This is an email I received from a college professor who questions my characterization of Thomas Jefferson as a Deist in my piece Evil.

             Mr. Duke:

I teach college English (composition and literature) in a small
college
in the mountains of western N.C.  I read NewsWithViews
articles
religiously.  I most often like and find general agreement with
your
articles especially.  However, in your recent article entitled
"Evil"
dated Oct. 18, 2007, I find an gross inaccuracy to which I
must
respond.

You say that God "can prevent the immeasurable pain and
suffering we
inflict on one another with the blink of an eternal eye.  Why
doesn’t He
do it?  Perhaps this problem is what caused people such as
Thomas
Jefferson to embrace deism, the belief that God set the Universe
in
motion but then receded into the background, indifferent to
our
plight."

Mr. Duke, Thomas Jefferson was NOT a deist.  He was a
Christian and he
says so more than once in his own words.  Others, too, have
evidence to
support this contention.  For instance,

"Moreover, his
‘Notes on Religion,’ nine documents Jefferson wrote in
1776, are ‘very
orthodox statements about the inspiration of Scripture
and Jesus as the
Christ,’ according to Mark Beliles, a Providence
Foundation scholar and
author of an enlightening essay on Jefferson’s
religious life."  (as quoted
by D. James Kennedy in a June 2002 article
for WND).

Also, in
Jefferson’s own words, we have the following:

"I am a real Christian,
that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of
Jesus." [Letter to Benjamin
Rush April 21, 1803]

“It [the Bible] is a document in proof that I am a
real Christian,
that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of
Jesus."
[Jan 9, 1816 Letter to Charles Thomson]

Not only these
examples, Mr. Duke, but we have numerous documents which
support the fact
that Jefferson prayed both in private and in public.

Now, why would a Deist
pray?  To whom would a Deist pray?  If God has
removed Himself from this
realm, and is no longer actively involved in
Earth’s doings, then He is not
present to receive prayers, according to
Deistic thinking.  It is tantamount
to a lone apartment dweller
returning home to his empty dwelling after a hard
day of classes and/or
work, opening the apartment door, and heartily
announcing, "I’m home !"
Alas, to no one there.  To whom would such an apt
dweller be speaking?
Just the same, to whom would a Deist be praying? 
Simple logic, it
appears, would lead us to the conclusion that since (A) 
Jefferson
prayed to God (in public and in private), and (B) Jefferson
states
openly that he is a Christian, therefore, (C) Jefferson could not
have
been a Deist.

I find it disturbing that those of us who are
fortunate enough to be
able to reach such a vast audience as is accessible
through such
esteemed media as NewWithViews.com might disseminate such
inaccuracies
because too many of our public already believe that Jefferson
was a
Deist, and because so many of us believe in what you say, now, many
of
us are misinformed about the true Thomas Jefferson.  I am
disappointed,
Sir, but such an error will not stop my reading your articles. 
I just
wish you could issue a correction so that yet another of our
Founding
Fathers is not unnecessarily vilified.

Thank you for
indulging this old mind.

Ren Decatur
English Dept.
A-B Tech Comm.
College
Asheville, NC

Dear Professor Decatur,

Thank you for writing and for your input.  I certainly realize that
much propaganda has been peddled with regard to the Founding Fathers’
faith.  There are many who wish to cast them as having been indifferent
to Christianity — if not hostile toward it — for the purposes of
facilitating the denuding of the public square of Christian expression
and symbols.   Why, there are those who would have us believe that all
the founders were Deists, a truly preposterous assertion.  There were
56 Founding Fathers, 27 of whom were trained as ministers; moreover,
virtually all belonged to mainstream denominations.

However, it was my understanding that Jefferson was an exception, as
one of the few Deists among them.  To say the least, I have certainly
heard conflicting information about him.

Having said this, I know the propaganda is thick and can be hard to
slice through; thus, I know I’m not immune from falling victim to
misinformation.  So, I’m open to what you say.   However, I
still consider the issue open to debate.

But let’s analyze one quotation.  Jefferson said,

"I am a real Christian,
that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."

This can be taken two ways.  It could mean that he had faith in Christ,
but it could also mean something else.  Note that he did not say he was
a disciple of Jesus; rather, he said he was a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.  One could say — and I do not present this as a firm position but
rather as food for thought — that this sounds much like what today’s
liberals might assert when being scornful of authentic Christians.  "Why, I believe in what Jesus actually taught, like when He told us to
be peaceful, loving and to help the poor," secularists may say, with
the implication that traditional believers don’t actually practice
Christianity. 

Again, I don’t say that this was definitely his meaning; I just want to
be fair.  I don’t want to take a leaf out of the leftists’ book and hew
to a belief simply because it accords with my agenda or satisfies me
emotionally.  This is a common frailty of man, and we all should be on
guard for it.

But you may be correct, Professor Decatur, and I welcome you and
anyone else to post information here that may shed further light on the
matter.  After all, everyone is supposed to be learning every day, and
shining the light of Truth on issues is what we do here. 

God bless you,

Selwyn Duke