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"[I consider] ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.” #9 “The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they (the clergy) have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.” #10 “The precepts of philosophy … laid hold of actions only … (But Jesus) pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the region of the thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.” #11 “In extracting the pure principles which Jesus taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments, in which they have been muffled … there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” #12 “My views … are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others …” #13 “I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man…” #14 “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis – a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever.” #15
9) Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert E. Bergh, editor (Washington D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XVI, p. 19, to Judge Augustus B. Woodward on March 24, 1824. [return to document] 10) March 23, 1801, in a letter from Washington, D.C., to Moses Robinson. Barnes Mayo, ed., Jefferson Himself--the personal narrative of a many-sided American (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1942), p. 231. Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 92. [return to document] 11) Jefferson, Memoir, Vol. III, p. 509, from his “Syllabus of an estimate of the Merits of the doctrines of Jesus, Compared with Those of others” sent with a letter to Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803. [return to document] 12) 1813, in a letter to John Adams. Thomas Jefferson, Writings, Vol. XIII, p. 389. Douglas Lurton, “Foreword,” The Jefferson Bible (Cleveland, OH: The Word Publishing Company, 1942), p. ix. Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations—Classical and Modern (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1967), p. 266. Gary DeMar, The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision, Inc., 1993), p. 91. [return to document] 13) April 21, 1803, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush. Writings, Vol. X, p. 379. Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations—Classical & Modern (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1967), pp. 265-266. Barnes Mayo, ed., Jefferson Himself--the personal narrative of a many-sided American (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1942) pp. 231, 235. Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 92. Library of American Literature, Vol. III, p. 277. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 252. [return to document] 14) November 4, 1820, in a letter to Jared Sparks. Compiled for Senator A. Willis Robertson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson (Williamsburg, VA: The Williamsburg Foundation, April 27, 1960) Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 96. [return to document] 15) Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1794), Query XVIII, pp. 236-237. [return to document]
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Many
Thomas Jefferson written opinions, as well as
his personal and official behavior revealed a mindset that was
different from the very broad definition of separation of church
and state that is supported and propagated in courts today. While
Jefferson despised the infighting, corruptions
and misunderstandings of scriptural intent that was manifested,
at times, between the religious sects, he never intended that
religion in general and its influence be forbidden
within government. He found the supernatural aspect of Christianity
implausible, but he deeply valued the morality that religion contributes
to society. The following are Jefferson quotes:
