Useful to any discussion on this —whether by @JonahNRO and @rogerkimball or anyone else— is a rereading of Washington’s Farewell Address. avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/w… Washington was far from a perfect man (he enslaved people of course and had a volcanic temper).
But he had many extraordinary virtues and his Farewell Address focuses exactly on the conversation between @rogerkimball and @JonahNRO: “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.”
