And just what the heck are the credentials of Mr. Allison that I should be convinced that Jefferson DID NOT mandate The Bible & Watts Hymnal in the DC school district? I went to your "source" and removed the extension from the address to go to the root website. This is what I found....
http://www.sullivan-county.com
Social Apartheid in Bristol and Tri-Cities
By Lewis Loflin
Welcome to the third-world nation of Appalachia.
Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee are at the center of Southern Appalachia, a banana republic, whose many bickering local governments waste more tax dollars with the least results of anywhere in America. They maintain a system best described as Social Apartheid.
No, this has nothing to with race, this region's minority populations are too small for that. If it were race, the government would put a stop to it. Those targeted are white, working class and poor whites that are locked out of almost everything. This system is rigidly enforced in local schools, zoning ordinances, government benefits, and on the job. In many cases better paying jobs are discouraged just to maintain low local wage scales, while many are forced into jobs that don't pay a living wage, then treated like garbage because of it.
(snip – because it just gets stranger & stranger)
I don’t know what this has to do with your “expert,” Jim Allison, but I suspect tinfoil hats are involved. I think I’ll stick with Barton’s version until someone points me to a more credible contradictory source, TYVM.
He quotes Barton's book in which Barton supports his claim about Jefferson's influence on the DC school curriculum with the following "Jefferson quote": "I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens."
Barton has since admitted that this quote is unconfirmed. He is unable to find a source for it and no one else has been able to either. Clearly there are many false quotes going around and there is no evidence that this is not one of them. That certainly has to undercut Barton's case.
Barton states: "Thomas Jefferson, while President of the United States, became the first president of the Washington D. C. public school board, which used the Bible and Watt's Hymnal as reading texts in the classroom. " Note that Barton himself does not claim that Jefferson was responsible for instituting the use of the Bible. Barton just wants his readers to draw that conclusion.
Allison went to the sources quoted by Barton and did not find support for Jefferson's direct influence on the DC curriculum. In one of Barton's references he did find an explanation for the beginning of the use of the Bible in DC schools that was initiated by after Jefferson left. If Barton was interested in honest historical analysis he should have mentioned these other influences. It is possible that no one other than Allison has taken the time to consult Barton's sources.
Did you know that Jefferson compiled something called "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth", in which he cut and pasted parts of the New Testament, removing all references to miracles and to the divinity of Jesus Christ? This book is in the Library of Congress. This doesn't sound like the work of someone who was perfectly satisfied with Christian tradition.
BTW I am an atheist but I don't hate Christians. In fact my own son, whom I love and respect, attends an evangelical church and has considered attending seminary. I'd be happy to accept that Jefferson might have encouraged the use of the Bible in a school curriculum if there was evidence to back it up, but the evidence seems incredibly weak and it doesn't fit in with other things that are known about Jefferson's religious attitudes.