Daily Reading for July 3

[Benjamin] Franklin was also among those Deists who remained open to the possibility of divine intervention or special providence in human affairs. . . . Unlike radical, or anti-Christian Deists, Franklin perceived that organized religion could benefit society by encouraging public virtue as well as by promoting social order. He believed in a benevolent Creator, whom humans should worship through virtuous behavior. Thus Franklin urged his daughter Sarah to “go constantly to church.” He himself was an infrequent churchgoer. But because he developed a certain fondness for ceremony and ritual, the church he most frequently attended was Christ Church, one of Philadelphia’s three Episcopal churches. . . .

Insatiably curious, ambivalent about religion, prudent in his declarations about it, offended by dogmatism and intolerance, opposed to the highly emotional conversion experiences of the Great Awakening, Franklin made morality primary in his interpretation of religion. Like other Deists, he believed that humans served God best when they performed good works on behalf of humanity and society. “I think vital religion has always suffered,” Franklin wrote to his parents shortly after his thirtieth birthday, “when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtues.”

From “The Religious Views of Benjamin Franklin” in The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes (Oxford University Press, 2006).