Thomas Jefferson?

[Mama Bird]

Did you know he was a Deist, not a true Christian? I never knew that. My DD is up to the Revolutionary War in her history study...and they mentioned that Jefferson was a great man, but not a Christian.

Where have I been? :shrug

[hearttender4]

I had no idea! That's a neat advantage of using a Christian history program.

[Sara]

I had no idea, either! I have a feeling *I'm* going to be learning a lot as I homeschool my children. :)

[lumpofclay]

I'm with Sara! I've already learned so much from homeschooling! All this time, I thought I Had gotten a good education too! :/

[ArmsOfLove]

I love learning with my kids. :)

I did know that about Jefferson--but I do believe he had a great respect for Christians. I certainly don't believe he was hostile. The big difference as I understand it between deists and Christians is that deists believe(d) that God created and then backed away while Christians believe God is still active in our lives--both believe in God. Of course that's a very remedial explanation.

[Katigre]

Another thing about deism (and the Enlightenment era in general, which is what deism grew from and is a philosophical movement that HUGELY influenced the founding fathers of the USA), is a disbelief in the supernatural and a huge glorification of man's reason. So they were fine with the moral teachings of religion, but the emphasis on the spiritual world, miracles, etc... was considered irrational

(you can see this in Jefferson's 'version 'of the new testament where he took out anything supernatural that Christ did. I have read some 'christian history' that say J was a christian and cut up scripture this way b/c he was going to use it for evangelism among the native americans, but that doesn't even make sense since the NA's had a strong belief in the supernatural. It's just an example of evangelical revisionism).

[TestifyToLove]

Yup, knew that about Jefferson. Knew quite a bit more about him too. Actually, according to the curators at Monticello, Jefferson had a sort of love-hate relationship with Christians. Like modern times, he had great respect for Christians who truly lived their faith. Sadly, his opinion of most 'Christians' was that they didn't truly walk the walk and therefore held them in great contempt. Not quite as much contempt as Benjamin Franklin did I would guess, but contempt none the less.

That's okay. My ability to respect Jefferson goes downhill when I realize that basically he kept his common law WIFE enslaved and didn't grant freedom to his OWN CHILDREN until his death, despite all of his great philosophical ideas about the inherent evil nature of the institute of slavery. His quandry is a constant reminder to me that even great men are still very much human, with all of our frailities. I've always had great compassion for his mistress that he refused to free, though he co-habited with her for nearly 20 years.

I was very pleased to see that Monticello was forced to acknowledge his mistress between when I visited there as a teen and when I was last there a few years ago. I guess those DNA tests forced everyone to accept that he truly DID father his bi-racial children afterall.

[milkmommy]

Yes I new.. Learned in School. Suprised its not common knowlege??? Of couse I bet if I walked in the local Junior high and just asked a 6th grade class to point out a picture of him I'd get a lot of blank stares.. SAD, sad, sad..


Deanna