Washington was the equivalent of an elder in his church as was Jefferson. They both attended regularly. They did not hold ceremonial positions. Jefferson started a Bible study in the Congressional hall. He tried to purchase John Calvin's college which Calvin founded in Geneva. When he could not, he formed the University of Virginia.
Washington was also the pastor of his troops who read the Scriptures to them and prayed with them.
Franklin went to many of evangelist George Whitfield's sermons all over the Northeast and gave his cause great amounts of money.
"Life, like a dramatic piece, should... finish handsomely. Being now in the last act, I began to cast about for something fit to end with... I settle a colony on the Ohio... to settle in that fine country a strong body of religious and industrious people!... Might it not greatly facilitate the introduction of pure religion among the heathen, if we could, by such a colony, show them a better sample of Christians than they commonly see in our Indian traders?" - Letter to George Whitefield (sp), July 2, 1756
Read more: http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/ben-franklin-quotes-2.html#ixzz2jSRkNSDY
“The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting (literally with a razor and glue) numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson’s condensed composition is especially notable for its exclusion of all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels which contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages indicating Jesus was divine.”
Do you consider Universalist-Unitarianism to be a Christian faith?
Unitarian and Universalists among the Founding Fathers
Unitarian and Universalist Signers of the Declaration of Independence:
- John Adams - Massachusetts
- Robert Treat Paine - Massachusetts
Unitarian Representative Elected to
First U.S. Federal Congress (1789-1791):
- George Thatcher - Massachusetts
From Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography: “...some books against Deism fell into my hands; . . . The arguments of the Deists . . . appeared to me much stronger than the refutation; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.”
Toward the end of his life, Franklin composed what was, in effect, his religious creed. As a quondam deist, man of science, and Enlightenment figure with an open mind, he believed in what could be proved. So he wrote: “As to Jesus of Nazareth . . . I have . . . some doubts as to his divinity. . . . I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth.”
John Adams, the second President of the United States, signed the Treaty of Tripoli (June 7, 1797). Article 11 states: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
From Jefferson’s biography: “
“...an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, ‘Jesus Christ...the holy author of our religion,’ which was rejected ‘By a great majority in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of every denomination.’”
Thomas Jefferson’s letter to John Adams dated April 11, 1823:
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”