Bill Thomas of Prairie Public Radio is this week’s host of a live performance of the Thomas Jefferson Hour in Fargo North Dakota. The subject Bill chose to speak about with President Jefferson (as portrayed by humanities scholar Clay S. Jenkinson) is religion.
“The Trinity is a concept that virtually wrecks Christianity for me.”
“The church can corrupt our statemanship and the state can corrupt religion; they should be kept separate. They're entirely different things.”
“The Scottish Enlightenment said that the moral sense is like a calf muscle. You're born with one. If you train it, you can run a marathon. Education is the ethical training to strengthen that muscle.”
1776 Club: Was Thomas Jefferson a Christian?
Clay & David recap Clay's performances at the Fargo Theatre in Fargo, ND with guest host Bill Thomas of Prairie Public Radio. The two shows, taped in front of a live audience, will be broadcast in the upcoming weeks. The first is on the subject of religion. On this 1776 Club episode, Clay & David tackle one of the most-discussed questions on this topic: was Thomas Jefferson a Christian? Find out on the blog.
Also discussed is Thomas Jefferson's letter of January 1st, 1802 to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptist Association. Clay mentions that the original line, regarding church and state, is not just a "wall of separation" but a wall of eternal separation. You can read about the letter and see its full text from the Library of Congress. Jefferson, from his letter:
Believing with you 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, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" thus building a wall of eternal separation between Church & State.
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What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
“The public, in my view, have no right to ask about my religious sensibilities any more than they would have the right to invade your privacy and ask about yours.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
This episode's guest host is Bill Thomas of Prairie Public Radio. The recording was made live at the Fargo Theatre in Fargo, ND.
President Jefferson returns to discuss the famous letter he wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists association saying it was not the duty of government to do anything that might be interpreted as the establishment of religion. In this letter, he used the famous phrase "wall of separation between church and state." Jefferson explains that the first amendment of the Constitution states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
"I often went to house parties during this period and engaged in the convivialities of youth."
— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson
This week, Clay takes a deeper look at Jefferson and religion. Jefferson considered the teachings of Jesus as having "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man," but he felt that the pure teachings of Jesus were inaccurately appropriated by some of the early followers of Jesus which led to a Bible that had both "diamonds" of wisdom and the "dung" of ancient political agendas.
On August 20th, 1814, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from Miles King expressing King’s concerns for Jefferson’s eternal soul. King wrote, “And now permit me to ask dear Sir, are you not an old man well stricken in years, and laden with the highest honors that a grateful country can bestow? But what will these avail you in a dying hour?” We speak with President Jefferson this week about that letter and Jefferson’s reply to it.