Our national temples

My parents, my brother and sister with their families, and one of our daughters are here visiting, a good time being had by all. We went into D.C. yesterday for some sightseeing.

At the Jefferson memorial, a sense of recognition flashed upon my mind. The building, along with the Lincoln memorial, is a Greco-Roman temple. Where the ancients would put a graven image of their deity, we have a statue of a statesman.

These are, literally, shrines (the word is often used here for our monuments) to our civic religion. (In making this observation, I intend to take nothing away from the individuals being honored nor from the magnificence of these buildings.)

These shrines are also inscribed with religious sayings. I was struck by the quotes from Jefferson, whom I didn’t think of as a religious man. But he really was. Deists can also have great piety. I liked these:

“I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind.”

“Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that this justice cannot sleep forever.”