So foreign to the throat-cutting religious prejudices of denominations, Washington apparently had no qualms about taking advantage of the celebration of a Christian holiday to kill (in this case 23) other Christians for his political prejudices.[v] All told,
“If to be a member of a Christian church, to attend church with a fair degree of regularity, to insist on the importance of organized religion for society, and to believe in an overruling Providence in human affairs is to be a Christian, then Washington can assuredly be regarded as a Christian.”[vi]
[i] Boller Jr., Paul F., George Washington and Religion, 118.
[ii] Boller, George Washington and Religion, 124.
[iii] Boller, George Washington and Religion, 21. Howard Peckham, ed. The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), 27. It is granted that few groups of Christians throughout history would qualify if this test (unwillingness to kill other Christians) was applied. Stories of informal Christmas Day truces during WWI are as heartwarming as the stories of the resumption of killing the following day are painful.
[iv] Wright, Kevin. “The Crossing and Battle at Trenton – 1776” An article for Bergen County Historical Society. http://www.bergencountyhistory.org/Pages/crossingatdtrenton.html
[v] Peckham, The Toll of Independence, 132.
[vi] Boller, George Washington and Religion, 89-90.