A friend flagged a quote that she found on Facebook today pushing back against the idea that Thomas Jefferson should be treated as some kind of hyper-Christian, super-conservative hero of the tea party. I don’t want this post to be a thesis on the political opinions of Thomas Jefferson, so instead I’d simply like to point out several of Jefferson’s writings on the subject of religion. I provide them without commentary, in order for you to best reflect on them without my opinions getting in the way.
“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, & 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 separation between Church & State.” – Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, Jan 1, 1802
“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.” – Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803
“They [Jesus’s teachings] have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatizing followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating and perverting the simple doctrines he taught, by engrafting on them the mysticisms a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, and obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us, which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man. The question of his being a member of the God-head, or in direct communiation with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an estimate of his doctrines.” – Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803
Jefferson wrote frequently on the subject, and these are but a few samples. If you’re interested in Jefferson’s views on this and other issues, Monticello’s website has some good resources for reading.
520 Chestnut 
The tea party is a wing of the GOP. They have tried to coopt the tea party concept to give their minions some kind of cover for disrepecting the office of the presidency. The truth is that the modern tea party is not in a struggle for freedom from tyranny. They are in a struggle for power and using myth to build their brand.
Jefferson writings show a human with intellect that is rarely found today. I resonate with his view of spirituality being a matter of personal freedom and suspicion of the state of christianity and theology in the 18th century.
Of course the tea party would like to co opt the imagery of the founding fathers to attract followers who want something ‘american’.