Tuesday, July 05, 2005
The latest meme on conservative political blogs is to suggest that Thomas Jefferson said the Constitution should not be treated by "activist judges"'as a "thing of wax." (Tell that to them when they want to add flag burning and gay marriage amendments.) But I digress. ... Were these other actual thoughts from Jefferson making the rounds of the blogoshere it might incite a movement to remove Jefferson (along with that homosexual Abe Lincoln) from Mt. Rushmore (and put up Reagan and the other oft suggested giant granite head, Elvis):
“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.” — Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808).
"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”– Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808).
“The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.” — Thomas Jefferson, to Jeremiah Moor, 1800
“No man [should] be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor [should he] be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor … otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief … All men [should] be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and … the same [should] in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” — Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.
“We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.” — Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Religion, 1776.
“The declaration that religious faith shall be unpunished does not give immunity to criminal acts dictated by religious error.” — Thomas Jefferson, to James Madison
“I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.” — Thomas Jefferson, notes for a speech, ca. 1776
“I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshiped by many who think themselves Christians.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price from Paris, January 8, 1789.
“My aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is granted in reading every other historian…. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, August 4, 1820
“Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush. 21 April 1803
“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.” — Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808).
"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”– Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808).
“The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.” — Thomas Jefferson, to Jeremiah Moor, 1800
“No man [should] be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor [should he] be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor … otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief … All men [should] be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and … the same [should] in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” — Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.
“We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.” — Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Religion, 1776.
“The declaration that religious faith shall be unpunished does not give immunity to criminal acts dictated by religious error.” — Thomas Jefferson, to James Madison
“I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.” — Thomas Jefferson, notes for a speech, ca. 1776
“I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshiped by many who think themselves Christians.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price from Paris, January 8, 1789.
“My aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is granted in reading every other historian…. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, August 4, 1820
“Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush. 21 April 1803
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