The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson

264 Pages·2012·1.97 MB·English

by  David Barton

The
JEFFERSON LIES
The
JEFFERSON LIES
Exposing the Myths You’ve Always
Believed about Thomas Jefferson
DAVID BARTON
© 2012 by David Barton All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas
Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales
promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken
®
from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible
Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations
marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barton, David, 1954-
The Jefferson lies : exposing the myths you’ve always believed about Thomas Jefferson / David Barton.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59555-459-8 (hardback)
ISBN: 9781595554604 (eBook)
1. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. 2. Presidents--United States--Biography. I. Title.
E332.B295 2012
973.4’6092--dc23
[B]
2011051543
Printed in the United States of America
12 13 14 15 16 QGF 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Glenn Beck
Editors’ Notes
Introduction:
Rediscovering Thomas Jefferson
Lie # 1:
Thomas Jefferson Fathered Sally Hemings’ Children
Lie # 2:
Thomas Jefferson Founded a Secular University
Lie # 3:
Thomas Jefferson Wrote His Own Bible and Edited Out the Things He
Didn’t Agree With
Lie # 4:
Thomas Jefferson Was a Racist Who Opposed Equality for Black Americans
Lie # 5:
Thomas Jefferson Advocated a Secular Public Square through the
Separation of Church and State
Lie # 6:
Thomas Jefferson Detested the Clergy
Lie # 7:
Thomas Jefferson Was an Atheist and Not a Christian
Conclusion:
Thomas Jefferson: An American Hero
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
Foreword
I
recently learned that the United States government was actually trying to strip
God out of a private homeless shelter for previously incarcerated women
struggling in Colorado. That’s right, Marilyn Vyzourek, the woman who runs an
organization called Gospel Shelters for Women, was told that she could no
longer offer Bible studies at her shelter. Why did they have that ability? Because
our government, which happily funds all kinds of programs championed by the
secular left, decided that the shelter’s acceptance of two $25,000 federal grants
made them subservient to their will.
It’s not surprising. In fact, it’s just the latest in a decades-old attempt by
progressive secularists to keep religion entirely separate from the government.
Everyone knows that’s just what Thomas Jefferson intended when he penned the
words “separation of church and state,” right?
Well, not quite.
My friend, historian David Barton, takes on this long-held falsehood about the
separation of church and state and proves once and for all that our Founding
Father was no secularist. Not even close. Did you know, for instance, that when
Jefferson was president in 1800 he helped start church services inside the US
Capitol? Those services grew to include more than two thousand people
attending each week, and it became one of the biggest churches in America at
the time.
And that’s just the beginning.