I agree. IMHO, Jefferson, so lauded today as the premium founding father, is over-rated. He was brilliant to the point of genius yes, but, so were Franklin, Madison, Hamilton and others.
He was premierely a hypocrite—writing so lavishly about freedom, even while keeping many slaves (and never setting them free, as Washington did in his will).
He repeatedly condemned “miscegenation” (racial mixing) even while keeping a black mistress at the same time.
He was supposed to be a man of high morality—even while rejecting Christianity—and embracing a cold self-made unitarian/deism—along with that slave-mistress.
But for his Danbury Baptists’ letter...and the “separation” phrase, America would be a lot better off.
"Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices…So here, as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? [98 U.S. 145, 167] To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself..."
(see also: United States v. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.)
How ironic for the homsexual cultists like Roseanne Barr, who want “separation of church and state,” that the court case they want to base their argument upon was used against the LDS church to justify the statutory regulation of marriage in the United States!