Thomas Jefferson's Religious Contradiction
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S RELIGIOUS CONTRADICTIONS BY DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS Thomas Jefferson, the most popular founding father of the United States, learned much and said much about various subjects during the course of his illustrious career, and he naturally contradicted himself from time to time for one reason or another. Perhaps he changed his mind, just as people change or amend their constitutions. Perchance his opinion was unsettled. He might have been unaware of certain contradictions. Or maybe he found it politically expedient to reverse himself for a greater or higher cause. Therefore we are, fortunately for our independence as individuals, given a number of occasions to employ Jefferson's corpus to contradict each other: to cite him, for instance, in support of free trade; yet, on the other hand, or at least for the time being, he says trade must be restrained. We claim our founding fathers as we do our gods, with all their goods and evils - and we often disagree over which ...