John Adams' faith

Second president of the United States John Adams was part of the Unitarian branch of Congregationalism. He believed that although Jesus Christ was a great and good man whose example of piety, love, and universal brotherhood was the ideal that everybody should follow, he was not the Son of God, not the Word made flesh. If he were God, reasoned Adams, why would he allow his own creatures to nail him to a cross? Adams also rejected the idea of a Blessed Trinity. To say that one is three and three is one was sheer mystical gimmickry.

But he also rejected Deism and thought it equally unacceptable. He believed in continuous divine intervention. Adams was also confident of life after death and had little use for the trappings of organized religion. One need only follow the good conscience God gave him and follow the precepts set forth in the Bible to be a solid Christian.