The following is an excerpt from my book, The Book That Made America: How the Bible Formed Our Nation (Nordskog, 2009):
On a regular basis, Thomas Jefferson, our third president, went to church at the largest 19th century church in Washington, DC---the one that met in the rotunda of the Capitol building (until about the 1880s). Here are the remarks of the James H. Hutson of the Library of Congress:
Jefferson was a regular attendant at church services in the House of Representatives during two terms. And we have all kinds of evidence about people seeing him there, and riding a horse through a thunderstorm to get there….[One time] he was met on the way to church and somebody asked him where he was going. He said, “I’m going to church,” and his friend said, “Well, c’mon, you don’t believe in that stuff.” And, he huffed and puffed and said, “Sir, no government can flourish without religion, and I’m going to give religion the sanction of my appearance and supporting attending church services,” something to that effect….As the head of the executive branch, he permitted church services in the government office buildings and the war office, the treasury building. There are accounts of four-hour communion services in the treasury building during Jefferson’s administration conducted by Presbyterian minister named James Lowry who belonged to something called the Associated Presbyterian Church. Whether that still exists, I don’t know, but, there were services in the Supreme Court chambers during the early years of the republic. We have eyewitness accounts of those from John Quincy Adams and from others. I once stated in a book that during the Jefferson administration, the church became the state on Sunday, as it did. You had church services in all three buildings of all three branches of the government. Madison attended church services in Congress…the services in Congress went on, as far as we know, until the 1880s.
Chick here for more information on or to order The Book That Made America.
Click here to try a previous quiz.