, and deeply respected. But Washington didn't assert that he was a Christian, and when asked directly, he avoided the question. That's part of the history, too.
Don't you find it interesting that even his contemporaries were so unsure of his beliefs that a relative would even pen such a letter? And yet she asserts that Washington never confided in her what his actual beliefs were, and she never inquired. So she just assumed he shared her convictions.
This letter tells us alot about Nelly. It does give us insight into Washington's personal habits. And it reinforces what we all already know, that Washington considered his religious convictions to be personal and private, and did not share his actual beliefs with anyone, even when asked point-blank to confirm that he was a Christian, he did not do so. That's rather telling, as well.
I would like to call your attention to the letter I posted some time ago to his wife after the battle in which Braddock was killed and Washington took at least three bullets in his tricorn and two in his coat and had two horses shot out from under him. I could even mention that the Indian chief who controlled the Indians in that slaughter of Braddock's men said he told his best shooters to kill Washington but they said they couldn't hit him. Washington mentioned in his letter that it must have been that Supreme Being he always talked about that saved him. Later, after the Revolution, that Indian told Washington that he had the Great Spirit with him.
Whoops, all that came from those men who wrote recent books about Washington and relayed those stories to Beck on his show. That makes this whole thing nothing but lies to progressives and those who have come to believe them.
I would like to call your attention to the letter I posted some time ago to his wife after the battle in which Braddock was killed and Washington took at least three bullets in his tricorn and two in his coat and had two horses shot out from under him. I could even mention that the Indian chief who controlled the Indians in that slaughter of Braddock's men said he told his best shooters to kill Washington but they said they couldn't hit him. Washington mentioned in his letter that it must have been that Supreme Being he always talked about that saved him. Later, after the Revolution, that Indian told Washington that he had the Great Spirit with him.
Whoops, all that came from those men who wrote recent books about Washington and relayed those stories to Beck on his show. That makes this whole thing nothing but lies to progressives and those who have come to believe them.
Deists believe in a Supreme Being. Most don't believe in Divine Intervention, but that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ cannot believe in divine intervention.
Hence Washington's choice of words even then. The Founders and Framers were, as a rule, elitists who created a Republic rather than a direct Democracy because they did not consider the "common man" capable of governance and the feared the tyranny of the majority as much as they feared the tyranny of the monarchy.
But Washington was as brilliant a politician as he was a military commander. He knew the value of populist platitudes when leading an army of "freemen."
Let me suggest to you that the government the founders was established because they just didn't want an anarchy but wanted to be as close to that as possible. It is certainly sure that they considered the common man as they were distributed throughout the colonies not able to govern from a position of control but they did give them the rights that they couldn't have got from people like our present day progressives.
Take you eyes off Christians for a bit and look at those progressives and what they want to do.
What the He** ?? really? You believe in your heart of hearts "progressives" want to do away with Christianity? really?
Why yes I do believe that progressives have been trying to destroy Christianity for a number of years, nearly 100 of them, because they think they must do that in order to take over the rest of everything. They fear Christianity as an enemy of what they believe.
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