Conservatives need to come to terms with this....

[markpkessinger]

34. Nonsense . . .

Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were all Deists, who believed that a supreme being created the world, and then withdrew from it and allowed it to run according to the laws that being had ordained. But given that they were also Virginians, and the Church of England was the established church in that colony, prior to the revoluition they would have been nominal Anglicans, but that doesn't necessarily mean they accepted Anglican dogma for themselves. Jesus was largely irrelevant in the scheme of Deism. They accepted terms like A.D. because Christians were indeed dominant, and they had no interest in trying to convert anyone away from it.

Of George Washington, Jefferson once observed that George Washington "has divines constantly about him because he thinks it right to keep up appearances but is an unbeliever. According to biographer Steven Waldman, Madison's view was that Washington was spiritual but not interested in the theological particulars of the Christian faith. Jefferson and Adams both seemed to have viewed Jesus more as a great ethical and moral teacher rather than their personal "Lord."