[Vision2020] John Adams

[Nicholas Gier]

Dear Visionaries:

This is indeed is a great book, but it does not have much on Adams' liberal
religious views.  Some of you may have remembered this column I wrote.

nfg


*Thank Adams and Jefferson for 230 Years*

*without Religious Conflict*



*Read "Religious Liberalism and the Founding Fathers
<http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/foundfathers.htm>"*



by Nick Gier



The last surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson, died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the
birth of our nation. Politics divided them in their early years--Jefferson
beat the incumbent Adams in the hard fought election of 1800--but liberal
religion and the rejection of Christian dogma united them as they grew
older.

Adams always boasted that he would outlive Jefferson.  Adams' very last
words were "Thomas Jefferson survives," but he did not realize that his
great friend had died hours earlier at Monticello. It is said that
messengers from each home passed each other on their way to deliver the sad
news.

 As a young man, Adams became disillusioned with his strict Calvinist
upbringing, and he had this to say about church services: "Sundays are
sacrificed 'to the frigid performances' of disciples of 'frigid John
Calvin.' "

 As religious liberals, Jefferson and Adams believed that true religion was
one founded on morality, not religious dogma. Neither of them believed in
the Trinity nor the divinity of Christ, claiming that these doctrines were
not essential to the practice of Christianity. Besides, early Americans had
fresh memories of the destruction caused by European rulers denying
religious freedom to their subjects.

 Adams would have agreed with Jefferson when he wrote that "the Christian
religion, when . . . brought to the original purity and simplicity of its
benevolent instructor, is a religion of all others most friendly to
liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind." Adams
believed that anyone practicing Christian morality should be called a
Christian, even though that person did not subscribe to the entire
Christian creed. In a letter to Jefferson in 1813, he put it very simply:
"Yet I believe all the honest men among you are Christians, in my sense of
the word."

 Jefferson shared Adams' strong dislike for Calvinism. In a letter to him
in 1823, Jefferson rejects Calvin's doctrines of predestination and human
depravity.  His critique concludes with this blast: "It would be more
pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the
atrocious attributes of Calvin."

 Jefferson believed in the separation of church and state so strongly that
he and Andrew Jackson were the only presidents who declined to make the
traditional presidential proclamation for Thanksgiving Day. Jefferson
argued that the state should not officiate in anything religious, including
a day of thanksgiving and prayer.

 On June 10, 1797, President Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11
of which began: "As the Government of the United States is not in any sense
founded on the Christian Religion. . . ." Outgoing President George
Washington had sent this treaty to the Senate without objection, and, with
no recorded debate, the Senate ratified it on June 7, 1797.

 As we celebrate our 230th year as free republic founded on liberal
religious principles, we should remember that no American has ever been
imprisoned or executed for his or her religious beliefs.  Even though
neo-Confederates make the absurd claim that the Civil War was theological
war caused by liberal Christians, America has never had an internal
religious conflict. We should thank Adams, Jefferson, and all our founding
thinkers for their wisdom in avoiding the caustic mixture of religion and
politics.



On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 5:10 PM, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:

> I just finished reading a book on John Adams by David McCullough. He and
> Jefferson were friends, protagonists  and then friends  again. Of the two
> Adams was the most upstanding in character. The biggest mistake he made was
> in signing the Alien and Sedition Act  Both Adams and Jefferson died on the
> 4th of July, the 50th anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of
> Independence. They were the last two who had signed. Adams last words were
> (Jefferson survives). however Jefferson had died a few hours before him.
> Very few  accept for Washington liked Hamilton.
>
>
> Roger
>
>
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>



-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20151121/4d60d580/attachment-0001.html>