The Journal News from Hamilton, Ohio • Page 12

Saturday. Drcrmbcr IX, III7H llanilllnn It KalrflfIII, Ohio I'uge II Founding fathers united in belief in God EDITOR'S NOTE: This first installment of a part scries about the religion of U.S. presidents, "The Presidents and God." deals with the founding five from Washington to Monroe. By GEORGE W. CORNELL AP Religion Writer Faith is a private process but its disposition often shows up in public, particularly for U.S.

presidents They display it subtle or directly, in whal they say and i do, in the measure take of issues before the people. It is not, in the American tradition of free choice I about religion, a qualifying test for government office. Yet the element always has been there in the remarkable mixture of the sacred and profane in the country politics, an underlying concern in the shaping of its founding documents, the unfolding of its history, the attitudes of its electorate. As British writer G.K.Chesterton put it early in the -present century, the United States "is a nation with me soul of a church." A peculiar society, distinctively gfP 8 religious and state authority, yet curiously blending their influences in its codes, policies, thought and customs. Down through the years, presidents to varying degrees have reflected that strange interplay of religious idealism and official function and inevitable have been subjected to citizen judgments about how they applied both.

1 "Infidel!" The complaint was flung at some of the nation's most devout chief executives of the past because of their non-conformist habits. Others were criticized for their particular pious professions. It a touchy zone, and the psychological roots of it go back to the old theory of the "divine right" of kings, in which the king is expected properly to embody the religious aspirations of the people. Although Ihe United States in law rejected that concept, it is deeply embedded in the urge and assumptions of community life, whether led by a tribal chief, an ancient emperor, a modern despot pr a democratically elected president. People instinctively want and expect their highest impulses to be summed up in their leader.

As Greek philosopher Aristotle put it, "politics is a branch of morals." That basic relationship, which also involves religion as the main source and buttress of morality, was i stoutly affirmed by the early presidents of this country, those among the founding fathers. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are in! despensibje supports," George Washington, the nation's first president, said in his farewell address lo Congress. "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." John Adams, the second president, declared: "Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not'only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all combinations of human sociely." "Religion is Ihe alpha and omega of our moral law," wrole Thomas Jefferson, the third U. S. president.

He contended that the very foundation of individual rights and freedom was in the conviction thai "these liberties are the gift of God," beyond the limiting power of any government. Those early presidents, along with the fourth successor lo that office, James Madison, represented a special Renaissance breed of man, cultivated, broad of interests, in a time before specialization, when the cultural objective was to develop a well-rounded of intellect, character and abilities. "They connected their spiritual beliefs lo political action," writes Norman Cousins in a study of Iheir personal papers and correspondence. "They saw no walls separating science, philosophy, religion and art." Of the first five presidents, two of them, John Adams and James Madison, originally had considered entering the ministry. Adams was a New England Congregalionalist.

Madison and his successor, James Monroe, were Anglicans (Episcopalians), also the tradition of Washington and Jefferson. They weren't sanctimbnius about it, however, despite the tendency lo romanticize about the American forefathers. In fact, although most of the founders took their religion seriously and studiously, they displayed an inclusive liberaltiy of faith, disdaining doctrinaire rigidities and denominational rivalries. "Ask me not then whether I am a Catholic or Protestant, Calvinist or Arminian," wrole John Adams. "As far as they are Christian, I wish to be a fellow disciple of them all." Jefferson wrote that instead of there being Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians or Episcopalians in heaven, "on entering that gate, we leave those badges of schism behind, and find ourselves united in those principles only in which God has united us a Let us be happy in the hope thai by these different paths we shall all meet in the end." In contemporary parlance, they look an ecumenical view ahead of Iheir limes, seeing the logically unifying center in one Lord despite the institutional barricades.

Washington condemned anti-Calholic demonstrations common then and voiced respect for the Jewish heritage, which Adams and Jefferson also recognized in their lengthy philosophical correspondence as the root stock of faith. Their encompassing attitudes on religion, especially the inquiring, theological discussions between Jefferson and Adams, have led Unitarianism to claim (hem in outlook, but it was not their formal affiliation. The denominational impartiality of their public utterances, in keeping wilh the new patlern of free religious choice, led sectarian critics to brand them variously as atheists, agnostics and skeptics. On the'contrary, they all consistently avowed belief in God and were churchgoers of varying regularity, but not always in the conventional mold or of exacting orthodox creed. Jefferson, a deeply religious-minded man, wrote that despite the slanderers "who make every word from me a text for new misrepresentations and calumnies I am a Christian attached to the doctrines of Jesus." But his letters stressed confidentiality about his reflections to prevent further "malignant Often the early presidents are classed as "deists," and that term can aptly be applied to Jefferson, but not with substantiation to the others.

"Deism" affirmed that God is sovereign creator of Ihe universe, that he is to be worshipped, that worship demands moral conduct, that wrongdoing must be repented, that there is an afterlife of rewards or punishment. But it does not specify innate human sinfulness, Christ's manifestation of divinity nor his atonement for human sin classic Christian doc- Irines which Jefferson discounted. However, he declared himself a "disciple of Jesus" whose teachings offer "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered lo man. Jefferson, besides being an architect, art patron, founder of the University of Virginia, classical scholar, and linguist in a half dozen languages, was also a probing Bible student. president, he compiled Jesus' ethical teachings omitting miraculous elements into what is now known as "The Jefferson Bible." In his plan for the 1 University of Virginia, he provided that the "proof of the being of God, the Creator, Preserver and Supreme Kuler, of the Universe, the Author of the relations of morality, and the laws and obligations which these infer, will be the province of the professor of ethics." Jefferson's parents were dedicated Anglicans i Episcopalians), into which offspring arc baptized as infants, and much of his early education was under church asupices.

Margaret Smith, wife of the publisher of Washington's lirst newspaper, Ihe National Intelligencer, writes that when he became president Jefferson regularly attended a small Episcopal church in a frame building at the bottom of Capitol Hill. George Washington was baptized, married and buried in the Episcopal Church, and for years was a vestryman in his home parish in Virginia. As commander of Ihe American Revolutionary Army, he authorized chaplains for each regiment, directed Iroops regularly to attend religious services and repeatedly reprimanded them for that "foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing." "We can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly," he said in a general order. Sworn in as the first president on April 30, 1789, his right hand on the Bible, he repeated the prescribed oath, then added words of his own that have been customary ever since. "So help me God." He then bent down and kissed the Bible held by Samuel Otis, secretary of the Senate.

Washington, who as president attended St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia when the capital still was there, issued the first Thanksgiving Day proclamation, a custom since, for Nov. 26, 1789, as a day for offering prayers of gratitude to the "great Lord and Ruler of nations," beseeching- him to "pardon our national and other trangressions." "It is the duly of all nations," Washington said, "to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, (o be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor." John Adams, whose vast correspondence with his wife, Abigail, and others, displays a deeply sustaining faith and consuming theological preoccupation, was raised in Massachusetts Congregationalism, and in his student days originally considered entering the ministry. His youthful diary records his discipline: "I am resolved lo rise with the sun and to study Scriptures on Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings and to study some Latin author the olher Ihree mornings." As president, he attended an Episcopal church since Congregationalism then was confined largely to New England.

He wrote: "The Christian religion, as I understand it. is the brightness of the glory and the express portrait of the eternal, independent, benevolent, all- powerful and all-merciful Creator, Preserver and Father of the universe It will last'as long as the world." Madison, a lifelong Episcopalian, also originally studied theology for the ministry at Princeton University. But on return to his native Virginia, he witnessed the jailings of Baptists and other nonconformists and got into politics as an ardent foe of religious discrimination. lie became principal sponsor of the Bill of Rights. Ihe first 10 amendments to the Constitution, embodying the guarantees of religious freedom, worked out'in an agreement with a Baptist minister.

John Leland, "The religion of every man must he left to the conviction and conscience of every man," Madison wrote. He called Christianity a "precious gift" to humanity but said that for the government to impose it would handicap it and discourage "those who are strangers to the light of revelation from coming into the region of it." James Monroe, the fifth president, also was a Virginia Episcopalian and attended St. John's Church in Washington, but left no written discussions of his religious views apart from cpnventional invocations in his inaligural. addresses of aid from God. and gratitude for his blessings on the nation.

Bellringer replaced with machine Modern technology kills tradition A A A HAMILTON, Whan By Georgo Cummins This Remember When is the copy of a postcard thai originally was postmarked Feb. 3, 1906. The view "here shows Campbell Ave. The photo was taken looking east from Seventh St. WILL1AMSUKG.

Va. A The College of William and Mary has quietly phased out the last in a centuries-long line of bell-ringers and replaced him with a machine. For years, custodian Charlie Cook has rung the bell in the cupola of the historic Christopher Wren Building to signal the start and end of class periods, as decreed in the college's royal charier of 1693. But now he's obsolete. Three months ago, the college brought in an automatic machine to do the job.

The machine, unlike people, never forgets, as Cook admits he did on a few occasions. It never rings too early or too late. "You had to keep a pretty close check (on your watch) as you worked." he says. "Everyone would miss it sometime." He'll miss the job. Hinging the 87-year-old bell, WM's third over the years, set him apart from other custodians a break from the monotony of cleaning up.

sweeping floors, changing light bulbs. From a 3-by-2-foot wall panel on the second floor, Cook pulled a cord to ring the bell 10 or 12 times for the 10 or 12 more times for the end, of every class. "You'd jusl pull it. Wap! Wap! Wap!" He imitates the sound of (he cord slapping against the bell stop. "The first ring was the I do miss it." For Cook, the college had set aside a tiny alcove behind the supply room and furnished it with a small table and chairs.

Through the rippled panes of a tiny octagonal window in the alcove, you can look out over Colonial Williamsburg, all the way down Duke of Gloucester Street lo the colonial capitl. Cook sits next to the table, which is cluttered wilh a small mirror and several small jars. The afternoon sun streams over his face as he shivers in his worn, dull green sweater. "It cold in here," he says. The only sound in the musty, white-walled room comes from the hissing heater and the relentless ticking of the clock that now runs the bell-ringing system.

"The Mickey Mouse Clock," Cook calls it, scornfully. He says he was almost with a chuckle. "If you were early, it was all right." Custodian Charlie Cook lays a fond hand on the bell he's rung so many limes but which he will ring no longer at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Va. The college has phased out the last in a centuries, long line of bell-ringers and has replaced hint will) a machine. II was decreed in the college's Itoyal Charier in IHKI that the bell would signal the start and end each class period.

AI Wirephoto).