A while back I read something interesting about President Abraham Lincoln in my World Almanac. In a chart listing the characteristics of the U.S. presidents, Lincoln’s religion is listed as “liberal”. What on earth does that mean? And just what exactly was Lincoln’s religion? Did he even have one? Yes, I know he was a christian and made numerous references to God and the like in his speeches. But I’m looking for the religion he was officially affiliated with. (And you will notice I am placing this in GD, in case it is open to wide interpretation.)
In his pre-presidential days, he wrote a letter expressing some belief in God but critical of the Bible. However, in his speaking against slavery and through his Presidency, he often cited the Bible & Christ. He never did join a church, and seemed to be something of a universalist Christian.
There’s no simple, clear-cut answer here. Lincoln didn’t belong to any denomination, and is PROBABLY best described as a deist. But in his writings and remarks, he was all over the board, which is why both Christians and atheists can find evidence that Lincoln was “one of us.”
My interpretation is that Lincoln believed in a God, but that the tragedies of his life (especially the deaths of his mother and three of his own children) kept him from putting much stock in the idea of a personal God who loves and cares about us. He could accept an abstract god, but to a man who’d experienced so much grief, the God I believe in seemed like a cruel hoax.
