America has always been religious and “In God We Trust” is not a mantra but a mission statement. But the Founders’ religious vocabulary bears no resemblance to today’s populist “Christ is King” rhetoric. In fact, that particular phrase, increasingly used as a political identity marker, is the one sentiment you will not find in the speeches or writings of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison or Lincoln.
Washington invoked Providence constantly yet never mentioned Jesus in a public address. Jefferson sliced the miracles out of the New Testament with scissors because he admired the ethics but rejected the supernatural. Adams was a theological outlier even in his own time. Madison treated sectarian language like a live grenade. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, one of the greatest religious meditations ever delivered by an American president, is woven out of Deuteronomy and the prophets, not the Gospels. My yeshiva-educated sons recognized the sources before I did.
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