Thomas Jefferson's Nuances (revised)

Picture by Jim Atherton

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has published an interesting article by Gregory Tomlin about Thomas Jefferson.

Here's a quote:

Whether Jefferson borrowed subconsciously from the Baptist Roger Williams may never be known, but the nonconformist tradition of Williams certainly flows through Jefferson's pen. Williams, who lived a century prior to Jefferson, wrote in 1644 that there should be erected "a wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world."

Some of Tomlin's nuances, however, lean more toward twenty-first century Christian Nationalism than toward eighteenth century Jeffersonianism. Jefferson, would not have approved of the government endorsing religious symbols any more than he approved of the government endorsing religious holidays.