[John Leland 1789]

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams

These men did neither disdain nor disrespect Christians.

[GL of Sector 2814]

I was simply replying to your statement that you were sure there were more unbelievers than Thomas Paine, and gave Adams and Jefferson as examples (Benjamin Franklin was also a Deist, for that matter). I agree that Adams didn't disrespect Christians, although Jefferson is a bit more complex in this respect. Quoting:

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.

And:

In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and prayer parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use a mere earthly lover.

He's certainly showing disdain towards some Christians in regards to their Christianity, but I don't recall him ever doing so towards Christians in general.

Thomas Paine is another matter, or course...