What offends me about the Jefferson Lies

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain inalienable Rights."  United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, written by Thomas Jefferson.

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gift of God?!?"  Thomas Jefferson, quoted at the Jefferson Memorial.

I wrote last week about the controversy surrounding David Barton's new book, "The Jefferson Lies."  Beyond this controversy, we should all be upset that a book like this needed to be written in the first place.  The controversy is obnoxious, but what's truly offensive are the actual Jefferson Lies.

Thomas Jefferson clearly believed in a Judeo-Christian foundation for society.  His writings are filled with references to a biblical foundation; I list two of my favorite above.  While Thomas Jefferson's personal relationship with Jesus Christ is unclear, that doesn't change the Judeo-Christian influence on his political views.

Yes, in 1802, Jefferson did use the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State;" here's the full context:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

 In other words, Jefferson was trying to protect the Church from the government, and NOT the other way around.

Atheists have been lying about Jefferson's views on the role of Biblical Principles in government since at least 1947, and it pisses me off.

Don't get me started on Sally Hemmings.