Tara Ross and Joseph Smith, Jr. have written a very informative book about George Washington’s views on the appropriate relationship between Church and State in America. Washington saw religion and morality as indispensable in building a good society. Thus, he saw religion as a positive force, deserving of support from our public institutions. At the same time, however, George Washington also believed in the importance of freedom of conscience which left individuals “free to hold their own religious beliefs.” How George Washington came to develop those ideas in the context of his role as the Founder of our nation is the subject of this book.

Ross and Smith point out that we moderns often focus on the words of Thomas Jefferson in any discussion on the meaning of the freedom of religion clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution while not mentioning George Washington’s views on the subject. Jefferson wrote that the language of the 1st Amendment, saying Congress should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise, “erected” a wall of separation between Church and State.”

The problem with Jefferson’s interpretation of the First Amendment, as Ross and Smith point out, is that Jefferson’s view of Church and State is very much at odds with the understanding of that language by George Washington, the Founder of our country and our first President.

While Gen. Washington chaired the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Jefferson was not even a participant at those proceedings establishing the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, Ross and Smith point out that George Washington “served as president when the First Amendment was debated and ratified.” Washington never interpreted the language of that amendment as meaning that there was a wall of separation between religion and the public square. Instead, Washington’s approach as President was “for government to accommodate and even to encourage the practice of religion.”

Ross and Smith make the case that (throughout his long public career as Commander of the Virginia Regiment, Member of the Virginia House of Burgess, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and the first President of the United States) George Washington was consistent in his emphasis on the critical role played by religion in fostering “the morality and virtue” Washington deemed necessary for our military success and our establishment of the American Republic. He wrote in October 1778 that “by a want of Virtue we ruin and defeat ourselves.” Where does “Virtue” come from”? In George Washington’s view, it was fostered by religious faith.

Washington’s views on the integral connection between religious faith and hard work can be summed up in an expression many of us have heard over the years: “Work as though everything depends on yourself. Pray as though everything depends on God.”

In Washington’s words, “If we make Freedom our Choice we must obtain it by the Blessing of Heaven on our united and vigorous efforts.”

Tara Ross and Joseph Smith, Jr. provide numerous examples of the importance the Father of our Nation placed on the role of “Divine Providence” in helping to bring about the success of the American Revolution and the founding of the American Republic.

Perhaps, we could use a little of that “Divine Providence” George Washington wrote about as we seek to deal with the serious problems our country faces these days.

Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State by Tara Ross and Joseph C. Smith, Jr. can be found at your local book stores or ordered from Spence Publishing.

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