I recently finished reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin. Once again I was made aware of how far different the historical facts can be from the popular contemporary self-serving narratives that are put forward by those claiming some sort of historical mantle for their particular stances. In my estimation, a good biography must provide sufficient historical context so that the life being recounted can be reasonably understood as either a product of his/her time, or as a visionary ahead of his/her time, or a mix of both.

Ben Franklin never married. At age 24, he entered into a lifelong relationship with Deborah Read which lasted until her death some 40 years later. She bore him two children, only one of whom survived to adulthood. She also cared for Franklin's illegitimate son from another relationship, who was born shortly before they began to live together. The author speculated that the reason for not marrying was to avoid a possible charge of bigamy on Ms. Read's part. She had been married previously; her husband abandoned her. If she would have married Franklin only to have her husband return, she would have exposed herself to a charge of bigamy, which would potentially have had serious legal consequences--lashes and imprisonment. A curious distinction was therefore made, which was met with apparent acceptance or at least tolerance by the community and the couple's business and political associates.

Most folks will acknowledge that many of the actors in 18th century US history were Deists in addition to Christians representing a variety of denominations. Deists can hardly be considered Christians, if belief in the divinity of Christ is an essential criteria for being identified as Christian. So if Deists played such a central role in this country's formation, does not the claim to the title of a Christian nation ring false? Someone suggested that a minister be retained to give an invocation or prayer at the start of each session of the Continental Congress. The majority in attendance rejected the idea feeling that it might give the wrong message to the larger public or that it held little promise that it would improve the caliber of the discourse or move forward the business at hand.

By the way, Franklin's illegitimate son became the governor of New Jersey prior to the Revolutionary War, and the older of his two illegitimate grandsons had a career as a Philadelphia printer and publisher prior to his untimely death in his late 20's.

I suspect that if we read more history and were genuinely open to its content, we would be much more tolerant of our contemporaries.