{"id":6847,"date":"2012-01-22T17:49:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T17:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=6847"},"modified":"2012-01-22T17:49:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T17:49:47","slug":"twisting-thomas-jefferson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/twisting-thomas-jefferson\/","title":{"rendered":"Twisting Thomas Jefferson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Occasions such as the National Prayer Breakfast<\/a> are not the sort of thing that I spend a lot of (or any) time worrying about. If that’s what politicians want to show up to a harmless, by now somewhat traditional, civic ritual, that’s fine. It’s a free country. But it seems like the people organizing this event are not above bearing a little false (or misleading) witness, and that’s a shame:<\/p>\n

Doubting Thomas at Secular News Daily<\/em> takes up the story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s invitation…is festooned with quotes from presidents lauding the role of the Bible in public life.<\/p>\n

Among those quoted is Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn extracting the pure principles which Jesus taught,\u201d the Jefferson quote says, \u201cwe should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled\u2026. there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you read the quote without knowing its origins, it looks like Jefferson is praising the teachings of Jesus. And in the context of the prayer breakfast program, there is the implication that these teachings should be integrated into government policy.<\/p>\n

Jefferson was praising Jesus \u2013 sort of. He was praising his personal interpretation of Jesus. And that Jesus is one the Family and its Religious Right allies would never acknowledge or accept.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 13, 1813, Jefferson wrote a lengthy letter to his friend John Adams, outlining his latest project. It involved cutting up copies of the New Testament and tossing all of the stuff about Jesus that Jefferson did not accept \u2013 mainly claims of his divinity and the miracles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn extracting the pure principles which he [Jesus] taught,\u201d Jefferson wrote, \u201cwe should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves\u2026.We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus\u2026. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson went on to write, \u201cI have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated doctrines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prayer Breakfast invitation \u2013 currently circulating on Capitol Hill \u2014 thus selectively edits Jefferson\u2019s passage to remove his criticism of greedy, power-hungry clergy and cover up his Bible-cutting project…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasions such as the National Prayer Breakfast are not the sort of thing that I spend a lot of (or any) time worrying about. If that’s what politicians want to show up to a harmless, by now somewhat traditional, civic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[746],"tags":[883,884,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6850,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions\/6850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}