Washington’s Wager on Religious Liberty
9th June 2025
With 235 years of hindsight, we can see that Washington was making a threefold wager: he bet that believers would, despite religious differences, obey the law and act loyally toward the United States. Washington also bet that should differences of religious opinion spill over into illegal conduct or violent conflict, the government, operating with the united force of its citizens, would restore peace and enforce the law. Finally, in keeping with Masonic and Enlightenment notions of a just and merciful God, he wagered (very differently from Pascal) that God would not punish Americans for failing to uphold true religion against its false, fraudulent, or heretical competitors.
What are the challenges posed to Washington’s triple wager today?
As we approach a quarter century since 9/11, Muslim supremacist organizations are more active and more powerful in America than ever before. According to the vigilant observers at the Middle East Forum, they have built effective and occasionally murderous alliances with non-Muslim leftist activists.
As we all know, since October 7, 2023, American campuses have been convulsed by demonstrations in favor of or opposing Israel’s war against Hamas, a Palestinian outgrowth of the worldwide Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement. The anti-Israel demonstrations have in many places violated criminal laws against trespass and vandalism, and civil rights laws that require schools to prevent hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students. Until January 20, 2025, these demonstrations went largely unhindered—as Senator Chuck Schumer reportedly told Columbia University officials, only Republicans were concerned about anti-Semitism on campus.
Islam is an oppressive totalitarian ideology, masquerading as a religion, with which no co-existence is possible.
Why Islam and the West Can’t Coexist