Presidents, Providence and Golden Calves

Presidents' Day coincides this year with the Torah reading that recounts the building and destruction of the Golden Calf. We mark the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who lost his life within weeks of declaring the Civil War to be God's punishment for the sin of slavery, and then the birthday of George Washington, who offered "fervent supplication to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every defect ... " Both presidents believed in some form of divine providence; indeed, American civil religion as a whole has always kept in view the image of God on high, just and merciful, Who seems to tolerate societal transgressions like the Golden Calf only so long and then "descends" to render swift and terrible judgment. Our greatest presidents did not agree on how closely God exercised that providence or the form taken by God's special concern for the United States of America. Their thinking remains helpful to religious Americans today.