Religious Freedom: Jefferson's Legacy, America's Creed

1. THOMAS JEFFERSON’S RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

1 THOMAS JEFFERSON’S RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ,       ,  ferson ’s views on religion and religious freedom continue to occupy the courts and the public. Not only do violent arguments contend with the centrality of Jefferson and his Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom to our understanding of religious liberty, but an almost equally contentious dispute exists on what Jefferson intended by religious freedom. Part of the confusion is generated by a veil that lies over Jefferson’s own religious beliefs, a veil that is not entirely happenstance or the product of historic forgetfulness. Jefferson was adamant about not discussing his religious views publicly, insisting that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship.” His warning to one correspondent—“Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone”—bespeaks a difficult subject for historic inquiry. Late in life he told another that“I never told my own religion,nor scrutinized that of another.” For Jefferson, a number of factors recommended this course: not only was his religion the subject of vicious political attacks—attacks that could not have easily been answered by a more detailed public statement of his own unorthodox beliefs—but he also was deeply suspicious of public, dogmatic statements of faith, especially by those seeking to use religion to promote their political agenda. “[I]t is in our lives,” he explained, “and not from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same test, the world must judge me.”¹ The matter of his personal religious beliefs is further complicated by Jefferson ’s manipulation of terms. For example, he emphatically declared himself a “Christian,” and some authors have been willing to accept that assertion at face    value or, more cynically, to use it to their own ends. What Jefferson said in this regard is considerably more nuanced; he explained that “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” By that he meant that he embraced Jesus’s moral teachings, but he rejected Jesus’s divinity, the resurrection , original sin, the atonement, and the Trinity. Certainly, most modern or eighteenth-century Christians would not accept such a claim to the moniker “Christian.” Jefferson might as correctly have declared “we are all Trinitarians, we are all Unitarians . . .” and expected anyone to agree.² Equally misleading are statements from Jefferson’s political supporters who responded to attacks on his religion by insisting on his orthodoxy, with questionable arguments and authority. For example, during the heated presidential campaign of  that pitted Jefferson against his once and future friend John Adams, one supporter responded to claims of Jefferson’s infidelity by rushing into print Serious Facts including the rather remarkable assertion that Jefferson ’s religious beliefs were “wholly unexceptionable” and that he was “at least as good a christian as Mr. Adams, and in all probability a much better one.” Shortly after the election, another paper referred to“that great Statesman, Patriot and Christian Philosopher Jefferson.” This pattern was to continue long after his death.³ Serious interpretive problems also arise from a tendency to treat the beliefs of the Founding Fathers as if they were set in stone and immutable in their own time, allowing individual quotes or actions to be taken out of context and declared emblematic. Holding historical figures to a higher than human standard may simplify our understanding and analysis, but it is not consistent with the human experience. Beliefs change over time, particularly as people mature. Given the nature of religious inquiry, even with such a powerful mind as Jefferson’s, doubt might well cloud specifics, or what seemed to be clear one day might seem less certain the next. The truth is that Jefferson, like so many others, might lean toward deism on one day, and later be convinced of an active divine providence.This is not to say that he was fickle, only that he was human. Further, in evaluating statements from a very public figure, one should consider whether what was expressed might be a political or legal statement. Founders, like any politicians, learned to speak in an effective public idiom. For example, when in  Jefferson urged the designation of a day of fasting and prayer in Virginia to demonstrate solidarity with Massachusetts’s resistance to Britain’s Intolerable Acts...