tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post8650086803608717062..comments2024-03-12T12:23:10.033-04:00Comments on Secular Perspectives: My Birthday Wish For Thomas Jefferson:Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-22529941784294741372011-04-14T08:59:17.095-04:002011-04-14T08:59:17.095-04:00I'm a real fan of Jefferson so I was glad to r...I'm a real fan of Jefferson so I was glad to read the posting. Below is a quote on the founders as Infidels from a 19th century historian.<br /><br />"The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected [Washington; Adams; Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Adams; Jackson] not a one had professed a belief in Christianity....“ -- The Reverend Doctor Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, NY, in a sermon preached in October, 1831Gary Berg-Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00104267265989624672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-22286663011828868372011-04-14T07:37:05.780-04:002011-04-14T07:37:05.780-04:00Can you really say he spent years doing it? I was...Can you really say he spent years doing it? I was under the impression he did the first version in a night or two in 1803 in the White House (I believe the detritus remaining from his careful cutting is in the library at UVa).<br />A decade later he went at it again with a little more care, but I am still pretty sure it didn't take him that long.<br /><br />What strikes me is how he very probably came close to the original Q document - a collection of the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395896381241263582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-30592902059561107662011-04-14T05:19:38.837-04:002011-04-14T05:19:38.837-04:00Around the time Jefferson was constructing his &qu...Around the time Jefferson was constructing his "Bible" (1813) there had been extensive evangelizing and camp meetings sponsored by Methodist and Baptist traveling preachers, in Kentucky and Tennessee, from research I have done, and probably other places as well. These preachers did not have the extensive training of the Presbyterians, and he may have been concerned at the level of biblical ignorance of these evangelists.<br /><br />Today we are seeing similar levels of ignorance in the Right's current attack on women's health and right of choice in reproductive planning. It appears that there is now a Taliban Wing to the Tea Party movement which is as hostile to basic female freedom as are the Muslim extremists. Keep them poor and pregnant, and prevent abortion while also eliminating safe, effective pregnancy planning. I wonder what Jefferson would think of today's religious arguments.leah williamsnoreply@blogger.com