After the recent July 4th celebrations, with parades, fireworks, historical narratives in the papers and stirring shows on TV, we tend to forget an equally important aspect of the revolution. That along with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness --- it is the idea of the right to worship according to one's belief. It is this "wall of separation between church and state" that makes America a benchmark of democracy for all freedom loving peoples all over the world.
According to Jefferson, which he based from John Locke's idea of law of nature, the phrase 'nature's God' in the Declaration means the will of nature which is also the will of God. God manifests His will in the will of nature. And through man, the highest species in the natural world, God manifests His will here on earth. Not through miracles or hosts of angels but through man as agent of His will.
Working late nights after attending to his presidential duties, Jefferson would cut and paste parts of the New Testament in four columns --- in Latin, French, Spanish, and English. Excluded were references to the virgin birth, the Trinity, miracles, and the resurrection. Included only were the moral teachings of Jesus and stories about him without reference to angels, demons and the supernatural. To Jefferson, Jesus was a philosopher and a great moral teacher.
Jefferson had this cut-and-paste job, now known as Jefferson Bible, printed and he gave copies to a few friends, with the admonition to keep the book's existence a secret. He was sending these books in confidence, he wrote, because he was, he said, 'averse to the communication of my religious tenet to the public' and because his political opponents could use this against him. He had been accused as atheist, deist, and negro lover in his lifetime.
Jefferson believed government must be guided by philosophy but you need power to enforce your philosophy: first you got to be elected to positions of power. This was 18th century America and majority citizens were professed Christians. Even now in the 21st century, surveys show no avowed atheist could be elected president.
Diamonds in a dung-hill
Writing to John Adams in 1813, Jefferson said, "I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently [Jesus's] and which is as easily distinguished as diamonds in a dung-hill." He titled the book, The Moral Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It was known only to a few of his surviving acquaintances, until 1895, when the Smithsonian Institution showcased the book in Atlanta's Cotton States International Exposition.
In 1904, the government printing office printed copies of the Jefferson Bible, and in the following years, sent copies to newly elected congressional legislators who used the book on their oath taking, until the copies ran out in the 1950s.
Was Jefferson a Christian?
Now we come to the big question. Was Jefferson a Christian? Jefferson, in a letter to a personal friend, wrote: "I am a Christian, in the only sense [Jesus] wished anyone to be, sincerely attached to his doctrines, ascribing to himself every human excellence." (The Jefferson Bible, Tarcher/Penguin Edition, 2012)
If by being a Christian means following the moral precepts of Jesus as guide to living, then Jefferson was a Christian. But if by being a Christian means believing in divine beings, the miracles and the resurrection, then Jefferson was not a Christian. He was influenced, among others, by the views of philosophers that are sweeping Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. This was also the Age of Reason, where beliefs were subjected to empirical evidence and scientific inquiry.
At the least, Jefferson is a deist, one who believes in a god who created the universe and then sat back and let the laws of nature take its course.
In the Declaration of Independence, he writes, "When in the course of human events, it become necessary for one people... to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God ...."
Clearly, Jefferson refers to human events as basis for human actions, not divine intervention. After God created the world, according to deists, His role is done and over with. Now man has to shape his own destiny. By extension, if this God can interfere at all, then this God does it through human agents, not through hosts of angels coming down from the sky.
Ineffectual God
Now critics may say, What is a God who has no power? He may have created the world but he cannot do anything afterward. What good is praying to such a God?
Before I answer that, let me say this --- Jefferson was a visionary but he was also a politician. As a politician, in his campaign for the presidency, he had to reconcile his public persona with his personal beliefs.
He was not prepared (or the people were not prepared), to go against the prevailing religious worldview of the time. While the ideas of Voltaire and the French Revolution were biting and gnawing at the ecclesiastical walls of the Vatican, he believed that America was not ready to accept the full ideas of the Enlightenment.
He was not prepared to say to mostly Anglo-Saxon Americans, as President Obama now says in our century, that America provides equal opportunities to any American citizen "no matter how you look or where you come from or whether you believe in a god or no god at all."
And so Jefferson had to do this "education" step by step, and only so much in his lifetime. It is for future generations of Americans to continue the progressive religious reforms we are having now.
In Jefferson's time, some Protestant sects were established by and received financial support from state authorities. His view of the "wall of separation of church and state" therefore threatened the established clergymen's position. So he had to modify, slowly, his radical view to the prevailing religious mood of the time. He could not say, "From now on, the following sects will no longer receive funding from the government."
Jefferson's view of the constitutional provision "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" meant preventing other denominations from receiving privileged status from the government.
In his correspondence to friends like Joseph Priestly, Benjamin Rush and John Adams --- Jefferson confided that the clergy had corrupted the moral teachings of Jesus by beclouding them with superstition and mysticism. This corruption started during the early years of Christianity --- the early Christians, in order to convert as many pagans as possible, incorporated heathen practices to the new faith. Like the celebration of Christmas during the Roman harvest season in winter. Scholars say Jesus was not born in December and the scriptures do not mention Jesus' date of birth.
Jefferson had suggested to his friends to write books on Jesus' authentic life and teachings devoid of miracles and superstition. But eventually it fell upon him to do it himself.
Relevance of Jefferson Bible
Moving forward to the 21st century, we ask ourselves, What would Jefferson say about today's religions and Jesus?
First of all, he would say, Religion is a personal matter between man and his creator. In a published essay, he wrote: "I am averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public, because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before the tribunal."
Second, he'd say, The state should not interfere, within limits of course, in the citizen's free exercise thereof. In his Notes to the State of Virginia (1784) he wrote: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." And he confided to a friend, "I am a religion by myself, as far as I know."
Third, he'd say, Organized religion has corrupted the teachings of Jesus. In a letter to Benjamin Rush, he wrote: "To the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself."
And when pressed to specify, he'd say, echoing the words of his friend Joseph Priestly, "Many Christian doctrines, like the trinity, the virgin birth, original sin, and predestination --- prevented people from understanding and embracing Christian faith and that [the clergy] multiplied the mysteries of religion and promulgated superstitions. By so doing, they clouded the minds of the laity; they convinced the common people that they needed learned authorities in order to understand their duties to God and one another." (From the essay HIstory of the Jefferson Bible by Harry Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith, The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Institution, 2011)
What to do now?
Following Jefferson's vision to its logical conclusion, doubting believers need to reassess their beliefs. The divinity of Jesus, the omnipotence of an invisible god, and the afterlife, among others, are the core beliefs of Christianity. A religion stands on its core beliefs. Denying these beliefs make this religion no longer Christian any more than calling the Pope Catholic.
If Jefferson were alive today, and that he had retired as president but still active as statesman, Americans would react differently to his religious views. He would inspire though not necessarily lead, the formation of religious ideas based on a humanist Jesus. If this happens, it only goes to show the overarching spiritual vision of Thomas Jefferson. Like George Washington, father of our country, we can truly say Jefferson is the spiritual father for all Americans. Thank you.
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