| Commentary From Dr. Kennedy |
| The ACLU’s Worst Nightmare |
| Thomas
Jefferson, as we all know, was a skeptic, a man so hostile to
Christianity that he cut all references to miracles out of his
Bible. He was, as the Freedom From Religion Foundation tells us,
“a Deist, opposed to orthodox Christianity and the
supernatural.” Or was he? While Jefferson has been lionized by those who seek to drive religion from public life, the true Thomas Jefferson is anything but their friend. He was anything but irreligious, anything but an enemy to Christian faith. Our nation’s third president was in fact a student of Scripture, who attended church regularly, and was an active member of the Anglican Church, where he served on his local vestry. He was married in church, sent his children and a nephew to a Christian school, and gave his money to support many different congregations and Christian causes. Moreover, his Notes on Religion, nine documents Jefferson wrote in 1776, are “very orthodox statements about the inspiration of Scripture and Jesus as the Christ,” according to Mark Beliles, a Providence Foundation scholar and author of an enlightening essay on Jefferson’s religious life. And what about the Jefferson Bible, that miracles-free version of the Scriptures? That, too, is a myth. It is not a Bible, but an abridgement of the Gospels created by Jefferson in 1804 for the benefit of the Indians. There is no evidence that it was an expression of his skepticism. But didn’t Jefferson believe in the complete separation of church and state? Here again the record tells a different story. For the ACLU, Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, proves its claim that the First Amendment is an eviction notice for all religious expression in public life. But if that’s so, why, two days after he wrote that letter citing the First Amendment’s creation of a wall of separation between church and state, did President Jefferson attend public worship services in the U.S. Capitol building, something he did throughout his two terms in office? And why did he authorize the use of the War Office and the Treasury building for church services in Washington, D.C.? Indeed, many of Jefferson’s presidential actions would, if done today, send the ACLU marching into court. He signed legislation that gave land to Indian missionaries, put chaplains on the government payroll, and provided for the punishment of irreverent 
soldiers. He also sent Congress an Indian treaty that set aside
money for a priest’s salary and for the construction of a
church. Most intriguing is the manner in which Jefferson dated official documents. Instead of “in the year of our Lord,” Jefferson used the phrase “in the year of our Lord Christ.” Christian historian David Barton has proof—an original document signed by Jefferson on the “eighteenth day of October in the year of our Lord Christ, 1804.” The Supreme Court ruled in 1947 that Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state “must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” Judging from the record, it looks like the wall that some say Tom built is, in fact, the wall Tom breached. The real Thomas Jefferson, it turns out, is the ACLU’s worst nightmare. |