The Trump administration is using a painting of George Washington praying at Valley Forge to argue that the founders were devout Christians, but historians have doubts about whether the moment depicted actually happened.
A painting of George Washington by Arnold Friberg is being used by the Trump administration to argue the founders were devout Christians, but historians have doubts about whether the moment depicted actually happened.
The painting, titled 'The Prayer at Valley Forge', is on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. and has been adopted by conservative evangelicals as a powerful statement about how the United States was founded as a Christian nation. However, many historians do not believe there is much evidence for this story, and Thomas Tweed, professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, has written about its origins, which came from a popular biography written shortly after Washington's death.
The story was concocted by Washington's early biographer, Parson Weems, to establish the moral character and personal piety of the first president and, thereby, advance a particular view of national belonging and church-state relations. The image has been enthusiastically adopted by conservative evangelicals, many of whom see it as a rebuke to mainstream historians, who point out that George Washington was an Anglican and not a weekly churchgoer.
Washington's public language was vague about his faith, and members of the Trump administration have framed such information as secularizing attacks on the founding fathers' Christian beliefs. Reproductions of Friberg's painting are part of a government-funded fleet of mobile exhibits called Freedom Trucks now touring the country to celebrate America's 250th, and on a White House website encouraging people to pray.
The painting's message is one of prayer and faith, and its owner, First Freedom Art Company, backed by the financial firm CAZ Investments, says what matters most is the painting's message, for Americans of all faiths. The image, first painted for America's bicentennial, might just now be coming into its own as a major - and lasting cultural icon
George Washington Trump Administration Prayer At Valley Forge Christian Nation Historians' Doubts
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