Jefferson Bible on Display at Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Museum has put the Jeffeson Bible on display. Thomas Jefferson took the New Testament and removed all the miraculous aspects and left only the life of Jesus and his philosophical teachings. The LA Times has an excellent article about the Jefferson Bible and his religious views.

There's a nice quote that the LA Times puts forward from Jefferson, "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." That's a powerful statement on religious freedom from the author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote that in the book he authored "Notes on the State of Virginia."

The Smithsonian has a scanned copy available that you can review at http://americanhistory.si.edu/JeffersonBible/the-book/. There's also a PDF version that been posted which is much easier to read at http://www.pattonhq.com/links/uccministry/jeffbible.pdf.

For additional reading on the religious views of Thomas Jefferson I highly recommend "Founding Faith" by Steven Waldman. Waldman's book is really about the birth of religiuos freedom in the United States and he uses the religious views and experiences of four of the Founding Fathers: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The first part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," is the where freedom of religion is enshrined. It means Congress can't deem the United States to be a nation of any particular religion and that anyone can practice any religion they choose and the government can't stop them: Muslim, Christian, Jew or even atheist. The Fourteenth Amendment extended the prohibition to the states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." So Congress nor any state can make no law establishing religion or depriving the people of freedom of religion.