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Separating The Myth From The Truth:
Jefferson Did Not Abolish Religion In America
By Lisa
Richards
January 1, 2010
“I am a Christian, that is to say, I am a follower of Jesus Christ”
Thomas Jefferson
Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States, or the Declaration of
Independence, will
the words “wall of separation of church and state be
found.” There is only one place those written
words can be found and one
reason why; the words are in a personal letter to the pastor of the
Danbury Baptists.
The reason for Jefferson’s “wall of separation”
metaphor—and it is just that, a metaphor—was
securing “freedom of
religion,” not from it. It was a promise that government cannot remove
God
from government or state, nor can government force a state religion
upon the people, who, at that time, feared such tyranny
and the removal of
religious practices in each state.
On October 7, 1801, the Danbury Baptists wrote President
Jefferson, asking
for an actual definition of the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Religion,”
stating:
Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that
religion
and places is at all times and places a matter between God and
individuals…But sir, our Constitution
of government is not specific…And
such has been our laws…that religion is considered as the first
object
of Legislation, and therefore what religious privileges we enjoy…we
enjoy as favors granted,
and not as inalienable rights…as are consistent
with the rights of freemen. It is not to be wondered…if
those who seek
after power and gain, under the pretense of Religion, should reproach
their fellow men…as
an enemy of religion, law, or good order, because he
will not…assume the prerogative of Jehovah and make
laws to govern the
Kingdom of Christ. Sir, we are sensible that the President of the
United States is
not the National Legislator…and that the national
government cannot destroy the laws of each state…
Reading carefully, one can easily notice concern that America might fall
under a tyrannical government in which
state religion would become the
hierarchy as was in England, that the right to worship Christ would be
removed and
forbidden. In England, those who did not follow the Church of
England were condemned. The Danbury Baptists
wanted proof they indeed had“Freedom of Religion.” They also wanted to know if it applied to
individual
states, rights to practice the faith of their choosing, or
would legislature, or worse, the president, step in and forcibly
render
Christian religion unlawful?
Jefferson’s January 1, 1802 response does not take an education
in law or
Political Science to understand he never removed God or religion from
government or public:
Believing
with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between
man and his God, that he owes account to none other for
his faith or his
worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only,
and not opinions (government
has no right to interfere with Christianity
as it is doing today), I contemplate with sovereign reverence (supreme
ruler, worship and awe) that act of the whole American people which
declared that their legislature would “make
no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus
building a
wall of separation between Church and State.
“Wall of separation” is, as mentioned above, a metaphor,
not law. But the
metaphor has been grossly distorted by Atheists and secularists determined
to outlaw God
and Christianity in America.
Jefferson’s letter explained that the Signers and Framers promised freedom
to practice religion without Legislature, Executive, and courts,
interfering and removing natural rights Jefferson
believed came from God,
whom faith is owed.
The metaphor “wall of separation” simply means government
can’t impose its
will upon Christians as King George had by the divine right of kings. The
First Amendment
places boundaries between man and government, governmentcannot break. It guarantees freedom to worship God without penalty
and
imprisonment, something the first Americans faced in Holland before
sailing to America.
Jefferson
promised he would secure the rights of Christians and protect
religious practice from laws that would seek to undo “natural
rights:”
belief in God.
Is Religion and God Illegal Under Constitution Law?
Today Americans
are in a battle to secure natural rights Jefferson felt
should be protected by a “wall” legislators have
no right to tear down.
Nowhere in the Constitution does it state we lack rights to erect
religious symbols in public
places. If that were true, the entire Capital
city of D.C. would not serve as a monument to Christ. But the
ACLU is
fighting to remove every Christian symbol from the Capital and President
Obama will not stand with the people
and fight the ACLU to save our
Christian heritage.
Jefferson would be appalled to know his metaphorical abstract
has been
misused to run out of America. For it was Jefferson who wrote to Dr.
Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803
in a letter titled “The Morals Of Jesus,”
stating he wanted to clarify people’s opinions of his personal
belief in
God, he considered “…very different from the anti-Christian system imputed
to me by those
who know nothing of my opinions.” Jefferson further stated
he felt some had abused God’s message, something
he was against: “To the
corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine
precepts (teachings
and principles) of Jesus himself. I am a Christian,
in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely attracted
to his
doctrines, in preference to all others…”
Ironically, Jefferson wrote to Rush that “…in
confiding to you, I know it
(my Christian beliefs) will not be exposed to the malignant perversions of
those who
make every word from me a text for new misrepresentations &
calamities.”
How ominous those words
are 200 years later: Atheists have twisted and
perverted Jefferson’s words, his beliefs, and love of Christ, whom
he did
not want, separated from America.
On January 23, 1808, Jefferson told Reverend Samuel Miller in a letter
titled “Religious Freedom” that “every religious society has a right to
determine for itself the
times for” religious practices, “and this right
can never be safer than in their (the people) own hands,
where the
constitution has deposited it.”
Thomas Jefferson’s words have not disappeared, they
exist in the books
Jefferson’s Writings. It is America’s educational system and government
that
ignore Jefferson’s words, because, to open them and read them proves
America was indeed founded on God by Godly
men whose intentions was a
nation built on God’s natural laws, not those of men.
Lisa Richards Copyright
©™ January 1, 2009 All Rights Reserved
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