Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer

[maharba]

Very well considered and stated, Kate. I agree with most all you said there.

And Roger, you ask,

Do you feel John Hay was also part of the "grand deception" that Lincoln was faking a belief in God for "public consumption?"

I think that John Hay and John Nicolay tried their best to reframe and rehabilitate (against other biographies) the Legend of Abraham Lincoln. There is the recent book,
Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image". And I read a good article on that in some
magazine, recently. And they knowingly glossed over and made
changes to the real history, they both knew. Let's give full credit to Bill Herndon. He alone assembled a solid biography of Lincoln, and he made a lot of (Northern) enemies in the process.