No U.S. President has written an extensive theological treatise on — or against — the Eucharist; but John Quincy Adams came the closest.
In April 1812, the future president criticized the doctrine of the Real Presence for cultivating “pernicious tendencies” that “enslave the human mind” to the “arbitrary dominion of the priesthood.” Though written more than two centuries ago, Adams’ objections — rooted in a misunderstanding of transubstantiation, Scripture, and the nature of freedom — remain emblematic of the divisions persisting among Christians today.
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