Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, grew to embrace the virtues of charity and love despite his skepticism of organized religion, according to an article in the spring 2004 issue of "The Review of Politics."

Matt Holland, an assistant professor of political science at BYU and author of the article, said Thomas Jefferson helped found the United States as a religiously diverse nation, but he did not believe in the basic Christian virtues of charity and love until right before his presidency.

"He made American politics more pluralistic," Holland said. "So no one religion, including Christianity, had a favored status."

Jefferson was born and raised an Anglican, a member of the Church of England, Holland said. Experiences in his youth however, drove him away from his religious beliefs.

At the time he authored the Declaration of Independence, his feelings for religious traditions had festered into skepticism. Holland said Jefferson's feelings toward religious principles changed during the 24 years in between the signing of the Declaration and his election as president of the United States.

Shortly before Jefferson's presidency, he began to study the New Testament intensely, according to Holland's article. Holland said Jefferson was impressed by Christ's teachings and thought they had application in the political world.

"He doesn't become a Christian in a traditional sense," he said. "But he comes to see Jesus as, what he calls, the world's greatest moral teacher."

In fact, according to Time magazine writer Walter Isaacson, "Jefferson believed in a rather nebulous sense of general providence, the principle that the creator has a benevolent interest in mankind."

Holland said this view of 'general providence' was very different from Jefferson's attitude toward Christianity right before his presidency.

Holland said he decided to study Jefferson's influences because of the similarities between our time and Jefferson's era.

"I thought that this was a timely issue," he said. "Our government is becoming partisan like it was when Jefferson was running for president. I believe that we can learn a lot from Jefferson's ideas on charity and love for everyone."

Paul Peterson, department chair of Church History and Doctrine, agreed the virtues of charity and love have a healing effect.

"If you practice those virtues and understand the implications of those virtues, it enables you to live in a society with others of different ethnic and religious persuasions," he said.

Holland said if these virtues are implemented, then the United States can be a beter nation.

"We must be a people that have some kind of bond with one another," he said. "When this happens as Jefferson believed, we can have a happy and free nation."



Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Jul 2004