In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809, the government has appointed a 15-member Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which is holding events nationwide. To publicize these among journalists, members of the Religion Newswriters Association were invited to Lincoln’s church in D.C. today for a discussion of Lincoln’s ambiguous religiosity.
Here it is, the lovely New York Avenue Presbyterian Church:
No one really knows what Lincoln believed. He was neither baptized nor a member of a church, so some portray him as agnostic or deist, meaning he believed in a god that created the world, but wasn’t part of its daily workings. But Lincoln was a master of religious language, and invoked God frequently in his speech delivery.
Some even say he was a Jew who tried to disguise it. After all, he was named Abraham, and he had an uncle named Mordecai. Plus, at the time, Jews viewed him as a hero, as he halted an order that was in place to remove Jews from border states, and numerous rabbis gave eloquent elegies upon his assassination.
Today, Dewey Wallace, of the religion department at George Washington University, and Donald White, who has authored two bestselling books on Lincoln, gathered at the church to discuss the truth about Lincoln.
Wallace began with a brief outline of Lincoln’s religious life.
Lincoln was born to “hard-shell” Baptists in Kentucky, who were strong Calvinists, believing that God had pre-destined some for salvation and some for damnation, and thus missionary excursions were unnecessary (It wasn’t a mainstream Baptist view).
Lincoln is remembered as a fervent reader as a child, and memorized huge tracts of the Bible, as it was probably one of the few books he had access to. But he rejected his parents’ Baptist beliefs early, and as Wallace put it, “It appeared to many of his friends that he was a skeptic who made fun of many religious ideas.”
But when he moved to Springfield, Illinois, he married Mary Todd, who was a strong Episcopalian. Then, when he became president, she joined this Presbyterian church in D.C. He didn’t.
Some say that points to his irreligiosity. But many men, especially powerful ones, didn’t join churches at that time. The church wasn’t just somewhere to get inspired, it was also a watchdog who would publicly chasten members who weren’t following what it saw as the straight and narrow. Non-members, no matter how much they attended, were immune to the criticism.
And Lincoln certainly attended often. He had his own pew, which was saved when the church was later remodeled. His wife came more often than he, but the church certainly played a large part in his life. While he didn’t like to hear about politics when he was in church, Lincoln often asked the Rev. Phineas Gurley for personal advice, and leaned on him heavily when his son William died. The bench now sticks out, a monument of dark wood among a sea of bland, factory-made pews:
But that doesn’t prove that he believed the Protestant doctrine, and, being a man of private faith, it’s all wrapped up in conjecture. The fact that Mary Todd held a seance, which was a popular fad in the emerging spiritualist movement, in the White House no less, doesn’t help paint the Lincoln family into the mainstream.
But that’s where Donald White came in. By looking at Lincoln’s public persona, he tried to show that Lincoln did believe in a god that had a plan for the country. In fact, he said that many people of Lincoln’s time believed he was too religious, and crossed the line separating church and state.
Take, for example, his second inaugural address, one of the shortest ever delivered. In just 701 words, he mentions God 14 times, and prayer three times. And it’s not just decoration, like in the speeches of today, when presidents use “God bless America” as a catch-all at the end. It’s in the beginning, the middle, and the end. God is the heart of the speech.
As White says, “Are these the words of someone who was simply in tow with his wife [to church], but didn’t want to attend?”
The speech is also unique because it’s inclusive. Rather than demonize the slave-holding South (which his audience would have loved), he talks of “American slavery” and two sides which both embrace the same religion.
Lincoln hated those who kept saying “God is on our side,” and often referred to casting the first stone to humble his compatriots and remind himself to hold his judgment.
White told an amazing story about how, during the war, two women who had Confederate relatives held in the North’s prisons came to Lincoln for clemency. Lincoln repeatedly told them to come back the next day.
After three days, the women were desperate, pleading for help because they were religious. At this, Lincoln became incensed, saying he had enough of people who claimed religious adherence but could engage in such a blasphemy as slavery. He quoted one of his favorite passages in the King James Bible, Genesis 3:19, which reads:
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The women left in a huff. A journalist who overheard this wanted Lincoln to repeat this frustration, to print in the next day’s paper. But Lincoln demurred, simply stating, “Let us judge not, lest we be judged.”
Some say that Lincoln was simply religious in public, using his incredible biblical knowledge to silence his detractors. After all, while he read the Bible in the White House, he was not in the habit of saying grace before meals, and friends noted that he seldom spoke on his personal religious views, suggesting in fact that they were not orthodox.
But White doubts that, as personal diary entries of Lincoln have been found, which were never meant to be read by anyone else. And they express a similar faith. Check out this passage, written somewhere between 1862 and 1864:
“I’m almost ready to say this is probably true that God wills this contest and wills that it shall not end yet.”
It’s a pretty powerful statement, in many respects. It shows a questioning of what is truly of God, the mark of an active religious mind. It also shows an active God on Earth, who has a plan for His children. And, most importantly, it marks the Civil War as a lesson for the world, a divinely-ruled contest to end certain American evils forever.
Lincoln’s stances on religion certainly put today’s politics in a certain light, given that both parties often invoke God and Lincoln, often in the same speech. Would Lincoln like the role religion plays in today’s politics? Would he agree with Jim Wallis, John Hagee, or neither?
Anyhow, I’ll end with some pictures of the church. Here’s the interior:
Here’s a beautiful window of Christ:
And here’s a window that depicts Lincoln himself. It’s surrounded by velvet ropes, and the American flag, set in permanent state of reverence:
God bless America.
