The issue of whether Jefferson was a deist or not doubtless exists because after his public career was over he rejected the deity of Jesus Christ:
Thomas Jefferson: Deist or Christian?, by D.James Kennedy, WND, 06/19/2002 http://www.wnd.com/2002/06/14285/
“Jefferson’s outlook on religion and government is more fully revealed in another 1802 letter in which he wrote that he did not want his administration to be a “government without religion,” but one that would “strengthen … religious freedom.....The real Thomas Jefferson, it turns out, is the ACLU’s worst nightmare.”
Jefferson was a true friend of the Christian faith. But was he a true Christian? A nominal Christian – as demonstrated by his lifelong practice of attending worship services, reading the Bible, and following the moral principles of Christ – Jefferson was not, in my opinion, a genuine Christian. In 1813, after his public career was over, Jefferson rejected the deity of Christ. Like so many millions of church members today, he was outwardly religious, but never experienced the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus was necessary to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
“The issue of whether Jefferson was a deist or not doubtless exists because after his public career was over he rejected the deity of Jesus Christ:”
I began my part of this discussion by observing that, if Jefferson was a Deist, he was a most unconventional one (#70, “If Jefferson was a Deist, spirited, he was very unconventional, in blatant defiance of all the usual characteristics defining the term.”), following that with several quotes from various Jefferson letters in support of my observation.
This invited a swarm of dissections of Jeffersonian religious philosophy, all of which I welcome. To merely declare Jefferson a “Deist” without going into specifics, simply allows Christian Deniers the opportunity to declare that America was not founded on Judeo-Christian belief and principles (“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.) It seems that we might address the same point to the many “friends” of the Founding Fathers.
I’ve seen nothing that disputes my observation in post #70, and a great deal that supports it (most of the material I offered being of a date later than the Jefferson Administration - a letter to William Short, October 31, 1819, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson in 19 volumes, Memorial Edition, edited by Albert Ellery Burgh, a letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, February 21, 1825, Ibid, a letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, November 2, 1822, Ibid.)
I fail to see how attributing the founding of our nation to our Judeo-Christian tradition “cheapens” Christianity. The tail does not wag the dog. To declare that “Biblical Christianity is more than a mere system of morals” does not address at all the fact of a “system of morals” based on Christianity.
“I write with freedom, because while I claim a right to believe in one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that is the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought in question before the public on this or any other subject, and I pray you to consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part in controversies, religious or political. At the age of eighty, tranquility is the greatest good of life, and the strongest of our desires that of dying in the good will of all mankind. And with the assurance of all my good will to Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and Tory, accept for yourself that of my entire respect.”
. . . . . Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Smith, December 8, 1822,
Apologies for the tardiness of my reply. The wife and I have been out of state celebrating the accomplishments of our grandson, who is this year a senior in a private high school.