Sunday, February 21, 2010

SUNDAY SAYINGS FROM OUR FOUNDERS-Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson

SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; DIPLOMAT; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA; SECRETARY OF STATE; THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses."

6 comments:

Z said...

oh, wait....that "Deist" talked about JESUS? :-)
What a terrific quote, Joe, thanks.
I'm 3/4 of the way through the HBO John Adams series and suddenly I understand our forefathers better than I ever did, so this was particularly good to read today. Thanks.xx

Z said...

oh...I hope you know that's sarcasm in my first sentence...the left's always calling our forefathers, particularly Jefferson, 'deists', but I think you KNOW that :-)

Carnival Future Teller said...

Joe, you are dead on - the Far Left are sickening.
Isn’t it amazing how arrogance and incompetence people like Ms. Kenawe are. She acts as if she rules the blogsphere when she is on her own Blog. But she acts like a crying whining baby here when she re-did my comment and complains that I acted like a dumb Republican nut job. Well Americans are sick and tired of people like her and especially with Obama. We are tired of his socialist policies period! I'm more than sick of it and people have GOT TO WAKE UP and become advocates of what our country was founded on. These far left elitists are KILLING our country and the values we were founded on. Too many hard working Americans have become complacent and think this "change" in our country won't effect them...when it's actually going to DIRECTLY affect them and their every day life. I think it's time to ignore all of these loons, they are the distraction. If it weren’t for the fact that they are doing so much damage to our country, I would advocate ignoring them... but we can’t. We must stop their tearing down America,
Have a great day Joe.

Xavier Onassis said...

Surely you are aware of Thomas Jefferson's Bible?

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/05/local/me-beliefs5

"Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper -- alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin."

Our founding fathers were free thinkers, not dogmatic, fundamentalists.

Joe said...

Z: Not to worry. I understood immediately.

CFT: Thanks for the visit and comment. Take back America we will.

XO: Yes, indeed, I AM aware of the Jefferson Bible. That has nothing to do with his quote or my perception of him.

I make no pretense that Jefferson was a traditional Christian, nor was he a "deist" in the correct sense of the word.

Jefferson was a Unitarian, and as such did not believe in the miracles or deity of Jesus.

Notice, though, that the purpose of the post (often missed by liberals who bring to it their own presuppositions and biases) was not to prove that Jefferson was a Chrsitian, but to show that he was not hostile to the Judeo/Christian background of those who first held office in this new country.

He loved the kindnesses and attitudes of Jesus above those of the leaders of any other "religion."

He wrote: "The Bible is the cornerstone for American liberty." And he put it in our schools.

"Our founding fathers were free thinkers, not dogmatic, fundamentalists."

That is a statement of rank ignorance, although I am sure you have been taught it by somebody who did not know that it is true...it isn't.

Fifty-two of the fifty-five of those counted as founders were active members of a local congregation of Christians.

Every Sunday I document one of them, and have for almost a year.

When a quote does not support traditional Christianity, I include it anyway.

None of the ones who were NOT Christians were hostile toward Christianity or thought Christianity should be excluded from the public arena...NONE OF THEM...NOT ONE.

Hope you are open minded enough to have learned something today, but I will not hold my breath.

Quite Rightly said...

Thanks for this, Joe. I enjoy being reminded of the words of our Founders. Their faith, though diverse, held them on course through very troubled times.

Xavier, you might be surprised to learn of the huge role in the American revolution played by churches, not the least of which was establishing a climate of belief that human freedom is a gift of God that devout Christians were obligated to protect as a matter of religious duty. Yes, people of course had different beliefs about God, but about half of the Founders were graduates of divinity schools.