George Washington, the great-great grandson of Anglican pastor Lawrence Washington, was “always a strict and decorous observer of the Sabbath.” Born February 22, 1732 he thought the only Being a citizen had to answer in terms of religion was God. Evangelical George Whitefield and the first Great Awakening made little impression. “You doubtless remember, that I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience,” newly appointed President George Washington wrote Virginia’s United Baptist Chamber in 1789. Washington—described as a Deist by twentieth century historians James Thomas Flexner and Paul F. Boller, Jr., also nineteenth century spiritualist Robert Dale Owen—“maintained a relationship with God that was strictly his own.” He was, in fact, an Anglican who became a vestryman in Truro Parish, in Pohick Church; also in Fairfax Parish, in Alexandria’s Christ Church. The Washingtons, by the 1770s, owned family pews in both Churches. “George Washington, like several other Founding Fathers, believed strongly that religion played an important role in the establishment and nurturing of our new nation,” former Mount Vernon Director Jim Rees said in 2008. “He believed our leaders—and our citizens in general—needed to possess strong morals and a national character, and in essence, religion promoted these shared values.” “Washington realized that democracy could easily descend into anarchy,” Mount Vernon research historian Mary Thompson noted. “Without a citizenry which had internalized a strict moral code, not even an educated citizenry could make up for a lack of religion in people’s lives.” “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports,” President Washington wrote in his 1796 Farewell Address. “In…