Month: July 2012

BeliefNet Promotes The Jefferson Lies

I was surprised to see this Jefferson and the Bible gallery at BeliefNet. The first page cites David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies, which is never a good beginning.

This morning I wrote BeliefNet and asked them to correct what was wrong which would in effect mean removing most of it. I have no reason to think that they will not be responsive. Many well-meaning people read Mr. Barton’s materials and think they have discovered hidden truth. I suspect the BeliefNet folks have simply not checked the sources.  Here, with a little editing, is what I sent to them. Feel free to contact them as well or leave a comment at the bottom of the pages.

I am writing to offer comment and suggest that you modify or remove the gallery about Thomas Jefferson and the Bible. The web address is here: http://www.beliefnet.com/News/ElectionCenter/Gallery/Urban-Myths-About-Thomas-Jefferson.aspx.

Along with a colleague I have written a book (Getting Jefferson Right) which responds to The Jefferson Lies. I am an evangelical but believe that the facts are more important than ideology. I hope you will take these concerns seriously and makes changes to make your materials conform to the facts.

The gallery is significantly factually flawed. I will only comment on a few things but hope you will contact me so I can offer a fuller explanation.

The first page of the gallery says that Thomas Jefferson was an active member of the VA Bible Society. In fact, he donated $50 once to the society on request of his insurance agent, Samuel Greenhow. Being an active member would indicate attendance at meetings, being an officer, donating regularly or even joining. There is no indication in Jefferson’s writings that he did anything more than give a donation. Also, regarding the financial struggles of Jefferson and the donation. Jefferson was almost always in financial trouble and died in dept. Below is the letter Jefferson sent to Greenhow in full. Note that Jefferson does not want the society to give Bibles out in other countries.

Your letter on the subject of the Bible Society arrived here while I was on a journey to Bedford, which occasioned a long absence from home. Since my return, it has lain, with a mass of others accumulated during my absence, till I could answer them. I presume the views of the society are confined to our own country, for with the religion of other countries my own forbids intermeddling. I had not supposed there was a family in this State not possessing a Bible, and wishing without having the means to procure one. When, in earlier life, I was intimate with every class, I think I never was in a house where that was the case. However, circumstances may have changed, and the society, I presume, have evidence of the fact. I therefore enclose you cheerfully, an order on Messrs. Gibson & Jefferson for fifty dollars, for the purposes of the society, sincerely agreeing with you that there never was a more pure and sublime system of morality delivered to man than is to be found in the four evangelists. Accept the assurance of my esteem and respect.

On page two, you say that Jefferson personally helped fund a ground breaking Bible. In fact, he paid a subscription fee to get a copy of the Thompson hot-pressed Bible, just like the other 1271 subscribers did. Jefferson was even late in paying his final subscription fee.

Page three is accurate.

Page four is similar to page two: Jefferson purchased Thomson’s work when he saw it advertised. Here is what he told Thomson:

 —I see by the newspapers your translation of the Septuagint is now to be printed, and I write this to pray to be admitted as a subscriber. I wish it may not be too late for you to reconsider the size in which it is to be published. Folios and quartos are now laid aside because of their inconvenience. Everything is now printed in 8vo, 12mo or petit format. The English booksellers print their first editions indeed in 4to, because they can assess a larger price on account of the novelty; but the bulk of readers generally wait for the 2d edition, which is for the most part in 8vo. This is what I have long practised myself. Johnson, of Philadelphia, set the example of printing handsome edition of the Bible in 4v., 8vo. I wish yours were in the same form.

Jefferson learned of the project from the papers and wanted to buy one. Buying something is not the same thing as funding the project. Continue reading “BeliefNet Promotes The Jefferson Lies”

Monday Night Live with Jerry Newcombe

Last night I was on Jerry Newcombe’s Monday Night Live talk show which is aired on WAFG-FM, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  Newcombe’s views lean toward the Christian nationalist side of things, having co-authored, What if America was a Christian Nation Again? with D. James Kennedy as well as George Washington’s Sacred Fire with Peter Lillback. I was on the show to discuss Getting Jefferson Right, and more specifically aspects of Jefferson’s life and views. The point of the show was not to focus on the mistakes made by David Barton in The Jefferson Lies, but rather to discuss our perspective on some of the same issues Barton’s covers in his book.

The first half of the 30 minute segment was devoted to Jefferson and slavery and the second half to Jefferson’s religious beliefs with some time spent on Jefferson’s extractions from the Gospels. Newcombe is a gracious host and allowed me time to develop Jefferson’s contradictions.  I experienced the segment as a point-counterpoint exchange. Newcombe brought up various anti-slavery statements made by Jefferson and I acknowledged those but noted Jefferson’s actions which were inconsistent with his lofty ideals. For instance, Jefferson spoke against the slave trade, however, he engaged in buying and selling of human beings throughout his life. Without challenge, I drove home the point that Jefferson was legally able to free his slaves but did not do it.

The second half of the show revolved around Jefferson’s religious beliefs. Newcombe was particularly bothered by Jefferson’s statements that finding Jesus’ actual teachings in the Gospels was as easy as picking diamonds from a dunghill. Jefferson’s extractions of Jesus’ teaching for what is often called the Jefferson Bible was guided by his confidence that he could easily tell what came from Jesus of Nazareth (diamonds) and what was added by his followers (dunghill). Newcombe rightly observed that Jefferson set himself up as a judge over the Bible. Newcombe seemed genuinely troubled that Jefferson believed that the Gospel writers were responsible for obscuring the real Jesus.  He had been led to believe it was the church in the middle ages which did so. I wish I would have driven this point home more strongly. After the broadcast and while Newcombe was talking to the next guest Mark Beliles (more about him in a bit), I recalled Jefferson’s assessment of the New Testament writers. In a 1820 letter to William Short, Jefferson said:

Among the sayings & discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I seperate therefore the gold from the dross; restore to him the former & leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and firm corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man. The Syllabus is therefore of his doctrines, not all of mine. I read them as I do those of other antient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and disent.

Jefferson believed that the corrupting of the New Testament began with His biographers and then became further corrupted by Paul, the author of most of the New Testament. This clearly bothered Newcombe which he carried into the next segment with Mark Beliles.

Beliles is a minister in the Charlottesville, VA area and co-founder, with Stephen McDowell, of the Providence Foundation. David Barton is on the board of that group. On their website, they describe one objective of their organization:

Jesus commissioned believers to “make disciples of all nations,” which, according to Matthew Henry, means to “do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations.”

The nations need an understanding of how to build a Godly society. We need personal revival, for all change begins in the heart of man, but Biblical revivals have historically transformed society as well as individuals. Without Biblical reformation, tyranny and oppression will increase. God has called His people to serve in civil government, education, the media, politics, and business, as well as the family and church. Everyone must know how to apply Biblical principles in their calling. Many are called to equip others in a Biblical worldview.

Listening carefully to Beliles, I could hear David Barton’s talking points about Jefferson’s religious faith. Belilies said Jefferson abridged the Gospels for missions to the Indians and downplayed the diamonds from a dunghill imagery. He tried to locate all of Jefferson’s skepticism to near the end of his life and advanced the dubious notion that Jefferson was influenced by the Primitivist and Restoration movements to change orthodox views into heresy. In our book, we examine that idea and find it to be without merit. If anything, the Restoration preachers were inspired by Jefferson and his republican ideals more than the other way around.  As far as we can discern, Jefferson never mentioned the Restoration movement but he did talk much about Unitarianism and his affiliation with that viewpoint. Beliles said people in Virginia did not question Jefferson’s orthodoxy which is just not right. For instance, opposition in Virginia to the University of Virginia often referenced Jefferson perceived infidelity.

It would have been good for us to be on together so I could have asked Beliles about his evidence, but it is Newcombe’s decision to set it up how he wants. In all, I appreciate the opportunity to present some of our work in that forum.

I will be on the Jerry Newcombe Show tonight to discuss Getting Jefferson Right

Tonight, from 9:00-9:30pm, I will be on the Jerry Newcombe Show. The program can be heard live on the station’s website (look for the listen live icon in the upper right hand corner or try this link).

Newcombe is author of The Book That Made America: How the Bible Formed Our Nation and co-author with Peter Lillback of George Washington’s Sacred Fire.

The plan is to discuss Getting Jefferson Right.

Vote Today for the Least Credible History Book in Print

Last week, the History News Network put out a call to nominate The Least Credible History Book in Print. The New York Times gave this process a boost with an article on Independence Day. The top 5 nominees are in and they are:

You can vote at the History News Network and here below.

New York Times on the Changes at Exodus

Friday night at the evangelical fights.

After the NPR segment comes this New York Times article which covers much the same ground.

It cannot be any clearer; Alan Chambers is leading Exodus from the wilderness of reparative therapy to the promised land of Grace and soul liberty.

What a ride.

Conservatives in the church and elsewhere should welcome this. There is no necessary conservative attachment to reparative therapy. In fact, given the psychoanalytic roots of the model, it has surprised me that conservative Christians have bought into it for as long they have.