Religion of the Founding Fathers Quiz

Answer: Deism

Deism was a philosophical movement of the 17th and 18th century that rejected supernatural revelation and instead argued that man can come to an understanding of the existence of God through reason and his observation of the natural order. While deists rejected the idea of divine revelation, the Bible, the concept of the Trinity, and the existence of miracles and prophecy, they tended to believe in a few central tenants, including the existence of one God who ought to be worshipped, the importance of the practice of virtue, and the necessity of repentance for sin.

Some of the Founding Fathers, such as George Washington and James Monroe, were influenced by this philosophy even though they remained practicing Christians. Others, such as Thomas Paine and Ethan Allen, have been described as "non-Christian deists." Advocates of deism tended to support freedom of the press, religious tolerance, and the separation of church and state.

Answer: Anglican

These Founding Fathers were all raised Anglican and belonged to the Anglican (or, later in America, Episcopalian) church. Presbyterian and Congregationalist (Puritan) were the other two most common religious backgrounds of the Founding Fathers. There were also Catholics, Quakers, Lutherans, and Dutch Reformed to be found in the mix.

Although not overly vocal and public about his religion, George Washington was an Anglican and regular churchgoer, and he regularly attended services held by chaplains in the Revolutionary War. When traveling, he would visit churches of other denominations as well. He served as a vestryman in Truro Parish from 1762 to 1784 and for three terms as churchwarden.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was raised a Puritan, but his beliefs continually evolved over his lifetime, and he was a strong proponent of religion in general. He discussed his deism in his 1771 autobiography, though in later life he placed more emphasis on organized religion.

In that same autobiography, he lists the 13 virtues by which he strove to live his life: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.

Answer: Charles Carroll

Maryland planter Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. He personally supported the American Revolution with his own funds and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, though he had no part in authoring the Constitution. Although initially barred from serving in public office in Maryland due to his religion, after the Revolution he served in the Maryland State Senate.

Daniel Carroll of Maryland and Thomas Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania were two other Catholic Founding Fathers, though they did not sign the Declaration of Independence.

Answer: The Age of Reason

Published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807, "The Age of Reason" puts forth arguments in favor of deism and criticizes Christianity and the concept of revealed religion while questioning the legitimacy of the Bible. Thomas Paine is perhaps best known for his revolutionary pamphlet "Common Sense."

Answer: John Adams

John Adams denounced Thomas Paine's criticisms of Christianity, calling him "the Blackguard Paine" and writing, "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity." However, Adams himself practiced a sort of, in the words of biographer Gregg Frazier, "theistic rationalism." Though he considered himself a Christian, he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.

He attended United First Parish Church, which began as a Puritan/Congregationalist church but which has been Unitarian in theology since the mid-18th century.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson met with these criticisms from his Federalists opponents during the presidential campaign in 1800. One paper, the New England Palladium, went so far as to suggest that if he was elected, "the seal of death is that moment set on our holy religion." Jefferson was opposed to organized religion, though he routinely expressed a belief in God, and he is generally considered by scholars to have been within the strain of American deism.

Answer: James Madison

James Madison, who was the fourth president of the United States, is credited with playing a central role in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. He opposed the idea of an established church not only for the nation as a whole, but in his own state of Virginia.

The Anglican church was disestablished in Virginia in 1786. Some states continued to have established churches after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, with Georgia disestablishing the Anglican church in 1789 and Connecticut disestablishing the Congregational church as late as 1818. Scholars have argued over whether Madison was a pious Christian or a deist, but he certainly strongly supported the separation of church and state.

Answer: John Jay

As well as being a Founding Father and key leader of the Federalist party, John Jay served as a Governor of New York and the first Chief Justice of the United States. He was the founder of the New York Manumission Society, which purchased and manumitted slaves.

After the Revolutionary War, he became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. He was a warden of Trinity Episcopal Church in New York and advocated that the Archbishop of Canterbury approve the ordination of bishops for the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Answer: Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams, Sr. was both a church deacon and prosperous merchant. His son Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin School and Harvard. Although he was originally expected to prepare for the ministry, Samuel Adams shifted his focus to politics over time and ended up serving as a delegate to the Constitutional Congress and the fourth governor of Massachusetts.

Answer: John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon was the president of the College of New Jersey and an active Presbyterian minister. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Articles of the Confederation and leant his support to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

He professed confessional Calvinism and believed that supernatural revelation could be reconciled with reason.

Answer: He often declined to receive communion in his adult life

Several of George Washington's ministers wrote that he often left services before communion. One pastor, James Abercrombie of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, even took a shot at Washington in one of his sermons by saying he was upset to witness people in "elevated stations" not setting the example of receiving communion.

While some thought this refusal to receive communion was a sign of secret non-Trinitarian beliefs and perhaps deist inclinations, others thought that Washington perhaps declined to receive communion because, having been a man of war, he felt he was not in the proper condition to receive the sacrament.

Answer: Elias Boudinot

Elias Boudinot was a delegate to the Continental Congress and in 1782-1783 served as President of Congress. He came from a French Protestant (Huguenot) family that had fled the religious persecutions of King Louis XIV in 1687 and settled in New York. He considered the Bible to be the "most valuable book in the world," being "instructive both to the wise and ignorant," and "affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind" as well as presenting "the best philosophy" and "the most interesting history."

Answer: Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry is perhaps best know for his fierary oration, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" He served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and as the first and sixth post-colonial governor of Virginia. Staunchly religious and raised in a devout Anglican family, Patrick Henry listened to ministers of other denominations and strongly supported religious liberty.

Answer: Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies on the island of Nevis, which had a large Jewish community. As an illegitimate child, he was not welcomed to learn at the local Anglican school, and instead he attended a Jewish school in a synagogue in Charleston, the capital of Nevis. He was tutored by a Jewish schoolmistress and learned to recite the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. As a youth, he was "New Light" Presbyterian, but appeared to have moved in a more deist direction in adulthood. On his death bed, he requested, and eventually received, communion from an Episcopal Bishop, despite not being a member of the denomination.

Hamilton argued that the progress of the Jewish people throughout history was "so entirely out of the ordinary course of human affairs" that it was not unreasonable to conclude that this success was "the effect of some great providential plan." In "The Jewish Founding Father: Alexander Hamilton's Hidden Life," Andrew Porwancher controversially argues that Hamilton was actually born and raised a Jew, and that his mother Rachel was Jewish.