I first read this post last night when it was too late to respond with references, especially to early posts about Jefferson and his supposed religious beliefs, or lack thereof.
Thanks, also, to YHAO for the excellent information contained in his Post #70.
All of us posting here have been brought up in an America whose early history was largely revised, removed from local libraries, and/or deliberately removed from school textbooks. We must remember that the so-called "liberal" or "progressive" movement began before we were born, and by the time we were in school, much of the work to distort, dissemble, and remove the essential ideas of liberty from textbooks and public discourse already had begun to occur.
As a result, we must look to early histories, original documents, or the writings and speeches of the day.
Theologians are not a reliable source for answers to these questions, for they have been trained in similar educational institutions as the rest of us.
An 1872 history by Frothingham is available for reading online. "Rise of the Republic of the United States . . . " traces the "Christian Idea of Man" as the idea which underlay the development of America. Then, there is an 1876 Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon by Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, available in the American Memory Section of the LOC (African-American Collection) which provides great detail and documentation for the idea that America was, indeed, founded as a "Christian" nation, including references to Supreme Court Justices' statements and other documentation from records.
As for Jefferson, for obvious reasons, he did not discuss his personal faith publicly, and said so. Some of his pertinent comments in letters have been posted on this thread already, and I will not repeat those. There are others though which may provide another glimpse that the censors and mind controllers of the Left have failed to acknowledge in their quest to misuse a single phrase from his Letter to the Baptists.
For instance:
"Our Saviour... has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to Him who can alone see into them." --Thomas Jefferson to Martin Van Buren, 1824. ME 16:55
Then, we might examine "The Works of Thomas Jefferson," Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 2.
Author: Thomas Jefferson
Editor: Paul Leicester Ford
Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols Notes on religion l
This should be read in its entirety as an indication of Jefferson's diligent study of the subject. The following are only a selected few observations from these "Notes."
To Rev. Samuel Miller, 23 January 1808 "Sir, -I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider the government of the U S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S. Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe a day of fasting & prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the U.S. an authority over religious exercises which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant too that this recommendation is to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious societies that the general government should be invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting & prayer are religious exercises. The enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, & the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
"I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I have ever believed that the example of state executives led to the assumption of that authority by the general government, without due examination, which would have discovered that what might be a right in a state government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another. Be this as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, & mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the U S. and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
"I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem & respect."
To James Fishback, 27 September 1809 (L&B 12:315):
"Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all nations agree (for all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, or bear false witness,) and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality. In all of them we see good men, and as many in one as another. The varieties in the structure and action of the human mind as in those of the body, are the work of our Creator, against which it cannot be a religious duty to erect the standard of uniformity. The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, he has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses. It is, then, a matter of principle with me to avoid disturbing the tranquility of others by the expression of any opinion on the innocent questions on which we schismatize."
To Miles King, 26 September 1814 (L&B 14:197-8):
"He has formed us moral agents. Not that, in the perfection of His state, He can feel pain or pleasure in anything we may do; He is far above our power; but that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own. I must ever believe that religion substantially good which produces an honest life, and we have been authorized by One whom you and I equally respect, to judge of the tree by its fruit. Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our God alone. I inquire after no man's, and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friends or our foes, are exactly the right. Nay, we have heard it said that there is not a Quaker or a Baptist, a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian, a Catholic or a Protestant in heaven; that, on entering that gate, we leave those badges of schism behind, and find ourselves united in those principles only in which God has united us all."
"Our Savior chose not to propagate his religion by temporal punishments or civil incapacitation, if he had, it was in his almighty power. But he chose to extend it by it’s influence on reason, there by shewing to others how they should proceed."
"Christ has said ‘wheresoever 2 or 3 are gatherd. together in his name he will be in the midst of them.’ This is his definition of a society. He does not make it essential that a bishop or presbyter govern them. Without them it suffices for the salvation of souls."
"Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. I may grow rich by art I am compelled to follow, I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take agt. my own judgment, but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve & abhor.
"Whatsoever is lawful in the Commonwealth, or permitted to the subject in the ordinary way, cannot be forbidden to him for religious uses: & whatsoever is prejudicial to the Commonwealth in their ordinary uses & therefore prohibited by the laws, ought not to be permitted to churches in their sacred rites. For instance it is unlawful in the ordinary course of things or in a private house to murder a child. It should not be permitted any sect then to sacrifice children: it is ordinarily lawful (or temporarily lawful) to kill calves or lambs. They may therefore be religiously sacrificed, but if the good of the state required a temporary suspension of killing lambs, as during a siege, sacrifices of them may then be rightfully suspended also. This is the true extent of toleration.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error. If anything pass in a religious meeting seditiously and contrary to the public peace, let it be punished in the same manner & no otherwise than as if it had happened in a fair or market. These meetings ought not to be sanctuaries for faction & flagitiousness."
"Our wish... is, that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry, or that of his fathers." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural, 1805. ME 3:382
"It is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere [in the propagation of religious teachings] when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. ME 2:302, Papers 2:546
Note: Bolding and underlining added for emphasis here)
I would like to make a point about the quote I have put in bold.
The scholastic influence on our Founders, coming mainly from Thomas Aquinas, paired reason and faith and proved how compatible they actually were. (Subjective moralists, however, separate faith and reason which results in the perversion of both of them.) When our Founders wrote the Constitution they did so together in one philosophy based on objective moral theology where faith and reason were not separated.
In this thread there were some people who maintained quite soundly that there could be no Ten Commandment influence in the Constitution. Quite the contrary, it is so deeply embedded that only people paying attention will notice it.