The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

“It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read,” Jefferson wrote.15 If this is true, we should look less to out-of-context quotes and more to the actions of the founders. We’ve seen that George Washington rarely prayed, attended church, or mentioned Jesus in his correspondence and that he shunned priests at his deathbed. Many people tried to pry some religious endorsement or personal religious information from Washington, but “the old fox was too cunning for them,” as Jefferson merrily recalled.16 Jefferson rewrote the New Testament using a razor, editing out the supernatural and salvaging what he considered worthy lessons from a mortal man. By his own admission, he excised “the immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc.”17 It was, Jefferson wrote, like pulling “diamonds” from “dunghills.”18