[AnalogReigns]

Jefferson was indeed heretical. So what? He didn't found a religious denomination either.

Other cults grew up in the 1830s on (Mormonism and JW's for example) still I don't see any connection to the American War of Independence--unless you'd prefer having the (then) European style state church--with suppression of all other religions.

[AnalogReigns]

Jefferson had almost no religious influence on the American churches at the time as well... Liberal theologians of the "higher criticism" school led originally by Schlermacher (who was highly influenced by Kant) were the ones who in the later 19th Century up until the present day moved Protestant mainline denominations into heresy, not Jefferson's amature & individualistic musings on religion, or his famous cut and paste "bible."