Talk:Thomas Jefferson

I hate to point out the hipocrasy here that while Wikipedia seems to be okay to referance for facts that are supported by the status qou here. The same wikipedia is refuted as being a referance for those who are supporting a viewpoint not in popular opinion here. Either Wikipedia must be allowed to be cited or it cannot. Example Referance 1 of this page is allowed but referance 3 is not.

Also for the record I am not attacking Christianity, but I am attacking the use of it to further an agenda claiming to be christian when it is the furthest from the truth. The last true Christian Died on a cross ~2007 years ago and the lesson he taught have been twisted into a mockery of what he ment them to be.

I would also like to point out that there is no mention of "Separation of Church and State" in this article. A term Jefferson created. User:BlackholeStorm

Christian?

Jefferson was a Christian? Ive brought this up in debate a few times, and I would consider him a christian only by the widest of definitions. He is responsible for the writing of the Jefferson Bible, about as heretical a work as it would be possible to create. Based on that act, I would conclude he was a historical parallel to the 'casual christian' of today - someone who took some moral lessons from the bible when it suited him, but explicly rejected all supernatural claims Christ made - even to the extent of writing an edited bible which removed them all! He rejected God, the resurrection, salvation, sin, heaven, hell... how can anyone consider him a Christian? Believing that Jesus was 'a good man' just isn't enough to qualify. He himself admitted to being a deist, who believed Jesus to be a good teacher but in no way a god. He was a great politician, but I am unfortunatly sure this mistake ensured he went to Hell.- BornAgainBrit

The line "he attempted to create the Jefferson Bible" Should be changed to "Thomas Jefferson created The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" since he did in fact complete his cut rendition of the text which is now in the possession of the U.S. Library of Congress[1]. It is also highly misleading to say that Jefferson was a self proclaimed Christian. the abundance of Jefferson's personal letters such as this [2] leave today's readers little doubt of his opinion of Jesus Christ as a man, if a morally outstanding man. This fails to meet the one defining precept amongst all Christian denominations: a belief in Christ's divinity. Deist is an appropriate term for Jefferson's religious beliefs. The main point against evidence of Jefferson's Deism is also misleading since it states that all Deists believe in a God who does not interact with the world and Jefferson obviously believed in divine intervention. Jefferson certainly did believe in divine intervention and there was a differing of opinion between deists over this, much like the division with Christian denominations regarding the literal interpretation of such things as the Eucharist. The second Library of Congress letter from Jefferson linked above also shows that Jefferson distributed his "Revised Bible" among friends and family alone. Further reading into his letters makes it apparent that he longer wished to influence politics and thought on a religious level and the writing was for his own personal benefit. There is no doubt however that Jefferson did indeed have a great fascination with Christian texts above the texts of other religions. He was, however, not a Christian nor did he ever profess to be one. In the quote cited Jefferson claims he is a Christian in that he feels the teachings of Christ to be morally correct; precisely which teachings he is referring to can easily be seen in his version of the New Testament. Also, I feel that this article on Jefferson requires major expansion. Jefferson was one of the most staunch opponents to an overly powerful federal government and one of the earliest and strongest supporters of state's rights and sovereignty as well as the right to bear arms. As a major figurehead for modern conservative political ideals I feel his article is in need of massive expansion. - --RobinGoodfellow 23:53, 12 June 2008 (EDT)RobinGoodfellow