The year, 1976, was the most active of my life in the number of times I was asked to speak publicly, often on some national theme. There was extended programming throughout the country, and a number of my appointments included national celebration. On July 4th I was the speaker at the Hume Lake Conference grounds where an overflowing audience gathered in that King’s Canyon location in California for the purpose of Christian conference, vacation and, in 1976, national observance. It is remembered by me, at this writing, as one of the high points of my professional life. One could feel the appreciation for life in freedom, for faith in God, and a prevailing sense of values characterizing a massive population. During the years I have given considerable time reading about lives of American leaders. My positive feeling is that my country’s founding holds influential spiritual context. My greatest disappointment is that the citizens of the country do not perceive this dimension in the currency and ongoing of the country. My secular history teachers did not do well in providing the facts of that important national motivation related to Christian faith and concepts. Published historians offer conflicting stories. Pluralism has taken over.
If we were to take George Washington, known as the father of our country, as our first illustration, we may focus the point. There has emerged the reporting that he was a deist, a claim based on his limited participation in the communion ordinance after he became General of the American Colonial Army and the absence of clergy on the day of his death. The writers did not give adequate attention to a lifetime of writings, principally letters to leading persons in the colonies during early years and to the new nation – or to the writings of others affirming Washington’s thought and practice of Christian faith and conduct.
Washington’s letters and affirmations were quite strong relative to the meaning of God to the country, to victory, and to his own integrity. He made clear that he wanted to live by biblical concepts that he had studied and learned to apply. He believed modeling his faith in deed was more important than any words he could write. His attendance in regular services, his commitment to the church vestry, and a dozen other details not only suggest his life quality and faith, but also that of the country. He went out of his way to affirm his faith. One historian pointed out that he introduced chaplains to the military; that he served regularly in the church; that his faith was personal as noted in the Episcopal Church of his day (perhaps not the current major pattern); that he used many common names for God, including Jesus Christ; that he was referred to as a Christian; that he ordered his men to fasting and prayer; that he insisted on integrity, honesty and righteousness; that he had no known bad personal habits; and, that he preserved copies of sermons, referred to Scripture, prayer and service. Given the documentation of his personal letters how could historians often link him to no faith or a deistic faith? They did not show him to be a hypocrite. The approach of some historians gives pause to our trust in alleged careful (adequate) research.
When students give a more objective treatment to original and primary sources, they are impressed by the number of Christians who have served, often with high evaluation by the historians, but for whom personal faith has been undiscovered, or discarded as unimportant in their public and private performance. Common failures so often registered in current professional life, raise considerable doubt about the ability of unassisted humanists to function for society’s records and objectives. Failure to adequately report influences in American life or the world is unexplained. And, the worst of the matter is found in the consequences that appear to befall us, both as families and nations of communities, when we have lost the values that belong to the performance of persons and nations in relationship. With the decline we lose perspective, and fail the progressive movements of the past. Good persons determined to find adequate education for young people, women risked their lives to stop the ugliness of pervasive drunkenness in the 19th century, Christians carried through on missions at home (with charity) and abroad, even establishing institutions like the Scouts, the YMCA-YWCA. The story is large and extensive. It deserves a new look that focuses on the yearnings of the citizenry holding a vision of God and freedom. We need to trace creative faith persons who advance society – appreciated but muted to history. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020