Yeah, I can't find any refreence to Christ. All I see is a deist document.
The DoI makes no specific reference to Christ. It makes reference to the Creator God of Genesis. The Christian Framers would instantly know that the Creator is the Father, Who has a Son, and a Holy Spirit, too. TJ didn't have to explain to the people what they already knew.
Was Jefferson a deist? He has been called "The American Sphinx." Meaning (among other things) it's difficult to pin him down, theologically speaking.
But you seem pretty sure about his "credentials." It must be nice to have such certainly so cheaply....
With due respect, kosta, I think you find what you want to find and see what you want to see.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights” . . .
. . . . . Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, as originally written, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ME, Vol 1, pg 29
Check your etymology and you will find that “The word was not generally capitalized Creator until the appearance of the King James Bible (1611).” . . . The Barnhart Concise Dictionary Of Etymology, 1995 First Edition, Harper Collins. For the Founding Fathers a capitalized Creator meant just one thing; the Judeo-Christian God. I know you will find difficulty in accepting that The Declaration is a Christian document (the product of Christian belief). But, for you, there is worse to come. “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” . . . Thomas Jefferson, "A summary view of the rights of British America" Autobiography, Appendix [Note G.], The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol 1, pg 256).
“Was Jefferson a deist?,” betty asks.
If he was betty, he was a most unconventional Deist, and in blatant defiance of all the usual characteristics defining the term.
Jefferson discusses the ancient philosophers as a contrast to his most favored; “Jesus of Nazareth,” making it difficult to dismiss Jefferson as merely a Deist, in a letter to William Short, October 31, 1819, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson in 19 volumes, Memorial Edition, edited by Albert Ellery Burgh.
In another letter, Jefferson writes to his namesake, addressing to him several things that might have a favorable influence on the course of his life. Jefferson starts by naming the two great commandments of the Judeo-Christian belief, going on to mention some of the Ten Commandments, and closes by quoting the body of a Christian hymn Lord, who's the happy man, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, February 21, 1825, Ibid.
Jefferson again confirms his distaste for ‘Presbyterianism’ and equally his aversion to the teachings of Calvin. He then goes on to shatter the conventional understanding of his view of the ‘separation’ of church and state, by relating the sharing of a courthouse by various Christian sects, as a common temple of worship. What is surprising is not that different Christian sects proved to be willing to share in common worship, taking turns in leading the services, but that their place of common worship was the very seat of local government itself, the court-house, and that this event was reported, with equanimity, by none other than Thomas Jefferson, himself. He then goes on to confound us further by relating how he and his fellow Visitors (directors) of the University of Virginia provided space on the university grounds and the sharing of certain facilities for formal religious instruction by various Christian sects, all this in a letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, November 2, 1822, Ibid.
In yet another letter, Jefferson declares his faith only in Christ’s teachings of the early church, a letter to John Adams, October, 13 1813, Ibid. And, finally, in yet another letter he declares, “To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian (emphasis mine), in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other. (Thomas Jefferson, to Doctor Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803, Ibid.
And, dear boop, the letters and other documents of Jefferson fixes exactly the problem critics face in attempting to deny a Christian influence on the making of America, including The Declaration itself. To tailor the charge of Deism to any of the Founding Fathers, the critics must redefine ‘deist’ to fit the changing characteristics of the different Founders. Franklin proclaimed “God governs in the affairs of men.” Not a belief usually attributable to Deists. Jefferson, on the other hand, swore fealty to Jesus Christ (“the pure gospel of Jesus Christ”). And critics will find no comfort in examining the Christian values of any of the other Founders charged with drafting The Declaration Of Independence.
Thanks for the beep to this interesting thread.
Dude, you think maybe they were trying to avoid having an official state religion (~ our 'denomination')?
They had enough problems with the Southern Colonies' "peculiar institution" and the three-fifths compromise, without dragging the current theological flamewars into things as well.
Cheers!