copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2024-08-26): Jefferson’s concern for religion seemed to grow over time, and it was a common topic in his private correspondence after he was elected president. Having read and reread Joseph Priestley’s An History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782), Jefferson became convinced by the turn of the nineteenth century that, as he told Priestley, Jesus’s "morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught." It was in this period that he began, again, to identify himself as Christian, by which he meant that he was a devotee of Jesus’s ethical teachings. Jefferson was particularly taken by the fact that while various religious sects disagreed violently on dogma, and such disagreements had played an important role in bloody religious conflicts throughout history, all religions and sects tended to agree on what he saw as more fundamental moral standards. In retirement, he wrote to John Adams, with whom he had renewed a close friendship, that these "moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution," should guide the growth of a rational American religion free of the control of dogmatic ministers.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2008-02-14): Thomas Jefferson (2011). "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814", p.248, Princeton University Press "Christianity: the One, the Many: What Christianity Might Have Been and Could Still Become, Volume 1". Book by John F. Nash (p. 11), February 14, 2008. Thomas Jefferson (1854). "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State", p.139
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2020-09-02): The 86-page book, now held in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, is bound in red Morocco leather and ornamented with gilt tooling. It was crafted in the fall and winter months of 1819 and 1820 when the 77-year-old Jefferson used a razor to cut passages from six copies of the New Testament—two in Greek and Latin, two in French and two in English—and rearranged and pasted together the selected verses, shorn of any sign of the miraculous or supernatural in order to leave just the life and teachings of Jesus behind. Jefferson, who had suffered great criticism for his religious beliefs, once said that the care he had taken to reduce the Gospels to their core message should prove that he was in fact, a "real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." [...] Meanwhile, news that the U.S. government would soon be in the Bible printing business ignited public alarm over Jefferson’s religious ideas such as had not been seen in nearly a century. "The so-called Jefferson Bible seems bound to make trouble," the Chicago Inter Ocean warned. "This is the more remarkable from the fact that it has been forgotten for nearly a century… So completely had the Jefferson Bible been forgotten that when the House of Representatives passed a resolution recently to print 9,000 copies comparatively few of the present generation knew that such a book existed." [...] Greek, Latin, French, and English by Thomas Jefferson
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2019-10-25): An image shared on Facebook claims that founding father Thomas Jefferson said, "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." [...] Furthermore, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which maintains his estate at Monticello, categorizes it as a spurious quotation. The source of the expression may actually be a series of debates on socialism published in 1914, according to the Monticello website. (The wording varies slightly in this instance.) [...] The misattributed quote has been linked to Jefferson since at least 1994, according to etymologist Barry Popik.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2015-08-12): Earliest known appearance in print: Charles Bufe, The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations (San Francisco, CA: See Sharp Press, 1992), 200. (This source claims that the quote is from a letter to Jefferson's nephew, Peter Carr.) Comments: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It appears to be a collection of paraphrases of comments made in multiple Jefferson letters: [...] 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2016-01-11): And if Jesus is who He claimed to be, then Christianity must be the only true religion, because He said specifically "No one comes to the Father except through me". [...] Christians claim Christianity is the only true religion because [...] The Christian religion is true religion because righteousness is better than wickedness. Other religions may impose conformity to a certain code of behavior, but they have no power to change the heart. Christianity teaches that the believer is "dead to sin" and now lives "in newness of life" (Romans 6:2,4). The Christian’s zeal for doing good has resulted in the founding of countless orphanages, hospitals, clinics, schools, homeless shelters, and emergency relief agencies—all in the name of Christ. The Christian religion is unique in that it does not force change from without but revolutionizes lives from within.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2022-06-28): In June 2022, we received reader mail that asked us to look into the veracity of a quote by one of the Founding Fathers. According to various memes and posts that appeared on Facebook since at least 2011, former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson once said, "Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights." However, the truth was that this quote was misattributed in the memes and posts to Jefferson and had, in reality, been written by someone else. [...] According to Narkive.com, a newsgroup archive website, this quote originated not with Jefferson, but instead with author Eyler Robert Coates, Sr. Narkive.com directed us to an old page of Jefferson quotes that was once hosted by the website for the University of Virginia. The page was archived in the year 1999 by the Wayback Machine on Archive.org. It contained the same quote in its introduction, which was credited at the bottom of the website to Coates. [...] Much more can be studied in Jefferson's other writings on religion, including on Monticello.org, a website that is operated by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. For this fact check, however, we've concentrated mainly on the fact that the "religious institutions" quote in question came not from Jefferson, but rather Coates.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2013-12-10): Thomas Kidd, professor of history at Baylor University and the author of God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution, said "the founders were certainly aware of other religions besides Christianity, and discussed them at length in their writings." [...] John Ragosta, the Robert C. Vaughan Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, pointed us to that excerpt. Ragosta did not dispute that the great majority of people in America were Christians, but he said that makes the vision of the founders that much more impressive. [...] We were unable to find much merit to this claim. We rate it Pants on Fire.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2019-11-04): FACT CHECK: Did George Washington Say This Quote About ‘Christian Religion’? An image shared on Facebook claims that former President George Washington once said, "The gov’t of the US is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy." [...] Katie Blizzard of the Washington Papers at the University of Virginia confirmed in an email to the Daily Caller that the second sentence of the alleged quote does not appear in Washington’s writings but was unable to provide "any definite information" on its origin.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2012-08-10): Care must also be taken in evaluating Jefferson’s statements on religion, both because he often defined terms in a rather idiosyncratic manner, and because many comments with literal religious significance must be understood in the context of social convention as much as theology (e.g. telling a bereaved spouse that he/she might meet the departed in an afterlife may evidence empathy as much as theology). Still, much can be said about Jefferson’s religion. [...] Given these views, Jefferson’s relationship with Christianity was complicated. He believed that Jesus was the "first of human sages," noting that his philosophy, "freed from the corruptions of later times" – including Jesus’ divinity, resurrection, and miracles – "is far superior" to others because Jesus preached "universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind…."[11] With this in mind, Jefferson said that Christianity would be the best religion in a republic, especially one like the United States with a broad diversity of ethnicities and religions.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2021-01-04): Even in his youth, Jefferson had bridled at the core metaphysical claims of classical Christianity. Jefferson had no use for original sin, or salvation by grace alone, or the insistence that Christ—or anyone else; stand down, Lazarus—had risen from the dead. He didn’t even care to affirm the most fundamental doctrine: that, by some mystery of history and providence, Jesus was of the same essence as God, indeed was God. One of Jefferson’s first, and most lasting, points of dissent with Christian orthodoxy had to do with the Trinity, the doctrine affirming that although there is only one God, the godhead is identified as three distinct but inseparable "persons": the Father, who is the creator; the Son, who appeared on earth in order to reconcile humanity to the Father; and the Holy Spirit, who is the breath of love between Father and Son, and who invisibly knits all believers together, creating the society called the Church. To Jefferson, this was all too fuzzy to be true in any real sense—an "incomprehensible jargon."
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2024-01-01): Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters [...] A quotation commonly misattributed to Thomas Jefferson. [...] Monticello © 2024 Thomas Jefferson Foundation
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2023-10-04): Jefferson’s editorial work happened in a United States that was deeply rooted in state-sponsored religion. Though many emigrants had come to America to flee religious persecution, laws about religious practice were part of pre-Revolutionary life. Even after the founding of the United States and the ratification of the First Amendment, states used public funds to pay churches and passed laws upholding various tenets of Christianity for over a century after the passage of the Bill of Rights. Massachusetts, for example, didn’t disestablish its official state religion, Congregationalism, until 1833. [...] During his political career, Jefferson’s religious views—or lack thereof—drew fire from his fellow colonists and citizens. The Federalists charged him with atheism and rebellion against Christianity during the vicious 1800 election. Among them was Theodore Dwight, a journalist who claimed that Jefferson’s election would shoo in the end of Christianity itself. "Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of distress, the soil will be soaked with blood, the nation black with crimes," he prophesied. Jefferson continued to wrestle with his own views on Christianity after his presidential term ended. His personal correspondence often dealt with religion and religious freedom, and in 1820, when he was 77 years old, he began excising the portions of the New Testament he found unnecessary.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (1996-01-01): Sources consulted: Searching on (christianity AND "best friend of government" AND ("changes the heart" OR "deals with the heart")) [...] Comments: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2022-09-15): The Founding Fathers of America said a lot about Christianity and the morals that it gave the masses. There is historical documentation and websites full of what they had to say on the subject. This article covers those Founding Fathers’ quotes on the matter. [...] The Founding Father and President Thomas Jefferson were quoted as saying, "The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." [...] The founders didn’t want the government to play favorites, choosing one sect of the Christian faith above another. As Jefferson said, "I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about the legal ascendency of one sect over another."
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2014-02-20): But it was a lie. [...] On the surface, the phrase seems harmless. Faithful even. Why wouldn’t I want to give God the glory for everything I have? Isn’t that the right thing to do?
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2004-03-19): It’s often talked about, Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Connecticut Association, where he talked about what he called the "high and mighty duty in this wall of separation between church and state." There’s something else that Jefferson wrote several years before he wrote that famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, and that was during the debates on the First Amendment and also in discussions with friends about the concept of liberty. He wrote, "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that the liberties are a gift of God and that they are not violated but with His wrath?" Now, Thomas Jefferson, in the classic understanding of his religious belief, would not fall within what most people would consider an orthodox Christian position. In my view of history anyway, I would not consider him to be – and I’m not speaking as a theologian– He had various views on religion and faith. I don’t think faith was insignificant in his life, I don’t mean to suggest that at all, but it wouldn’t be what we would typically talk about today as a Protestant form of Christianity or Catholic form of Christianity. He kind of had his view of faith, Christianity, and the deity of Jesus, and that’s a whole different topic.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2023-08-24): Favoring governmental expression of religious belief. [...] Pretty soon, though, Christianity became dissatisfying to me on an intellectual and personal level. Frankly, it wasn’t deep enough for me. Christianity was a religion of cognitive closure, dogma and certainty, and often stubborn and non-negotiable certitude, particularly for those whom it considered "good" or "bad," "acceptable" or "unacceptable." It was phenomenally judgmental, absolutist and close-minded in practice, not given to questions, doubt and reason, by and large. It relied on scripture and the aphoristic sayings of its founders, rather than reason, intellect and pragmatic, present-centered compassionate moral understanding of the world and people as they are. It was prone to authoritarianism, centralized, undemocratic control, and rigidity, and seemed to encourage superficiality and rah-rah boosterism in many of its adherents, while only occasionally prompting intense personal transformation, and even then, without clear guidance for transformation, other than reading Bible verses and identifying with Christ, who upon my examination, seemed only partially interested in non-judgmental, compassionate love, and primarily interested in asserting his own authority and primacy over others. Christ and Christianity seemed more about power than love, in other words, completely hypocritical to its supposed founding principles. [...] Christianity has not earned my trust or the trust of the world to allow me to rest easy with these questions. Those Christians who believe Christ would or should do these harms are harming others in Christ’s name, and this is another reason there must be "a wall of separation between church and state."
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2022-02-04): "No, tell me. What did he say?" I asked, a little more gently.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2024-01-01): We hope you enjoyed our collection of 7 free pictures with Thomas Jefferson quote.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2020-11-04): Even Thomas Jefferson grasped this when he said, "The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." – Thomas Jefferson We don’t suggest we derive any theology from Thomas Jefferson, but we quote him here because if even Jefferson can grasp this, we better, too. [...] Society is impacted for the better when Christians are active participants in their community. And in that way, society experiences reform, preceded and led by spiritual renewal.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2024-01-07): Sheridan sees Jefferson as "demythologized Christian—as one, that is to say, who rejected all myth, all mystery, all miracles, and almost all supernaturalism in religion." [65] Here again, it is in the narrow zone left open by "almost all supernaturalism" that Barton stakes his evangelical tent. This would seem to be taking Jefferson out of context in an extreme way. The stakes are high. Barton is not really trying to make sense of Thomas Jefferson; he is attempting to undermine the authority of the greatest freethinker among the Founding Fathers, and he is using Jefferson to try to break down the wall of separation between church and state. The Jefferson Lies is an important contribution to the culture wars of our time, not because it represents a valid analysis of Jefferson's religious views, but because it makes claims that millions of Americans believe or want to believe. Even so, no one should mistake The Jefferson Lies for careful or thoughtful history.
Claim: Claims that Thomas Jefferson once said, "The reason Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." (Viral Quote, 2019-08-08)
Evidence (2015-07-01): "The difference between Christianity and every other faith in the world is that all other religions are about man trying to reach up to God. Christianity is about God reaching down to man." [...] Through Christ we are made perfect in God’s eyes. We are forgiven from all sin; past and future. When we receive Him, He gives us his Holy Spirit that has the power to change us and make us more like Him. This is a process, but as this happens we begin to realize that we are living in the love originally required by the law. The original intention, the heart of the law, is established in our lives. Our relationships with God and others are founded in love. [...] This is the difference between religion and true Christianity. There is no checklist or list of rules that you must follow. It is ALL about your relationships, vertical and horizontal. There is no rhetoric or rituals that have to be practiced. Believe that Jesus Christ came to earth and died for your sins, accept his FREE GIFT, let God help you to love Him and love others. That’s it! It is so simple it sounds stupid, and it would be if there was no real power here. I’m here to testify that when you do this, the relationship with God is REAL and the power to change your life is there! Religion is empty. But, in Christ there is power.