melnick@unc.UUCP (Alex Melnick) (09/18/86)
George Washington once said that the idea that the U.S. was a Christian nation was simply wrong. Thomas Jefferson was NOT a Christian; he was a Deist who believed that the Universe was created by an invisible, impersonal, impersonifiable (is there such a word?) God. He didn't believe in the Bible and was often attacked as an atheist. His original draft of the Declaration of Independance was notable for lacking any mention of God or the supernatural, and at one point he threatened not to sign the Declaration because of the (very mild) references which were added. Thomas Paine was an avowed atheist. James Madison, who wrote much of the Constitution and who, with Jefferson, was largely responsible for the Bill of Rights, was opposed to having a chaplain in the Senate, suggesting that it violated the separation of church and state. Both Washington and John Adams were uncertain as to the propriety of the President attending church, fearing they might be violating the first amendment; Jefferson simply didn't go. What would Jefferson have thought of the 19th-Century Christianity which produced so many of the quotes in the last installment of this sermon? What would he have thought of a president who tried to convert another head of state to Christianity*? What would he think of Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertston trying to turn this into a "Christian nation"? As Gerald Ford once said (of Lincoln, but that's another story), "If [he] were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave." --Alex ...!mcnc!unc!melnick *Jimmy Carter once tried to convert the president of South Korea, a devout Buddhist, during a summit meeting in Seoul. "It would be nice to walk upon the water, To talk again with angels at my side." --Alice Cooper