The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. Its authority is based on “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” It explicitly declares independence from Great Britain and tacitly declares independence from god—at least the Judeo-Christian god as depicted in the Bible. And that’s a good thing because the god of the Bible condones genocide, misogyny, and slavery.
But then, as it turns out, you don’t need the Bible to sanction reprehensible practices. The founders of our nation found justification enough in “natural law” to suppress others.
Of course, Blacks, Indians, and women are inferior to White men. You can see with your own eyes that we are superior. We have a natural right to rule.
For better or worse, Jefferson’s god was Nature’s god, not the god of a chosen people favoring some over others, saving some and damning others. That was Augustine’s, Aquinas’s and Calvin’s god. The Puritans brought that god to America. It is not Jefferson’s god.
Still, America managed to favor some people over others, save some and damn others. Apparently we make gods in our own image.
Jefferson’s god is more like Aristotle’s god, a Prime Mover that got things rolling, established natural laws, and then kept its hands off the affairs of earth. That’s deism, not theism. It’s unitarian, not Trinitarian, as Christianity is.
Jefferson liked Jesus alright. He just didn’t like the supernatural package that came with Jesus. Jefferson used razor blades to cut out parts of the Gospels he found reasonable and pasted them in a book: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (1820). It’s called “Jefferson’s Bible,” and it’s on exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Jefferson drew on reason, not revelation; on philosophy, not theology; on Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau, not Moses, Jesus, and Paul.
The United States is not a Christian nation. We did not turn the other cheek after 9/11. We do not distribute wealth to provide health care and food security for all.
Our polity may be exceptional; our morality is not.
The United States is secular. Thus the god of the Bible is an invasive species on American soil. It doesn’t belong here. But try telling that to Christian nationalists on this Fourth of July as they wave the flag in one hand and the Bible in the other while sporting T-shirts declaring: GOD, GUNS, AND (the T-word).
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See Paula’s “Clematis and White Poppies in Ice” on the home page. Posted July 2, 2023