Jefferson’s Bible

When a new member of Congress is sworn in, they are given a copy of Jefferson’s Bible: otherwise known as, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth! It is thusly called the “Congressional Bible”. Pat Robertson and otehr right wing Christian leaders and groups mention it’s prominence in the governmental process. What they fail to say is how just the opposite it is of the Christianity that they proclaim and preach.

Jefferson was not anything like the fundamentalists, theists, and right wing Christians of today. Hardly!

Jefferson is quoted as saying that “I have despised clergymen all my adult life” and a year before his death described himself as a Unitarian. But, let’s let the Jefferson Bible speak for itself and then you can drawn whatever conclusions you’d like.

>Jefferson omitted the entire Old Testament as not relevant
>Jefferson gave one account of Jesus, leaving out all the duplications of the gospels.
>Jefferson threw out all of the miraculous acts of Jesus as unrealistic
>Jefferson omitted ther Acts or the Apostles, Epistles, and Revelation
>Jefferson left out the resurrection and ends with Jesus being laid in a tomb.

Wonder why Pat Robertson doesn’ mention those points?

The truth is that our founding fathers were diests, not theists, and yet maintaining spiritual integrity. They were inclusivists, not exclusivists. They were attracted to the love of Jesus and not the law of Paul.

And they would be horrified by the representations made of them by the far right fundamentalists of our day. For them, love is freedom and Jesus was the epitome of both.

Adams was a Unitarian, Franklin detested church dogma, Washington oppossed the strict church authority, Madison flet that each individual should decide upon God on their own, and so on. Don’t get me wrong. Our nation was founded on the principles of God- but not the law-God preached by many denominations, but the love-God preached by Jesus. They were more universalists than strict denominationalists.

We need to get back to Jesus and His God- abba Father!