Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC

Economist: IF THERE is one individual who first gave expression to the American ideal of freedom,and religious freedom in particular, it was Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, the third president himself had very clear ideas on his role in history. He laid down that his tombstone should record three achievements: his authorship of the Declaration of Independence; the statute of religious freedom in his home state ofVirginia; and the establishment of theUniversity of Virginia.

Nobody questions Jefferson’s decisive part in establishing liberty of belief. But almost everything else about the statesman’s complex attitude to metaphysical matters has been argued over furiously, and the arguers have plenty of raw material. In the course of American history, “freedom of religion” has itself become a kind of religion, and Jefferson’s words, including the 18,000 letters he wrote during his 83 years of life, serve as a kind of holy writ. To this day, many of the bitterest ideological battles raging across America (over prayer in schools, creationism, religious entitlements at work, and so on) are conducted in the name of different visions of religious liberty. So different factions naturally turn to the creator of that ideal, pore over his writings, and ask the unanswerable question: what would Jefferson do?

On one hand, secularists and religious sceptics point with relish to Jefferson’s utter contempt for “priestcraft” and religious power structures of all kinds. Religious believers can retort by stressing his reverence for Jesus as a moral teacher and reformer, and his clear belief in a supreme or providential power. A controversial Texan evangelical, David Barton, has sought to invoke Jefferson in support of his view that America was explicitly founded as a Christian country; but in 2012 a Christian publishing house withdrew at the last moment from circulating a book by Mr Barton on that theme, on grounds that the accuracy of his arguments was open to question. Mr Barton and his supporters objected strongly.

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