JEFFERSON’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF GOD’S PROVIDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY
Jefferson believed history is moved by God’s superintending hand and that the universe maintains its course and remains orderly because of God’s superintending oversight. In 1815, he wrote in a private letter:
Our efforts are in His hand, and directed by it; and He will give them their effect in his own time.
JEFFERSON’S INSISTENCE ON A RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION TO GOVERNMENT
Jefferson saw the hand of God do more than orchestrate the cosmos. He believed that society, culture, commerce, and government were also under his authority to judge and to either bless or curse.
Jefferson regularly made public references to God’s “overruling Providence which governs the destinies of men and nations.”
More than that, he believed no nation could sustain moral integrity unless the nation looked to Divine law as the foundation of its government.
In 1814, he wrote to a friend that no society could sustain a moral code without “the sanction of divine authority stamped upon it.”
Author, and Ivy League Lecturer, Gaston Espinosa pointed out in his book Religion and the American Presidency:
Jefferson took religion so seriously that while in important respects a passion for religious freedom defined his life, he also laid the foundation of a religion for the republic that would support the country’s national identity in its most formative years and that sustains it today. Jefferson did not separate religion from government. Far from it. For Jefferson, religion could be placed at the service of national unity. |