George Washington on Religion, Morality and the Well-Being of the Republic

“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

— George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

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3 Responses

  1. Granting that Washington’s claim is true(and I think it is), just how do we go about inculcating a religious disposition in a society in which many people are never going again to be inclined to believe in God.

    Can we at least hold up the idea of God, the idea that man is not the end all, as a substitute for hard faith? Now, just how that’s done, I don’t know. But maybe immersion in the great stories and rituals of traditional religion will give people that twinge of the divine(doubt in the secular, that is) that might put a brake on our tendency to hoist man above God.

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