Washington: First in war, first in peace, first in Christian values?

Published: 2003-12-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Author Janice T. Connell, author of a new book on George Washington, doesn't like what she calls "revisionist historians" who use rumor and innuendo to take historical figures down a peg. It could be argued, though, that Connell, the Catholic author of such books as "Praying With Mary" and "Meetings With Mary," is herself a revisionist historian -- even by restricting herself, as she did, to archived documents. In "Faith of Our Founding Father: The Spiritual Journey of George Washington," Connell makes the point, rarely thought of when considering him, that Washington may have been our most Christian president -- or, if not that, then a president whose Christian values would be well worth emulating. "George Washington was the greatest Christian leader I've ever studied about," she told Catholic News Service in an interview prior to a December talk at the World Bank headquarters in Washington. "He preached the Gospel day in and day out. But he didn't do it with words."

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