Is it odd, that a man who supposedly based the Bill of Rights on Christian morality would say this?

Question

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
Thomas Jefferson.

How about Madison, Washington, Payne, Adams, these men were against organized religion as well.

Answer 1

I realize it's probably a waste of time pointing this out to you, BUT...Thomas Jefferson had nothing to do with the framing of the constitution. He was Minister to France when the Constitution was written. AND he had nothing to do with the framing of the Bill of Rights either. That was done by the First Congress (under the urging of James Madison) and on the suggestions of the states who earlier proposed changes in the original Constitution as a condition for ratifying the document. Jefferson was never in the new federal Congress.

If you're going to play the role of the cynic, that's fine; but at least know what you're talking about, otherwise you look like a moron.

Answer 2

There was only one person throughtout all histroy that was not subject to error...Jesus Christ.

The author of The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies wouldn’t agree that our laws and our government are based on the Ten Commandments. Thomas Jefferson criticized the notion that Christianity had any part in it. He argued that the common law of England – the basis of the laws of the colonies – couldn’t have been influenced by Christianity, much less the Ten Commandments. His argument? The common law existed in England for 200 years before Christianity arrived there. His conclusion? “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”
Jefferson blamed activist judges for promoting the mistaken idea that there was a connection between Christianity and the law. He wrote, “the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever existed.”
Joseph Story, a contemporary of Jefferson’s, and an associate justice of the Supreme Court, disagreed. He wrote, “It appears to me inconceivable how any man can doubt that Christianity is part of the Common Law of England.” In a speech at Harvard University, he said, “There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”
Was Jefferson being unreasonable, or was Story? Or does it even matter? The plain fact of the matter is this: so many of our judges agree with Story, and they believe it’s a fact that our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. Consider what some of those activist judges that Jefferson complained about have said in recent years:
In 1995, a federal appeals court ruled it was an “historical fact that the Ten Commandments served over time as the basis of our national law.”
In 2000, a federal appeals court ruled that the Ten Commandments have had an “indisputable influence on the development of secular law.”
In 2002, a federal appeals court ruled described “what any sober student of history knows: for good or bad, right or wrong, the Ten Commandments did have an influence upon the development of United States law.”
And in 2001, when the Supreme Court decided not to hear a case about a granite edition of the Ten Commandments posted in front of a city’s municipal building, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined Chief Justice Rehnquist in an opinion that said it couldn’t be denied: the Ten Commandments were a major influence


In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. Justice Scalia doesn’t see it that way. In a speech in 2002, he reminded his audience what it says in the Bible: the government is ordained by God. During arguments in Van Orden v. Perry, Scalia said Jefferson was wrong. Our government doesn’t derive its authority from the consent of the governed. It “derives its authority from God.” And, he insisted, it’s a fact that “the foundation of our laws is God.”

Justice Thomas agrees. He points out that the Establishment Clause, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” doesn’t say states can’t make such laws. In fact, claims Thomas, applying the Establishment Clause against the states prohibits “precisely what the Establishment Clause was intended to protect.” And what, according to Justice Thomas, was the clause meant to protect? It was meant to protect state-established religions from federal interference.


Real freedom comes only in Jesus Christ.

Answer 3

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution and was not based on Christian, or any other morality. The first amendment and the first Right in the Bill of Rights clearly states that the government will not establish nor interfere with the practice of religion.

Answer 4

Not Jefferson, but Madison.

Initially drafted by James Madison in 1789, the Bill of Rights was written at a time when ideological conflict between Federalists and anti-Federalists, dating from the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, threatened the Constitution's ratification. The Bill was influenced by George Mason's 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, works of the Age of Enlightenment pertaining to natural rights, and earlier English political documents such as the Magna Carta (1215). The Bill was largely a response to the Constitution's influential opponents, including prominent Founding Fathers, who argued that it failed to protect the basic principles of human liberty.

Answer 5

The foundation of the US was based on protection from Religious Persecution. Not actually Christianity.
The idea that it was based on Christianity, is purely because at that time period there were 2 major practiced religions. Both Christian. Catholicism, and the other sects of Christianity.
We escaped persecution and since Christianity is all we knew at the time, that was automatically believed to be "the Religions".
It was more of a sticking with what you know, then it was a foundation for constitution.
Its no different then the "all men are created equal", then owning slaves.

Answer 6

So, how does one tell the version between a Muslim and a Muslim extremist, in the previous they kill human beings? while have been those 2 "white" "Tea social gathering" Chechnyan Muslims pointed out as being extremist? Hmmm? in the previous or as quickly as they bombed the marathon? How relating to the shoe bomber, the underclothes bomber, the situations sq. bomber, important Nidal, or any of the different could-be terrorist that did no longer get that some distance, hmmm? curiously, you have terrorist-radar that helps you to locate them in a single look. possibly you should share that with something individuals. additionally, the reality you so conveniently bypass over is that the worst an extremist Christian has performed interior the previous 2 a protracted time is spew hatred at protection stress funerals. Muslim extremists kill and maim. i understand, i understand, such nuanced reasoning is a lot, some distance previous your demonstrably meager skill, even yet it exists, extreme above your decrease than elementary IQ point.

Answer 7

I'm still trying to figure out how they reconcile the whole "American is founded on Christian Morals" with "Freemasons are a cult and will burn in hell"... when damn near every one of the Founding Fathers was a Freemason, much of our legislation is based on Masonic ideas of Natural Rights given to All of mankind, even our money and Gov't buildings are based on Freemason ideas. (Please take a look at your $1 bill - see that pretty pyramid with the Eye above it?... to which God are you pledging our trust to again?)


Also look up Treaty of Tripoli which expressly states that America is not founded on the Christian Religion.

This is a lot like our current President (and a few before him) claiming the Founding Fathers supported Democracy for all..... From what I've found, they hated Democracy because of how it would end up.... And we ended up just like they feared we would.

Answer 8

At the time Thomas Jefferson said that most of the people were still loyal to the church of England and the people holding secret Church's at night were the beginning of American Christianity, that's why he put it that way

Answer 9

Those men were not "against organized religion." Make your point rationally! They were against a State Religion, for reasons that are obvious when you consider the state religion of England... etc.... Ohh, the ignorance....

Answer 10

Supposedly? Who's doing this supposing? Jefferson was against religion and government mixing. If you have any doubt, read his letter to the Dansbury Baptists. He coined the term "wall of separation of church and state."