With the coming of Independence Day my thoughts have turned to civics and spirituality. How did religion come to be included in the “culture wars” that go on in America? Did you know that God is only mentioned once in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and at that the mention is “nature’s God” , handed down from the Enlightenment? So many claim the founding fathers as moral proof in their arguments without understanding what their actual thoughts were on the subject of God and democracy.
What is freedom for? On this day of Independence think about that. Do you use your freedom to make a better world?
Please listen to this interview with the philosopher Jacob Needleman for real insight into this subject at:
Added Note: For information on Deism go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Roger Vincent Jasaitis 
Beautiful painting on the blog post. Happy Independance Day!
Thanks for another thought-provoking post, Roger. That was an excellent interview on “On Being” Sunday morning. I happened to listen to it myself. Such a shame that the ideas and intentions of our Founding Fathers have been so twisted and in many cases misrepresented; or maybe just misunderstood. Happy 4th of July! XOXO
Not being a history buff, I wonder what religion Jefferson practiced….
christina, I’ve heard the Founding Fathers referred to as Deists. I guess, meaning they believed in some higher power but not necessarily any dogma. I’m going to google your question and the definition of Deist as well.
It seems to me that the divisevness of orthodoxy started the political “culture war” here in the US in the 1980’s when the Religious Right started the campaign to take back America for Christ and Newt Gingrich instituted his “Contract with/ on America” for doing that. There is an assumption that Christianity is the only religion of this country and I think also a great misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers’ purpose, which was for us citizens to be free FROM the imposition of any religion and the freedom for us all to be able to choose our own. The aim of the Right has been to establish a theocracy in place of democracy. Never dreamed it would go on and grow as it has with a candidate like Santorum being taken seriously. Bye.
He was a Christian. He also wrote his own Bible from excerpts from the Bible in use at the time. It is called the “Jefferson Bible”.
Oh yes, he was a Christian. I just meant that his views were not the orthodox Christian views of his day, and that he dabbled in more free-thinking ideas of his time.
That was a wondeful post Roger. What a gorgeous painting you showed on Speaks my Mind. I hope you had a great 4th of July.
love kath