Jefferson rejoiced that Virginia had passed his religious freedom law, noting that it would ensure religious freedom for "the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination."
Thomas Jefferson is used often to argue that this country is not based on Judeo-Christian values, which assumes that he himself was not a Christian or did not belive in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the truth is Thomas Jefferson was a devout Christian. He supported the use of the Bible as reading material in schools (how far we've strayed from this notion
). He personally prayed at public events. He attending services in the capital building (held in the Supreme Court of all places!). He exempted churches from being taxed. He was very much an advocate for the Church. Here's some quotes I've found as well:
In 1801, he wrote that "the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which [the clergy] have enveloped it, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and freest expansion of the human mind."
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”
“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”[Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803]
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” [Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781]
