Did Baptists Influence Thomas Jefferson?

July 11, 2008 | Filed Under Congress, Constitution, Don Boys, Education, Founders, News, Patriotism, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, The Law |

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

Baptist people have been the most principled people since the time of Christ. I do not believe that the designation of “Baptist” is nearly as important as the doctrine, but I want people to know where I stand. I am a Baptist, and am proud of my heritage that has made an incredible impact on this world—even Jefferson and the U.S. Constitution!

Baptists have stood for the free exercise of a person’s will and against oppression (religious or political) down through the ages.

The English historian, Skeats wrote, “It is the singular and distinguished honor of the Baptists to have repudiated from their earliest history all coercive power over the consciences and actions of men with reference to religion. They were the proto-evangelists of the voluntary principle.”

While that is true, it is also true that there have always been people, since the time of Christ, who held Baptist principles. In fact, a Methodist historian, John Clark Ridpath, who died in 1900 wrote, “I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist Church as far back as 100 A.D., although without doubt there were Baptist Churches then, as all Christians were then Baptists.” (Emphasis added.)

In 1768, five Baptist men were arrested, and in the words of the Spotsylvania County, Virginia prosecutor, “They cannot meet a man upon the road, but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat.” They were held in the Fredericksburg jail forty-three days for their “offense.” They evidently did not have a license as required by the state!

Virginia Baptists even influenced Thomas Jefferson and America’s constitution! Jefferson was familiar with a Baptist church near his Monticello home and used the church as a pattern for the American colonies!

Belcher’s Religious Denominations of the United States (page 184) reports that “Jefferson said that he considered Baptist church government the only form of pure democracy which then existed in the world, and had concluded that it would be the best plan of government for the American colonies. This was eight years or ten years before the American Revolution.”

Therefore, people of other denominations should tip their hat to the Baptist Church as they pass if they appreciate personal freedom.

I do not affirm that Jefferson was a Baptist, but he wrote a letter to Charles Thomson, on January 9, 1816 from his Monticello home where he affirms that he was a Christian! Oh, my, that makes the deists angry since they have been claiming Jefferson for over two hundred years.

Jefferson wrote, “I, too, have made a wee little book from the same materials, which, I call Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” (Emphasis added.) “Real Christian” is underlined in Jefferson’s letter!

Note that his letter was written about seven years after his two terms as president, and ten years before his death. So our humanist critics cannot accuse him of being a young, immature idealist trying to “work the religious crowds” for political advantage. (Although he was not above doing that!)

I would be remiss if I did not add that “saying” one is a Christian does not make it so. My personal belief is that Jefferson was a confused man regarding religion. One does not become a Christian by being a “disciple of the doctrines of Jesus” but by exercising faith in His sacrificial death. There is no historical evidence that Jefferson had that experience. Furthermore, he did have an affair with a married women when he was in France and a long-time affair with one of his slaves. I don’t like admitting those facts but they are facts, and while all of us sin, no Christian lives in sin for years. Like King David, we repent of grievous sins, get forgiveness, and move on—and have to live with the results.

While I am ashamed of the way some Baptist preachers are living, I am honored to identify with historic Baptists who lived godly lives, taught Bible truth, protected the innocent, and helped produce freedom of conscience for all Americans.
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Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, author of 13 books, frequent guest on television and radio talk shows, and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years His most recent book is ISLAM: America’s Trojan Horse! His websites are www.cstnews.com and www.Muslimfact.com.)

Boys’ columns are copyrighted and may be republished, reposted, or emailed providing the person or organization doing so does not charge for subscriptions or advertising and the column is copied intact and the tag at the end in parentheses is included intact.

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