JEFFERSON'S BIBLE PART I

The title of this entry is Jefferson’s Bible, and not The Jefferson Bible! This distinction is deliberate. We are talking about Thomas Jefferson’s religion. I am not insisting here that he was some conventional Christian theist (whatever this is supposed to mean, considering the multitude of “conventional” Christian denominations at odds with each other and loudly calling each other unpleasant names), but I am once again alerting the reader to one of my pet leitmotifs: definitions, definitions, definitions!

We know that from the fact that the authors of the so-called Humanist Manifesto were actual secularists and atheists, and never denied it, yet had the audacity to call themselves “humanists,” it must not follow that all humanists, and particularly Christian humanists, as defined, for instance, by the Roman Catholic Church, are a bunch of godless scoundrels, as commonly represented by modern-day Evangelical preachers.

By the same token, if Thomas Jefferson calls himself a deist, we ought not to jump to the conclusion that he is a deist in one of the rigid senses of this term set in opposition to all persons called theists. We must rather listen to Jefferson himself, and to the way he describes his understanding of the term “deism.’ Bearing this in mind, let us proceed with the present entry.

The Founding Fathers of the American Dream,--- what was their connection to the Christian foundations of our recently defunct Western Civilization?

They are called deists by religion, clearly meaning a different thing (see for instance the Webster’s Dictionary definition, quoted in my previous entry) from what they themselves understood as deism. Here is a line from Thomas Jefferson, already quoted in the Jefferson And The Jews entry in the Tikkun Olam section:

“Their system was deism; that is, belief of only one God. But their ideas of Him and of His attributes were degrading and injurious…” (From Thomas Jefferson’s An Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus Compared with Those of Others, 1803.)

It is demonstrably obvious, if I am allowed to use this double-whammy for an enhanced effect, that at least in this instance Jefferson uses the word deism indistinguishably from theism, which was historically a very common confusion, and, in this case, synonymously with monotheism,--- a very revealing situation!

So, whatever we find written anywhere about Jefferson’s religion, all labels must be consumed accordingly, with more than a grain of salt.

It is true that his contemporaries, primarily political rivals, raised doubts about Jefferson’s religious probity, but most of these attacks were standard election fare, and ought not to amount to more than that. During the presidential campaign of 1800, he was accused of being an “infidel,” attributing his admittedly unconventional religious views to the ill effects of the iconoclastic French Revolution which he was allegedly infected with, and thus disqualified from public office. Fortunately, Jefferson left us with a significant legacy of written works on religion, and of public deeds in matters religious, thus denying his enemies an exclusive opportunity to define him for us through their tainted opinions. Although the “deistic” tag has apparently stuck to him, it has been benignly modified, as several eminent authorities have subsequently described him as a “Christian deist.” Here is what the notable Jesuit theologian and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church Avery Dulles says about Jefferson in his First Things: The Deist Minimum (2005):

“In summary, Jefferson was a deist because he believed in one God, in divine providence, in the divine moral law, and in rewards and punishments after death; but did not believe in supernatural revelation. He was a Christian deist, because he saw Christianity as the highest expression of natural religion, and Jesus, as an incomparably great moral teacher. He was not an orthodox Christian, as he rejected, among other things, the doctrines that Jesus was the promised Messiah and also the incarnate Son of God. Jefferson’s religion is fairly typical of the American form of deism in his day.” (I will discuss Jefferson’s “rejection” of Jesus as the promised Messiah, etc. in Part II, to be posted tomorrow.)

It is quite clear to me that Jefferson’s unorthodox Christian views can be easily attributed to his frequently expressed philosophical meditations on religion. Had he not expressed himself as a religious philosophizer so often and so distinctly, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish him from an orthodox Christian believer. Here is a short summary of his outward religious history, deliberately quoting the Wikipedia, to ensure the impression of objectivity, which I am eager to convey in this particular instance:

“Jefferson was raised in the Church of England, at the time when it was the established church in Virginia and the only denomination funded by Virginia tax money. Before the Revolution, he was a vestryman in a local church, a lay position which was part of political office at the time. He had friends among the clergy, and he supported some churches financially. During his Presidency, Jefferson attended the weekly church services held in the House of Representatives. Throughout his administration, he allowed church services in executive branch buildings, believing that Christianity was a prop for the government.”

It is perfectly easy to reconcile unorthodox religious opinions with orthodox cultural religiosity coexisting in the same person, as in all sincerity it could not be otherwise, as long as the person is not some miserable hypocrite, hiding his oftentimes blasphemous and perverted private inclinations under a mask of religious orthodoxy. We have countless examples of Roman Catholic priests privately engaging in pedophilia, or the Jimmy Swaggarts, Jim & Tammy Bakkers, and too many others to mention them all, who are going around under the cover of Christian propriety, yet committing heinous unforgivable crimes exposing them as dyed-in-the-wool non-believers and perverts… Under such circumstances, it must be a badge of honor to be called a “deist,” whatever it means, as long as one is moral and sincere…

(This is the end of Part I. Part II will be posted tomorrow.)