Presidents Christmas Special

It's that time of year and it's a good time to reflect on some of the interesting facts on the religious views of our past presidents.

Many on both sides of the political spectrum like to use the dead to serve the political ends of the living, but the truth is often more interesting than legend.

Some quick tidbits:

George Washington outlawed the practice of burning an effigy of the pope on Guy Fawkes day when he was trying to build support of his revolution among French Catholics in the north and Canadian territories.

John Adams was a Unitarian, a religion that even now is considered a sort of Hollywood type church. He was originally going to be a preacher, but left to pursue the practice of law which he believed was a higher calling.

Thomas Jefferson considered Jesus to be the greatest philosopher of all time, but rejected his divinity and miracles. He went as far as creating his own rational bible in which he blacked out all the miracles and had the gospels end with the stone being rolled in front of Jesus' tomb.

James Polk's father was a deist and much of his views on religious tolerance were formed when his minister refused to baptize him unless his father converted.

Andrew Jackson was heavily influenced by Old Testament teachings and would frequently refer to enemies as worshipers of Baal or Mammon.

20% (11) of the US Presidents were Episcopalian even though they only comprise 1.7% of the current US Population.

Christmas was not even a national holiday in the United States until Ulysses S. Grant declared it as such in 1870.

With that in mind- remember that history is never as clear cut as you think!

Merry Christmas-

Paul

Thomas Jefferson: More on Religion

In his own words- what he thought of Christianity:

"To the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other."

(Never published, but found in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson)

Thomas Jefferson: Views on Religion

In an age where Protestants were burning effigies of the Pope and Catholics were very recently burning Protestants, it's amazing that Thomas Jefferson held the views he did.

We live in a time where even the Clintons must go to church regularly to show themselves as good citizens and it's not a real controversial idea that government funds go to 'faith based' (Christian) initiatives. It goes without saying that in Jefferson's day- the religious fervor of the masses burned even hotter.

Everything tended to be pro religion, just in different ways ie. would you be for the religious orthodoxy (Catholic or Anglican depending on where you're from) or be against the orthodoxy (Puritan or Methodist Evangelical). But the basis of the argument was who represented religious Truth, not if religion was Truth.

So the fact that Jefferson in the evenings while a sitting president and later in retirement went through the Gospels of the Bible and cut out all the 'superstition' (miracles) sort of blows my mind. Among the things he removed were the Virgin birth, water in to wine, walking on water etc. His bible ends with the rock being rolled in front of the tomb and never moving again.

In his view, the death of Jesus was a powerful scene, just one more in the tradition of Socrates drinking hemlock because he didn't want to ignore the laws of Athens after he had been accused of corrupting the youth.

Jefferson wasn't an Atheist either though like his French Revolutionary contemporaries that razed churches and built 'temples of reason'. His faith was in the general goodness of mankind and he didn't need a crutch to find purpose in life.

What do you think it says about the times we live in that the single biggest slur against Barack Obama was that he wasn't a Christian?