Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Politics, Religion, The Jefferson Bible and Advice from Thomas Jefferson

Many individuals will think that politics and religion have only been seriously mixing it up in elections over the past six or seven decades, when in fact politics and religion have been mixing it up since America’s founding.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting op-ed on this subject titled Jefferson’s Bible, which notes that Thomas Jefferson himself was attacked for his religious beliefs due to statements he made in his book Notes on the State of Virginia during the elections of 1800.

The op-ed then seques into the history of Jefferson’s book The Jefferson Bible itself, of which I have this particular linked volume, and it is an interesting little read and compilation, as is the op-ed.

But it was this advice, noted in the op-ed, Jefferson offered in his previously mentioned work, Notes on the State of Virginia, which I wanted to put down here.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Additionally, there is this thought which Jefferson shared in correspondence with John Adams.

...on the subject of religion, a subject on which I have been most scrupulously reserved.  I have considered it as a matter between every man and his maker in which no other, and far less the public had a right to inter-meddle.

Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Bible - The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Boston, MA, Beacon Press, 1989, Introduction pg.22

Link to op-ed via Claire Wolfe’s Monday miscellany

Posted by John Venlet on 01/11 at 01:11 PM
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