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=== Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom ===

=== Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom ===

: ''Main Article: [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]]''

: ''Main Article: [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]]''

The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in 1777<ref>Atkinson, Kathleen (2007). "[http://www.has.vcu.edu/soc/rdr/Culture.groups/VirginiaReligiousLibertyHistory.pdf Early Virginians and Religious Freedom for Americans]." ''Virginia Commonwealth University''. The World Religions in Richmond Project.</ref>, introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779, and on January 16, 1786 enacted into state law through the assistance of [[James Madison]].<ref>''Virginia Historical Society''. "[http://www.vahistorical.org/onthisday/11686.htm 16 January 1786: Statute for Religious Freedom]." On This Day: Legislative Moments in Virginia History.</ref> The legislation is one of only three accomplishments Jefferson instructed be included in his epitaph.<ref>"[http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/brief-biography-thomas-jefferson Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson]." The Jefferson Monticello.</ref> The document expresses Jefferson's view that religion is a matter of individual conscience: {{cquote|An Act for establishing religious Freedom. Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;

The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in 1777<ref>Atkinson, Kathleen (2007). "[http://www.has.vcu.edu/soc/rdr/Culture.groups/VirginiaReligiousLibertyHistory.pdf Early Virginians and Religious Freedom for Americans]." ''Virginia Commonwealth University''. The World Religions in Richmond Project.</ref>, introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779, and on January 16, 1786 enacted into state law through the assistance of [[James Madison]].<ref>''Virginia Historical Society''. "[http://www.vahistorical.org/onthisday/11686.htm 16 January 1786: Statute for Religious Freedom]." On This Day: Legislative Moments in Virginia History.</ref> The legislation is one of only three accomplishments Jefferson instructed be included in his epitaph.<ref>"[http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/brief-biography-thomas-jefferson Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson]." The Jefferson Monticello.</ref> It is often claimed that Jefferson was not Christian but a [[Deist]] and that his use of the term "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence was to a vague concept of a designer or even nature itself.<ref>Voelker, David J. (1993). "[http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr93_1.html Who is Nature's God?]" ''Hanover Historical Review 1''.</ref><ref>Isaacson, Walter (2004, July 5). "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994571,00.html Thomas Jefferson: God of our Fathers]." ''Time Magazine''.</ref> However, such arguments do not mention Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, perhaps because (1) such critics aren't aware of it, or (2) the document very clearly shows Jefferson's beliefs were more refined: {{cquote|An Act for establishing religious Freedom. Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;

That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do}} Since Thomas Jefferson called William Penn "the greatest law giver the world has produced"<ref name=phmc>Ries, Linda A. & Stewart, Jane S. "[http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/DAM/charter/charter.html This Venerable Document]." Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.</ref> it would seem that whatever his beliefs may have become in later years, he derived his original inspiration from the Christian government of William Penn over a century earlier, the [[Province of Pennsylvania]].

That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do}} Since Thomas Jefferson called William Penn "the greatest law giver the world has produced"<ref name=phmc>Ries, Linda A. & Stewart, Jane S. "[http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/DAM/charter/charter.html This Venerable Document]." Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.</ref> it would seem that whatever his beliefs may have become in later years, he derived his original inspiration from the Christian government of William Penn over a century earlier, the [[Province of Pennsylvania]].

==== Autobiography ====

==== Autobiography ====

===Religion===

===Religion===

Jefferson was keenly interested in religion. He was raised in the [[Church of England]] at a time when it was the established church in Virginia and never formally left the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]], and attended church regularly near the end of his life.  It is often claimed that Jefferson was not Christian but a [[Deist]] and that his use of the term "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence was to a vague concept of a designer or even nature itself.<ref>Voelker, David J. (1993). "[http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr93_1.html Who is Nature's God?]" ''Hanover Historical Review 1''.</ref><ref>Isaacson, Walter (2004, July 5). "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994571,00.html Thomas Jefferson: God of our Fathers]." ''Time Magazine''.</ref><ref>David L. Holmes, ''The Faiths of the Founding Fathers''.</ref>  Conservative scholars such as [[David Barton]] point out how Jefferson was a pious orthodox Christian.<ref>Barton, David. ''The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson'' (2012, Thomas Nelson)</ref> Liberal publishing houses, such as Oxford University Press, University of Virginia Press, and Yale University Press, typically deny or downplay Jefferson's Christian beliefs.   

Jefferson was keenly interested in religion. He was raised in the [[Church of England]] at a time when it was the established church in Virginia and never formally left the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]], and attended church regularly near the end of his life.  Despite that, at least one historian who claims that Obama is a Christian nevertheless claims that Jefferson was merely a [[deism|deist]].<ref>David L. Holmes, ''The Faiths of the Founding Fathers''.</ref>  Conservative scholars such as [[David Barton]] point out how Jefferson was a pious orthodox Christian.<ref>Barton, David. ''The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson'' (2012, Thomas Nelson)</ref> Liberal publishing houses, such as Oxford University Press, University of Virginia Press, and Yale University Press, typically deny or downplay Jefferson's Christian beliefs.   

Jefferson did not believe the words of Jesus or any other part of the Bible to be divinely inspired,<ref>[http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl261.htm Letter to William Short, August 4, 1820]</ref> but he considered Jesus a great moral teacher who created "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."<ref>http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/jefferson_m_03.html</ref> Believing that the doctrines of the historical Jesus had been greatly corrupted by ignorant and superstitious "pseudo-followers," Jefferson used a razor and a paste to assemble passages from the Synoptic Gospels into a new book commonly called the ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', omitting references to divinity and miracles. However, he did not necessarily agree with everything that remained, writing, "I read [Jesus's doctrines] as I do those of other antient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent."<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(ws03101)) Letter to William Short, April 13, 1820]</ref>

Jefferson did not believe the words of Jesus or any other part of the Bible to be divinely inspired,<ref>[http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl261.htm Letter to William Short, August 4, 1820]</ref> but he considered Jesus a great moral teacher who created "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."<ref>http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/jefferson_m_03.html</ref> Believing that the doctrines of the historical Jesus had been greatly corrupted by ignorant and superstitious "pseudo-followers," Jefferson used a razor and a paste to assemble passages from the Synoptic Gospels into a new book commonly called the ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', omitting references to divinity and miracles. However, he did not necessarily agree with everything that remained, writing, "I read [Jesus's doctrines] as I do those of other antient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent."<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(ws03101)) Letter to William Short, April 13, 1820]</ref>