What Would Jefferson Do?
By Mitch Berg
Hitchens on Keith “X” Ellison’s “Jefferson’s Qu’ran” stunt (and the ignorance so many bring to the flap):
As to the invocation of Jefferson, we know that when he and James Madison first proposed the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom (the frame and basis of the later First Amendment to the Constitution) in 1779, the preamble began, “Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free.” Patrick Henry and other devout Christians attempted to substitute the words “Jesus Christ” for “Almighty God” in this opening passage and were overwhelmingly voted down. This vote was interpreted by Jefferson to mean that Virginia’s representatives wanted the law “to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahomedan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.” Quite right, too, and so far so good, even if the term Mahomedan would not be used today, and even if Jefferson’s own private sympathies were with the last named in that list.
And, moreso, if Jefferson would have been rightly nauseated by what so many of Ellison’s supporters at CAIR stand for.
(Via Chris at Buddha Patriot)
January 12th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Yeah, that was a great piece. Jefferson also would have been nauseated by the religious right. Fundamentalists of any stripe made him nuts.
His edited Bible is a fascinating read. Have you read it? Quite heretical at the time (and now too, I suppose).
January 12th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Yep. Anyone wrapping him/herself in Jefferson will find a nasty surprise if they dig long and hard enough.
My favorite was always the Libertarians (during my two-year dalliance in the party) who waved him about like their personal poster-child. “Who DID create a military capable of acting far overseas, anyway?”, I’d ask…
January 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I think I’m about the only one on the right who thinks Hitchens is a nut. He’s still a Trotskyite. What Hitchens admires about Jefferson is that he was irreligious and a proponent of constant revolution. The hubris that jefferson displayed in authoring his own version of the bible escapes Hitchens completely.