Posted on 07/10/2003 10:45:59 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
At the Jefferson Memorial, quotations from our third president are carved into the wall. One of them reads: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Lovely words, but what was their context? Professor Philip Hamburger, in his book SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, gives us some much needed insights.
Among Jefferson's opponents in the election of 1800, none were as fervent as the clergy of New England, especially Connecticut where Congregationalism was a state-established church. These clergymen, by and large, were solidly biblical in their theology and solidly Federalist -- which is to say, anti-Jeffersonian -- in their politics. Jefferson's "eternal hostility" line occurs in a letter written in the midst of that bitter 1800 campaign.
The established clergy, Jefferson wrote, "believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe right: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." The "tyranny," you see, that he had in mind was that of the New England clergy.
Was Jefferson just protesting the state establishment of religion? Well, in a letter to the Unitarian leader Joseph Priestley in January of 1800, Jefferson condemned the notion that we should rely on our beliefs in religion. And seventeen years later, rejoicing in his party's victories in Connecticut, he wrote to John Adams that these victories had brought "light and liberality" to this "last retreat of monkish darkness," this "den of the priesthood," this "Protestant Popedom."
There's no way around it: Despite his many great qualities, Thomas Jefferson was as vigorous a critic of traditional Christianity as the Enlightenment ever produced.
It is in this context -- his overt hostility to Christians -- that we must evaluate his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, the sole source of the metaphor, the "wall of separation." The Danbury Baptists wrote to Jefferson in 1801 seeking his support for its efforts to disestablish Connecticut's Congregationalist Church. In response, Jefferson upped the ante in the debate, both by creating the "wall" metaphor and by insisting that this metaphor is the true key to understanding the Establishment Clause. As Professor Daniel Dreisbach, author of Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State, has written, "Jefferson's Baptist correspondents, who agitated for disestablishment but not for separation, were apparently discomfited by the figurative phrase. They, like many Americans, feared that the erection of a 'wall' would separate religious influences from public life and policy" -- just what it has done.
We have just celebrated our independence, and that's a good time to remember that the "wall of separation" is not in the Constitution. It's a phrase written by a president who was upset with Christians. I say it's time to put it all in perspective and end the radical separationism that keeps Christianity out of public life. We should be honoring Jefferson, not for his sour view of historic Christianity in 1801, but for the eloquent and moving words he wrote in 1776 in the Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Notice that it reads - thier creator and not THE creator.
Jefferson was a unitarian and a naturalist, but he also believed in a supreme being and beleived the Government shouldn't intervene in ones religious affairs. There in lies the wall...The government shall not control religion, but religion can and does control government or there wouldn't be law.
Law comes from morality, if there were no morals, we would be purely hedonistic...which most college students would like to happen.
Colson also misses the point that Jefferson was a Christian (as all Unitarians at that time were). He was a heretic for sure, but he was a Christian heretic--of a denomination which would give the United States 5 presidents in the next 100 years as well as the woman who wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
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