Thomas Jefferson warned us about today's GOP

[NJMaverick]

[Treestar]

Makes one wonder about those right wingers who insist that the phrase is not in the Constitution. Honestly, what do they not get about the fact that separation of church and state is a good thing for their own religion as well?

[Drunken Irishman]

His reasoning was also used by the Supreme Court to uphold the idea of separation of church and state - as noted in Reynolds v. United States.

[Dimwitted Fool]

curiously, the first sentence of that paragraph was omitted:

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual."

Be that as it may, I'm constantly bemused by pretty much everyone using Jefferson's words to prove their points. He grew up in the Anglican Church but dropped them as soon as he could. He and Adams spent years getting the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom passed after the Revolution when Virgina was toying with religious loyalty tests similar to the requirement to support the Anglican Church when they were a colony. And he was adamant about NO taxes going to support churches.

As much as he toyed with Unitarianism, denied the divinity or mysticism of Christ, and despised traditional dogma he still considered himself to be a Christian, albeit one of a decidedly different sort than most. I haven't read much of the Jefferson Bible, but the idea that he wanted to edit out the miracles and all the Son of God stuff is fascinating in itself-- Jesus as just a heroic character, stripped of all his godliness. But, he never seemed to accept the idea of no God at all, just one that never bothered much in our affairs.

[There Is No Spoon]

(04-23-2012 12:58 AM)Dimwitted Fool Wrote:  curiously, the first sentence of that paragraph was omitted:

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual."

Be that as it may, I'm constantly bemused by pretty much everyone using Jefferson's words to prove their points. He grew up in the Anglican Church but dropped them as soon as he could. He and Adams spent years getting the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom passed after the Revolution when Virgina was toying with religious loyalty tests similar to the requirement to support the Anglican Church when they were a colony. And he was adamant about NO taxes going to support churches.

As much as he toyed with Unitarianism, denied the divinity or mysticism of Christ, and despised traditional dogma he still considered himself to be a Christian, albeit one of a decidedly different sort than most. I haven't read much of the Jefferson Bible, but the idea that he wanted to edit out the miracles and all the Son of God stuff is fascinating in itself-- Jesus as just a heroic character, stripped of all his godliness. But, he never seemed to accept the idea of no God at all, just one that never bothered much in our affairs.

Yes, he was an interesting man, far from anything the right-wingers would like to believe based on a few isolated comments about fighting to keep our freedom. If anything, he would be encouraging liberals to bloody the tree of liberty with right-wing blood - that I'm relatively certain of.

I have a printed copy of the Jefferson Bible. Frankly, it's no more readable that the regular Bible, but it's fascinating that he considered Jesus as more of the ultimate ethical teacher than a supernatural being. Jefferson could just as easily be a reform Jew as a Unitarian - point is he was nothing like the right-wing "in your face" religious psychopaths of today.