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 …
The idea of Thomas Jefferson as a card-carrying member of the ACLU is absurd. Of course, it’s absurd in light of the fact that the ACLU did not incorporate until 1920. But what is really absurd is the idea that our third president wanted to ban God from the public …
Jefferson was not in the country when they wrote the Constitution. He was not there when the founders wrote up the First Amendment, with its guarantee of religious freedom. But by taking him out of context 150 years or so after he wrote a private letter, the Supreme Court began …
A misreading of Jefferson foisted separation of church and state (really, the separation of God and state) on America. The founding fathers, including Jefferson, would have vehemently disagreed with what has been happening as a result. About 75 years after the Revolutionary War, some critics challenged the concept that America …
[Photo of Jerry Newcombe and Senator Jim Inhofe] The founding fathers gave us religious freedom, including the fact that there would be no national denomination. Court decisions of the last 70 years or so have turned the Constitution on its head, using a misinterpretation of Thomas Jefferson to give us …
In July 1873, author James Parton wrote a lengthy essay in Atlantic Magazine about the 1800 campaign.[1] Parton shows how religion was an important issue in the ugly 1800 election, pointing out that some of the ministers didn’t shy from speaking out on politics: “The orthodox clergy were not averse, …
Jefferson was unfairly criticized as being a skeptic in the withering election of 1800.So what were Jefferson’s relations with the clergy in America from that election to the end of his life? First it should be noted that Jefferson corresponded with and worked in alliance with just as many new …
This was the beginning of Jefferson unjustly (in part) gaining a reputation as a skeptic. Daniel Dreisbach is a professor of justice, law, and society at American University and author of Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation of Church and State. He wrote a lengthy article for Christian History …
Jefferson was accused of not being a Christian during the election of 1800. The irony is that his opponent, John Adams, was less of one (in terms of Trinitarian orthodoxy). Allegations against Jefferson were so prominent during that ugly campaign that the gist of them is still remembered to this …