[PhilipFreneau]

A FR discussion of Dr.Kennedy's article, posted on June 19, 2002, can be found at this URL:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/702356/posts

[k2blader]

Interesting. So what was the deal with the "Jefferson Bible"?

[Borges]

Jefferson certainly wasn't a Christian in the traditional sense. He was opposed to celebrating Thanksgiving as a national Holiday because he felt it was too religious.

[Imaverygooddriver]

If Jefferson was so religious, why then did he start an evil worshipping, US hating, muderer loving, tax the people to death cult called the Democ-rat party?

[ConservativeMind]

Thanks!

[NutCrackerBoy]

I've been debating foolish secularists for years. People who barely even know what they are talking about when they say "the founders weren't theists - they were deists". It's as old as the hills. It's part of a smoke screen that creates the appearance of an argument so that neutral onlookers will stay neutral - that's sufficient for their purposes.

But at the heart, there is something interesting there. Once in a while, you run up against someone who knows what they are talking about using a form of that argument in some context.

[BikerNYC]

"While Jefferson has been lionized by those who seek to drive religion from public life, the true Thomas Jefferson is anything but their friend."

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823:

"One day the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the United States will tear down the artificial scaffolding of Christianity. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

[bubman]

bump

[Born Conservative]

[Mr. Blonde]

I don't find that him going to church and so on is great evidence of him being a believer. Even today it is expected that our leaders go to church. Why would anyone expect it to be different in Jefferson's time?

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[Dr. Thorne]

I appreciate the work of Dr. Kennedy in defending the religious moorings of the Founders.

Jefferson's writing reveal a man whose true beliefs may have wavered, changed, and changed back again during his life. So have mine.

However, the only real thoughts that have an impact are those of our Lord Himself. His words, His acts, His love overwhelm even the philosophy of a giant like Jefferson.

[Tribune7]

good post thanks

[rlmorel]

From historical accounts I have read, Jefferson sounded like a backstabbing, two-faces slimeball.

Figuratively speaking.

[El Gato]

A belief that there is a future state of rewards and punishments (as Jefferson believed) denies the basic premise of Deism -- that the creator does not interfere with the laws of the universe. I know very little about Deism, but I don't understand the logic of that statement. The "rewards and punishments" need not be in this universe, but the next, so believing in a future state of rewards and punishments would not seem to conflict with the notion that the Creator no longer interferes with the laws of the universe as He originally created them.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Thomas Jefferson (who despised the "primitive" G-d of the "old testament" and said he didn't care how many "gxds" his neighbor worshipped) was a chr*stian only in the sense that he considered himself a "disciple of the ethical teachings of J*sus." He utterly rejected the supernatural and famously eviscerated his own Bible with a razor blade.

I sympathize with D. James Kennedy, but he (not being a Fundamentalist Zionist) has the traditional need to legitimize chr*stianity by tying it to his country's origin. The simple fact is, the true religion is the true religion regardless of the beliefs of the founders of any country, and the need to make the United States a "presbyterian nation" smacks of the old pre-monotheistic concept of a subjective national "gxd."

HaShem is G-d. The American Founders have no authority on the subject any more than the founders of Switzerland, Argentina, or Japan.