Washington: A Legacy of Leadership by Paul Vickery for Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010

The dog ate my homework. Yes I am serious. I laid my copy of Washington: A Legacy of Leadership on my desk and the two year old lab jumped up, took it off the desk and devoured it cover to cover. Fortunately, the good stuff in middle was left intact, dog-eared but still readable. In fact the book was very readable.

It is not a scholarly treatise, though there are 18 pages of notes and bibliography, but it does give a good overview of General George Washington. It is one of a series of books in The Generals Series by Thomas Nelson and gives a look at the person of the Commander in Chief of the Colonial Army.

Parson Weems would probably not like the book because it talks about some of the failures and mistakes of the man who led the army in the War of Independence (For example Vickery suggests that Washington caused the French and Indian War) but I found great comfort in knowing some of our great leaders made mistakes. This book is definitely not a hagiography but on the other hand the author does not go in the direction of many modern biographies that dwell on warts and peccadillos.

After reading quotes from Washington’s writings and excerpts from his prayers I think that either the definition of Deist needs to be changed or we need to admit Washington was not a Deist. I found the following comments about Deists on a Free Thought website.

Most of the Founders were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books.

And yet we find General Washington talking to this creator and asking for his intervention. In July of 1776, the very day the Declaration of Independence was approved, General Washington gave the general orders for the day, “…Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and with the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is to animate and encourage us to good and Noble actions….”

Could a real Deist expect that some first cause would lift a finger to help? And at another time set aside a day of prayer to implore the help of the God? If this is a Deist bring on the Deists. They seem to have more faith in the power and presence of God than many church members.

This is not the place to determine the faith of Washington but his own words reveal faith in a God who acts on behalf of us humans. Vickery’s book is valuable for its insight into the man George Washington, husband, leader and man of faith.