Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Thomas Jefferson: Deist or Christian? Dr. Kennedy says former president is ACLU's worst nightmare
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | D. James Kennedy

Posted on 06/19/2002 12:07:28 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last
Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Quote of the Day by AppyPappy

1 posted on 06/19/2002 12:07:28 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
In 1813....Jefferson rejected the deity of Christ

Anyone know the source of that claim?

2 posted on 06/19/2002 12:21:36 AM PDT by dasboot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
bump
3 posted on 06/19/2002 12:25:13 AM PDT by stands2reason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
I would like to know what Jefferson would say, about mullahs and amams, inciting against the United States of America, at mosques in America (or in private meetings).

My understanding of history is that whatever "separation" was built into the Constitution, was to prevent government imposition of a state religion, and to let people freely practice their various faiths, free of government restriction. They are ALL, after all, THE ENEMY.

While founded on historical Judeo-Christian legacies in laws, the US was not to be a solely Christian state (contrary to what some fundamentalists say).

Back to the mullahs--would the concept of free practice of religions go so far as to incitement? Or should the mullahs be locked up, as terrorist supporters (my view)?

In other words, does "religion" provide some sort of legal imunity? I don't think so. Lock them up, under special wartime provisions. Just like Padilla. And just like Lindh SHOULD have been.
4 posted on 06/19/2002 12:29:49 AM PDT by truth_seeker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
Kennedy bump! Kennedy is a religious scholar well known for his exhaustive research.
5 posted on 06/19/2002 12:40:25 AM PDT by brat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
Thomas Jefferson had very peculuar beliefs for a Christian....

----------

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.... If it end in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise and in the love of others it will procure for you."
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787. (original capitalization of the word god is retained per original)
----------

"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp July 30, 1816, denouncing the doctrine of the Trinity and suggesting it to be so riddled in falsehood that only an authoritarian figure could decipher its meaning and, with a firm grip on people's spiritual and mental freedoms, thus convince the people of its truthfulness
----------

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies. The Christian God is a being of terrific character -- cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Woods (undated), referring to "our particular superstition" Christianity, from by John E. Remsburg, Six Historic Americans: Thomas Jefferson, quoted from Franklin Steiner, Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents (1936), "Thomas Jefferson, Freethinker"
----------

"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."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823, quoted from James A. Haught, Breaking the Last Taboo (1996)
----------

"We find in the writings of his biographers ... a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications."
-- Thomas Jefferson, to William Short, August 4, 1822, referring to Jesus's biographers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
----------

"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to his nephew, Peter Carr
----------

"My aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is granted in reading every other historian.... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, August 4, 1820, explaining his reason for compiling the Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus and referring to Jesus's biographers, the Gospel writers.

6 posted on 06/19/2002 12:45:21 AM PDT by Vigilant1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dasboot
Jefferson was not, in my opinion, a genuine Christian. In 1813, after his public career was over, Jefferson rejected the deity of Christ

Jefferson was a Unitarian. If that makes him a non-Christian, then John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Filmore, Daniel Webster and Julia Ward Howe (writer of the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic), who were also Unitarians, were not Christians either.

A refutation of the charge that Unitarians were not Christian was best answered in William Ellery Channing's 1819 Unitarian Christianity, or The Baltimore Sermon

7 posted on 06/19/2002 1:08:15 AM PDT by LarryLied
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LarryLied
For the best description of Jefferson's relious views, Click Here
8 posted on 06/19/2002 1:14:41 AM PDT by VinnyTex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: VinnyTex
The article relies on the "deist" label which was used to slander Unitarians, Universalists and some Congregationalists who rejected the trinity and the divinity of Christ. All thought of themselves as Christians. The only two I've found who firmly stated they were deists are Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine. The rest were Christians. Heretical Christians, but Christians none the less.
9 posted on 06/19/2002 1:31:04 AM PDT by LarryLied
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
GREAT POST.

IT SHOULD HELP CONFUSE THE DELIBERATELY CONFUSED SOME MORE. . . given their aversion to real truth.
10 posted on 06/19/2002 2:08:01 AM PDT by Quix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
Tom Jefferson Bump
11 posted on 06/19/2002 2:34:58 AM PDT by Cacique
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilant1
I agree with propositions one ,two, five and seven ;

Four is prophetic...and Biblical;

the rest are discernable in their intent only in full context.

Not so strange.

12 posted on 06/19/2002 3:23:46 AM PDT by dasboot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
The problem with most analyses of Jefferson's purported "rejection" of Christianity center around his real rejection of what can be called the "institutional church" and the flawed individuals and institutions who have spoken for it across the centuries, including people like Dr. Kennedy, who "concludes" that Jefferson was not a "Christian" (shorthand for "not a person who subscribed to the dogma or myths of any particular institutional church").

Jefferson, on the other hand, called himself a "real Christian," and referred to Jesus in a letter to Madison as "our saviour."

Jefferson clearly asserted that he believed that if the philosophy of Jesus (as expressed in words recorded as coming from Jesus' mouth) became the motivating force within the hearts of individuals throughout the world, a benevolent and peaceful society could be the result.

Given the state of relations between individuals and nations today, could he have been onto something here?

Further, is it just remotely possible that a current leader--ridiculed and maligned by the liberals for his debate response identifying Jesus as his favorite political philosopher--is it just possible that he, too, may have shared Jefferson's enthusiasm for the potential of a "heart" understanding of the philosophy of Jesus?

13 posted on 06/19/2002 5:23:12 AM PDT by loveliberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilant1
He also had odd beliefs for a deist.

Jefferson, who gave his money to assist missionary work among the Indians, believed his "abridgement of the New Testament for the use of the Indians" would help civilize and educate America's aboriginal inhabitants.

14 posted on 06/19/2002 5:27:14 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: LarryLied
The Unitarian church was not founded until the 1800's.
15 posted on 06/19/2002 5:27:45 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy
"The Unitarian church was not founded until the 1800's."

Baloney. John Calvin was merrily burning Unitarians at the stake in the 1500's.

16 posted on 06/19/2002 7:15:33 AM PDT by OBAFGKM
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: OBAFGKM
The Unitarian Universalist Association grew out of the consolidation, in 1961, of two religious denominations: the Universalists, organized in 1793, and the Unitarians, organized in 1825.
17 posted on 06/19/2002 7:22:01 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2; snopercod; joanie-f; mommadooo3; TPartyType; brityank
VIP.
18 posted on 06/19/2002 7:42:37 AM PDT by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Quix
Bump!
19 posted on 06/19/2002 7:45:24 AM PDT by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Quix
deliberately confused = deliberatively impaired
20 posted on 06/19/2002 7:46:21 AM PDT by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson