Benjamin Rush - Religious Views and Vision

Religious Views and Vision

Rush advocated Christianity in public life and in education, and sometimes compared himself to the prophet Jeremiah. Dr. Rush regularly attended Christ Church, Philadelphia in Philadelphia and counted William White among his closest friends (and neighbors). Ever the controversialist, Rush became involved in internal disputes over the revised Book of Common Prayer and the splitting of the Episcopal Church from the Church of England, as well as dabbled with Presbyterianism, Methodism (which split from Anglicanism in those years), and Unitarianism. In a letter to John Adams, Rush described his religious views as "a compound of the orthodoxy and heterodoxy of most of our Christian churches." Christian Universalists consider him one of their founders, although Dr. Rush stopped attending that church after the death of his friend, former Baptist pastor Elhanan Winchester in 1797.

Rush fought for temperance, and public schools, as well as founded the Bible Society at Philadelphia (now known as the Pennsylvania Bible Society), and promoted the American Sunday School Union. When many public schools schools stopped using the Bible as a textbook, Rush proposed that the U.S. government require such use, as well as furnish an American bible to every family at public expense. In 1806 Rush also proposed inscribing "The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them." above the doors of courthouses and other public buildings, apparently disregarding current views that such conflicts with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Earlier, on July 16, 1776, Rush had complained to Virginia's Patrick Henry about a provision in that state's constitution of 1776 which forbad clergymen from serving in the legislature.

Rush felt that the United States was the work of God: "I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the United States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament". In 1798, after the Constitution's adoption, Rush declared:" The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."

Before 1779, Rush's religious views were influenced by what he described as "Fletcher's controversy with the Calvinists in favor of the Universality of the atonement." After hearing Elhanan Winchester preach, Rush indicated that this theology "embraced and reconciled my ancient calvinistical, and my newly adopted (Arminian) principles. From that time on I have never doubted upon the subject of the salvation of all men." To simplify, both believed in punishment after death for the wicked. His wife, Julia Rush, thought her husband like Martin Luther for his ardent passions, fearless attacks on old prejudices, and quick tongue against perceived enemies.

Rush also helped Richard Allen found the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In his autobiography, Allen wrote:

"...By this time we had waited on Dr. Rush and Mr. Robert Ralston, and told them of our distressing situation. We considered it a blessing that the Lord had put it into our hearts to wait upon... those gentle-men. They pitied our situation, and subscribed largely towards the church, and were very friendly towards us and advised us how to go on.

We appointed Mr. Ralston our treasurer. Dr. Rush did much for us in public by his influence. I hope the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush and Mr. Robert Ralston will never be forgotten among us. They were the two first gentlemen who espoused the cause of the oppressed and aided us in building the house of the Lord for the poor Africans to worship in. Here was the beginning and rise of the first African church in America."