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Tag: Criticism of Clergy

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August 6, 1816

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August 6, 1816

Thomas Jefferson August 6, 1816 After a friend reports that she’d heard that Jefferson had become religious, Jefferson scathingly explains that his views had long been mischaracterized by his enemies. have received, dear Madam, your very friendly letter of July 21st, and assure you that I feel with deep sensibility its kind expressions towards myself, and the more as from a person than whom no others could be more in sympathy with my own affections. I often call to mind…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823

Thomas Jefferson April 11, 1823 Jefferson attacks Calvin, predestination, the immaculate conception and other facets of Christianity. DEAR SIR, — The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of `mon Dieu! jusque à quand’! would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism….

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, September 4, 1823

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, September 4, 1823

Thomas Jefferson September 4, 1823 Jefferson believed that the mind-numbing power of clergy in Europe made citizens there less likely to rebel. DEAR SIR, Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. With it’s opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. The generation which commences a revolution can rarely compleat it. Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body…

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Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822

Thomas Jefferson June 26, 1822 Jefferson believed that Christianity no longer reflected the true teachings of Jesus. DEAR SIR, — I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there…

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Diary of John Adams, November 30, 1804

Diary of John Adams, November 30, 1804

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John Adams November 30, 1804 Adams explains how a controversy over a preacher drove him away from choosing the ministry as a career. Bryant had been driven away as a minister for promoting the idea that good works could influence salvation. Between the Years 1751 when I entered, and 1754 [i.e. 1755] when I left Colledge a Controversy was carried on between Mr. Bryant the Minister of our Parish and some of his People, partly on Account of his Principles…

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Letter from James Madison to Reverend Jasper Adams, January 1, 1832

Letter from James Madison to Reverend Jasper Adams, January 1, 1832

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James Madison January 1, 1832 I recd in due time, the printed copy of your Convention sermon on the relation of Xnity to Civil Gov’ with a manuscript request of my opinion on the subject. There appears to be in the nature of man what insures his belief in an invisible cause of his present existence, and anticipation of his future existence. Hence the propensities & susceptibilities in that case of religion which with a few doubtful or individual exceptions…

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Silence Dogood, No. 9 (Benjamin Franklin) July 23, 1722

Silence Dogood, No. 9 (Benjamin Franklin) July 23, 1722

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Benjamin Franklin July 23, 1722 Franklin was just 16 when he wrote this attack on religious hypocrites, using his alias “Silence Dogood.” He later recalled that as word spread that Silence was actually Benjamin, “my indiscreet Disputations about Religion begun to make me pointed at with Horror by good People, as an Infidel or Atheist.” Corruptio optimi est pessima. To the Author of the New-England Courant. Sir, It has been for some Time a Question with me, Whether a Commonwealth…

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Dialogue between Two Presbyterians, by Benjamin Franklin, 1735

Dialogue between Two Presbyterians, by Benjamin Franklin, 1735

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Benjamin Franklin April 10, 1735 The person called “S” is thought to represent Franklin’s views. Franklin wrote this after a Presbyterian synod in Philadelphia had brought charges against a young preacher named Samuel Hemphill. He was accused of placing too much emphasis on morality rather than faith. Mr. Franklin, You are desired by several of your Readers to print the following Dialogue. It is between Two of the Presbyterian Meeting in this City. We cannot tell whether it may not…

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