Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

April 10, 2019

Since George Washington, Belief—in No Particular Religion—Has Been Part of the American Credo

A nation under God.

In a 1998 speech on Marine Corps radio, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the American tradition “has consistently affirmed a national belief in God—but not a national belief in a particular religion.” In this light, he lamented the trend in American jurisprudence since the 1960s that has sought to enforce government neutrality toward religion in general. Scalia invoked George Washington as the “best of exemplar” of the traditional view:

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