After two terms as president, Thomas Jefferson, then at age 77, clipped from the New Testament verses that depict the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus. His purpose, he stated, was to separate his thinking from the dogma that followers claimed about him. This year the Smithsonian unveiled an exhibition of what this handmade work known as The Jefferson Bible. Jefferson was not one to be caught up in theology, but had great respect for the lessons of how to live peacefully and responsibility. From Washington in April 21, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Rush about his religious beliefs:
“In some of the delightful conversations with you in the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you that one day or other I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others, ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other.”
“Thomas Jefferson believed that the ethical system of Jesus was the finest the world has ever seen. In compiling what has come to be called "The Jefferson Bible," he sought to separate those ethical teachings from the religious dogma and other supernatural elements that are intermixed in the account provided by the four Gospels. He presented these teachings, along with the essential events of the life of Jesus, in one continuous narrative.”
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