Thomas Jefferson

Some months back I wrote about how I doubted Thomas Jefferson was a Christian.

While I was on the road this time out, I received an education. It seems that at least at one point in his life, Thomas Jefferson did claim to be a Christian.

Now where was I educated on this? On a Christian radio program where the preacher was preaching to anyone listening that America was founded on Christian values. You know how they preach... they say "It's freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion."

So I just finished revisiting the subject. While I will no longer try say that Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian (since at one point he did claim to be), I will state that if he were alive today he probably would not be welcomed at modern Evangelical church services as anything more then another heathen that needs to be saved.

The preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that:

1. While Thomas Jefferson believed in God, he did not believe that Jesus was God.

2. While Thomas Jefferson seemed to hold an admiration for the teachings of Jesus, he felt the teachings of Jesus as represented in the Bible must have been corrupted. Thomas Jefferson did not believe the Bible was infallible.

3. In one letter to John Adams he seemed to entertain the possibility that Jesus might have been at least slightly insane.

Now, I wonder if the Evangelical preacher who was trying to teach that Thomas Jefferson was a Christian is unaware of these facts or just conveniently chooses to ignore them while he preaches to his congregation. If the preacher is uninformed, he needs to educate himself further before he again attempts to preach on the subject. If he is aware of these facts, but chooses to ignore them, he is guilty of intentionally withholding the truth from his flock.

One thing I am fairly certain of. If the preacher laid out all the known facts about the subject in front of his flock, the majority of his flock would come to the conclusion that Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian, at least not a Christian within their definition of the term.

I did not provide any links to bolster my point because it is all too easy for anyone interested to find relevant material on their own. If you are interested in the subject, might I suggest you start your explorations at Google using "Thomas Jefferson religion Christianity" as the search criteria and sample some of the hits Google provides.