Here is a portion of the book by Dr. Mark Beliles and Jerry Newcombe on faith (or lack thereof, later in life) of Thomas Jefferson. The book is DOUBTING THOMAS, and it makes 2 overall points: 1) Jefferson was not a lifelong skeptic, and 2) Jefferson did not believe in …
Lorenzo Dow was the Billy Graham of Thomas Jefferson’s day. Rev. Dow thought of Jefferson as a champion of religious freedom and as an active Christian. Later in life, on a private basis, Jefferson harbored some serious doubts about core Christian doctrines. Rev. Hugh White was another local minister who …
Contrary to the myth that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong skeptic of the Christian faith, our third president was more like this: a lifelong professing Christian, who early in life apparently believed. In 1777, a year after he wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence and the same …
Contrary to the myth of Thomas Jefferson, the lifelong skeptic or the believer in separation of God and state, the real Thomas Jefferson is much more nuanced in his views. Our book, DOUBTING THOMAS, co-written by Dr. Mark Beliles (a long time pastor in Jefferson’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia) and …
The phrase “the separation of church and state” is not in the U.S. Constitution. Instead, it’s found in a private letter from Thomas Jefferson that the Supreme Court used in a 1947 decision that forever altered church/state relations in America. We are often given the impression that our third president …
The idea that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong unbeliever cannot be substantiated with the facts. Later in life, because of the influence of Unitarianism, he did begin to privately question key Christian doctrines. But earlier in his life, even when he was president, he was active as a professing Christian. …
Thomas Jefferson did many things showing support, even as president, for religion in the public square. For example, he regularly the Christian church services held Sunday mornings at the U.S. Capitol during his presidency. As governor of Virginia, he had written a Prayer Proclamation. But he didn’t think the federal …
The idea that Thomas Jefferson, a key founding father and our third president, believed in the separation of God and state is a myth. He did believe that the institution of the church and the institution of the state should be separated. He even used the phrase “separation of church …
For most of his life our third president, Thomas Jefferson, was a professing Christian. In 1777, a year after he wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Jefferson wrote up an agreement for the establishment of a Christian church, which called an evangelical minister to be the pastor. Rev. Charles …
When it comes to religion and understanding Thomas Jefferson, it is a complicated picture. But our book by Mark Beliles and me, Doubting Thomas, makes two points that are well-documented. 1) Jefferson was not a lifelong skeptic. Earlier in life, when he was most important as a founding father, by …