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He That Has Ears To Hear, Let Him Hear  (Matthew 11:15-30)
Challenging both secular wisdom and religious doctrines. - Will our descendants know moral virtue?

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Thomas Jefferson
Learn how the ACLU and others have many deceived.
See how Thomas Jefferson himself blatantly "violated" the "separation of church and state" attributed to him.

Last Updated Wednesday November 26, 2008 10:13 PM -0500

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens....There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books." Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Melish, 13 January 1813)

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."  Thomas Jefferson (letter to Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787) Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle, 111. (http://PatriotPost.US/histdocs/)

"He was certainly one of the most learned men of the age.  It may be said of him as has been said of others that he was a "walking Library," and what can be said of but few such prodigies, that the Genius of Philosophy ever walked hand in hand with him." James Madison (on Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Harrison Smith, 4 November 1826) Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Hunt, ed., vol. 9 (260-61)

(Also see Leaders, Founder's Quotes & more & Warnings from the wise)

 
"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition." Thomas Jefferson (Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 15 February 1791)

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem. Thomas Jefferson, January 1, 1802.

Thomas Jefferson warned of severing our religious foundation from freedom.  He said, "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?  That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?"

"I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to Whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

"Separation of Church and State" the misunderstood and miss-applied statement from Thomas Jefferson has resulted in liberals judges, the ACLU and other groups, have been able to deceive many and distort the Constitution and original intension of the First Amendment of our Founding Fathers. Jefferson's statement was in a letter to a group of Baptists in Connecticut, who were concerned about the the government breaching their religious freedom and the affairs of the Church. Click here to see the letter and how many have been duped.

Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785) Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (814-815) "Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a  dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you... From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death."

Click here for "Monticello, The Home of Thomas Jefferson"

Commentary From Dr. D. James Kennedy

Thomas Jefferson, as well 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 tell 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 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 on 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 tear 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, is the ACLU's worst nightmare.

American Minute with Bill Federer

April 13th: He drafted the Declaration of Independence and was Governor of Virginia. As the 3rd U.S. President, he approved the Louisiana Purchase and had Lewis and Clark explore it. His name was Thomas Jefferson, born APRIL 13, 1743.

Excerpts of his writings are inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever." In his 2nd Inaugural, Jefferson wrote: "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old."

January 16: Jefferson's Article of Religious Freedom, which he commemorated on his tombstone, was passed this day, JANUARY 16, 1786, in the Virginia Assembly. In it, Jefferson wrote:

"Almighty God hath created the mind free, and...all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments...tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone."

In his Second Inaugural Address, 1805, Jefferson wrote:

"In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government."

In 1808, Jefferson wrote to Samuel Miller:

"I consider the government of the United States as prohibited by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises... Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets."