How interesting that most of these men, were they in politics today and their religious views to become known, would likely be hounded out of office by hypocrites. ( )

Not bad. Kowalski is a Unitarian minister who treated the subject fairly. I'm not fond of the method of end notes where the author does not enumerate, listing by page number instead. As this is the method Kowalski used, I wasn't fond of his cites. Nor was I impressed with his notations; when I see statements in quotes, I expect to also see sources. Such was not the case for most of the quotes attributed to the various Founders. I also checked a couple of dates that didn't sound right and they were not right, so beware using this as a resource. Still, it was an entertaining read though had nothing I hadn't read in other books.

insight into what who the founding fathers were and how that impacted what we have
"The founders tended to be interested in religion for the same reason they supported education, as a means toward fostering a more peaceful, prosperous, and ethically minded republic. They believed virtue would gradually replace vice as surely as knowledge displaced ignorance and philosophy outpaced superstition. With good sense ruling the mind, good conduct would indubitably follow. Civilization would progress." p. 25
I guess they didn't count on politics!

This book explores what we know of the religious beliefs of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and John Adams. There weren't many real surprises for me but I did feel a little closer to them after reading this interesting little book. In short, while all were raised in a Christian faith, all six found their beliefs to be more in keeping with Deism; that is, they did not necessarily believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ but rather in their own God given ability to reason.

Since election year 2000 there has been much said about the religious beliefs of politicians. The Republican party campaign of 2000 (and again in 2004) held Christianity hostage and used it as a barrier to hide the real motives of what they had in mind once they secured the highest office and could really run the show. And in so doing they won the vote of the majority (so they say anyway) with a platform based on "Christian values". While the true defenders of our nation tried to remind the people of the separation of Church and State and why that was important, we continued to vote to give up our independence, liberty and freedom and we begged to have a religious leader in the White House. All this seemed un-American to me but it was not prudent at the time to say so for wiretaps had suddenly become legal and many innocents were being persecuted. I did wonder what the Founding Fathers of our country would think of this. The Founding Fathers, the guys who wrote and/or signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, became of interest to me probably because I was longing for some good old logic and reason and high ideals for the good of the country. These guys were completely selfless in their politics compared to the politicians of today. Then I sort of remembered from a couple of history classes that they weren't all "Christians" and I found Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers by Gary Kowalski and it cleared a few things up for me.

George Washington spoke often of Providence but almost never of Jesus and never of Heaven and the hereafter. He was baptized in the Church of England but he joined the Freemasons as an adult, focusing on civic virtue, and went to church less. When he did attend church, he avoided taking Communion.

Benjamin Franklin was quintessentially practical and he may be best known for Poor Richard's Almanac and his inventions. It did surprise me to learn that Ben Franklin never patented the lightning rod because he didn't expect to profit from any of his creations (same as Thomas Jefferson). He is quoted as saying, "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours". Also, he believed that excessive wealth ought to be taxed heavily and put to work for the common good. Franklin's long career of public service demonstrates to me what he sincerely believed. He said, "there never was a good war or a bad peace" and his last public act was to call for the abolition of slavery. Benjamin Franklin would today be labeled a long-haired-leftist-liberal and his religious beliefs were more in line with Deism.

Thomas Paine's mother was Anglican and his father was Quaker and Thomas called himself a Deist. He said "my own mind is my own church". Like many of his contemporaries he gravitated toward the sciences and he said, "the world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, to do good is my religion, I believe in one God and no more". A quick glance at his work, The Age of Reason and you can quickly see he did not believe the Bible to be the "word of God" and he was persecuted for his public stance against Christian teachings.

Paine saw himself as "a farmer of ideas and I give my crops away". For those curious, some of his crops live on and can be found at onlinebooks.com. He is a most interesting character.

John Adams actually considered himself a Christian, raised on Calvinistic doctrine. He did not hold to that doctrine throughout his entire life however. He did maintain belief in the doctrine of original sin and consequently believed that man would inevitably be corrupted by power. Thus he was adamant in creating a government with "checks and balances". He explained his beliefs as "Christian as I understand it". He did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and he eventually found a Unitarian minister that suited him.

James Madison at one time considered being a priest but he was extremely shy and terrified of the pulpit. It is said he was "a man of sound judgment, tranquil temper and logical mind" and he too gravitated toward the sciences and Deism. Madison was committed to the separation of church and state for the better of both and he designed the template for the constitution and added the Bill of Rights as an extra precaution. Interestingly, Madison wrote a treatise on "Population and Emigration" in which he predicts "the human species has the ability to procreate in numbers that might eventually outrun Earth's ability to feed and support them all". He believed nature exits in a delicate balance that cannot be upset without dire consequences.

Thomas Jefferson told his nephew, "Question with boldness even the existence of God, because, if there is one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear". In the election of 1800 Jefferson was slandered as an atheist and a fanatic but he actually considered himself a Christian. He agreed that we don't know what happens when we die: "The laws of nature have withheld from us knowledge of the country of spirits and left us in the dark as we were" and in such cases, "The pillow of ignorance" was the softest place to lay his head. Yet this did not cause him any bother for he believed he would be judged for his deeds and not his creeds. "It is in our lives and not from our words, that our religion must be read".

In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence he wrote "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" but that came across as containing a connotation of a religious nature so it was re-worded to "self evident" so as to express their applying reason and the principles of science. The Founding Fathers labored over these documents and went to great lengths to leave religion out of it. They did not wish to found a Christian Nation but a republic of virtue with diversity being the nation's strength. They did not put "In God We Trust" on the currency but they did include "e pluribus unum" - out of many, one. In spite of what today's top-seated rulers say (because they are rulers and not leaders in my mind), that is the stuff this nation was founded on. ( )