Friends: In these weeks surrounding the Fourth of July we’re examining the Christian life and criticisms of Thomas Jefferson; I think he gets a raw deal. This week: Jefferson founded the University of Virginia to solve a founding religious problem. Happy Independence Day! Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #972

July 1, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Declaring Truth, Part 3

By Bob Walters

“Question with boldness even the existence of God.” 1787, Thomas Jefferson’s educational advice to his nephew Peter Carr

If anything in this life can bear close scrutiny, it surely is the existence of God. God is not afraid of our questions, nor will He ever be surprised by what we ask. Our understanding of Him and relationship with Him glorifies Him, and the best use of the freedom God provides to us is to seek Him and to trust Him.

Why then is the above citation – from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote advising his 17-year-old nephew how to proceed with his education – considered proof by many modern scholars of Jefferson’s secular humanistic bent away from Christianity?

Because missing context and purposeful misdirection by those attacking religion have followed Jefferson’s legacy throughout the life of this nation. The reasons have shifted over the centuries, but the differing disagreements of early America and modern America still point to attacks on Christianity’s importance to our founding and conduct.

In his 2016 book, The Jefferson Lies, historian David Barton outlines and refutes seven common lies routinely told[BW1]  about Jefferson’s faith, philosophy, and his intention for religion’s place in American life. The third U.S. president and author of the Declaration of Independence (which we celebrate for the 249^th time this Friday July 4), also was the founder of the University of Virginia in 1819, seven years before his death.

Hailed as the brightest of many intellectual bright lights among America’s founders, Jefferson nonetheless has been – I believe unfairly – assigned an errant identity of being an iconoclast against Christian faith.

What Jefferson clearly saw wrong with early American “Christianity” was the denominational segregation and hostilities among the various Christian sects: Puritans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, Catholics, and others. These differences were a political problem throughout the American colonies, creating majority tyrannies against minority religious groups. This was highly instructive for Jefferson’s remedies.

While virtually every early American university was founded and run by specific denominations, Jefferson yearned for a university that encompassed the whole of classical philosophy, ethics, science, mathematics, and Christian thought free from the constraints and infighting of differing but rigid denominational doctrines and dogmas.

At the time of its founding, various sectarian Christians criticized the University of Virginia as a secular and godless institution since it shared space with broad classical and ethical ideas with no specified “Professor of Theology.” Barton notes that it was Jefferson’s genius to understand that true Christian intellectual pursuit required study of a wide range of classical ideas to properly understand the supremacy of Christ.

Enlightenment philosophers fell on both sides of the Christian vs. Humanist (worship of man) discussion, but Barton well describes Jefferson’s alignment with famed and outspoken Christian thinkers Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and John Locke. Jefferson’s ample correspondence and actions on varied topics demonstrate not only his deep biblical interest, knowledge, and faith, but his educational thrust of diminishing denominational differences while uplifting mankind’s greatest intellectual source in God.

Today’s dominant and unfortunate academic and media narrative, often noted in this series, is one of de-stabilizing any notion of Christian virtue in America’s founding; truth suffers. Yes, it is OK to question even God, but foolishness to rely on man.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) next week: separation of church and state. Happy 4^th.