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Anyone familiar with Mr. Barton's works knows he has as much business calling himself a historian as Alan Alda has calling himself a doctor. As a necessary counterpoint to his writings, allow me to quote Jefferson's actual words on the subject of religion in general, and Christianity in particular. Then decide for yourself who to believe: Barton or Jefferson. "Where did we get the ten commandments? The book indeed gives them to us verbatim. But where did it get them? . . . . the whole history of these books is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been plaid with their text, . . . that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man, and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds." Letter to John Adams (1/24/1814) - page 421 of The Adams-Jefferson Letters (The University of North Carolina Press, 1959). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Letter to John Adams (4/11/1823) - The Adams-Jefferson Letters page 594. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "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." Letter to Doctor Benjamin Rush (4/21/1803) - The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Random House 1972) page 567. Emphasis by Jefferson on the word "human". * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * And speaking of Jesus' doctrines, here's Jefferson's view of the theology ascribed to him: "The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent Moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from the artificial systems,* invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by Him, is a most desirable object, . . . . * E.g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, His deification, the creation of the world by Him, His miraculous powers, His resurrection and visible ascension, His corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc. [Jefferson's note.]" Letter to William Short (10/31/1819) - The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Random House 1972) page 694. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "I can never join Calvin in addressing HIS God. . . . If ever a man worshipped a false God, he did. The Being described in his five points, is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme Him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin." Letter to John Adams (4/11/1823) - The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Random House 1972) page 705 (emphasis by Jefferson). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I could provide numerous more, but I hope this will suffice. The desperate attempt of Mr. Barton (and others like him) to transform Jefferson into an orthodox (if not fundamentalist) Christian is simply a long campaign of half-truths, distortions, and lies. Jefferson was a true "free thinker", with an idiosyncratic view of religion. However, there was one organized faith of his time that he expressed approval of: "I confidently expect that the present generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United States." Letter to James Smith (12/8/1822) - The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Random House 1972) page 704.