Washington Theology

James Thomas Flexner’s Washington mythology (“Postscripts to History,” February) is intriguing. As he points out, Washington was a deeply religious person. Yet Flexner’s assertion that he avoided the word God is debatable. Washington wrote the following about Shays’ Rebellion: “What, gracious God, is man! that there should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his conduct?” At his inauguration in 1789, after the constitutional oath had ended, Washington added his own declaration: “So help me, God.” And at the start of his last will and testament, he wrote: “In the Name of God, Amen!” It would seem that the documentary evidence is sufficient to show that Washington did indeed mention God.