What Would Jesus Do? Ask Thomas Jefferson

WOODY CREEK, Colo - This early Christmas morning in the Rocky Mountains, a herd of elk was making its way through the field of snow, back up to the high country. If you've ever heard the mewing of elk, especially if they happen to be in your yard, it is magical -- like being blessed by 600 pound angels.

Quietly watching from the window next to the peacock pen, I saw the barbed wire fence that was erected by our wellmeaning neighbor, had trapped a few smaller elk and one larger limping female from jumping over.

Hmmmm. I've never asked this before, but being his birthday and all, I rubbed my eyes and asked it. What would Jesus do?

While reading Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope yesterday, I was reminded of our third president, who distilled the teachings of Jesus Christ to the chagrin of the Church. One of Obama's passages reads:

There is a religious absolutism of the Christian right, a movement that gained traction on the undeniably difficult issue of abortion, but which soon flowered into something much broader; a movement that insists not only that Christianity is America's dominant faith, but that a particular fundamentalist brand of that faith should drive public policy, overriding any alternative source of understanding, whether the writings of liberal theologians, the findings of the National Academy of Sciences, or the words of Thomas Jefferson.

The beauty of not being a biblical expert, and not having time to search through the 1200 or so pages of the bible, I decided to rely on Thomas Jefferson to justify what I was about to do.

You may know that 200 years ago, Jefferson took a pair of scissors to the King James Bible and scrapped the dazzling miracles. Jefferson boasted that he had extracted the "diamonds from the dunghill" to reveal the true teaching of Jesus for what it was: "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."

At Monticello, fifteen years later, he added French, Latin and Greek translations and called the book The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, now published as The Jefferson Bible. I wrote a paper on this some time ago, and noted a lovely article written by Eric Reece for Harper's magazine. He distilled the teachings of Jesus, via Thomas Jefferson even further:

-Be just; justice comes from virtue, which comes from the heart.

-Treat people the way we want them to treat us.
-Always work for peaceful resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with compassion.
-Consider valuable the things that have no material value.
-Do not judge others.
-Do not bear grudges.
-Be modest and unpretentious.
-Give out of true generosity, not because we expect to be repaid. In all of his teachings, the Jesus that Jefferson recovers has one overarching theme--the world's values are all upside down in relation to the kingdom of God. Material riches do not constitute real wealth; those whom we think of as the most powerful, the first in the nation-state, are actually the last in the kingdom of God;... the natural economy followed by birds and lilies is superior to the economy based on Caesar's coinage or bankers who charge interest.

With this in my sinner's mind, I put my snowboard pants over my pajamas and we (my German Shepherd and I) set out across the snowfield with a pair of wire cutters. But the little tool was no match to the massive rusty metal and steel barbs. Athena cocked her head and perked her ears as I moaned at the dilemma. Ah ha! We marched back through the snow to the shed for the bolt cutters. After completing our mischievous deed, I couldn't help but notice the quiet but eerie feeling of walking home with a roll of rusty barbed wire caked with blood and elk hair on Christmas morning.

So, Happy Birthday Jesus of Nazareth, Merry Christmas Mr. President Elect and thank you Thomas Jefferson.

Comments

[cayuse]

God the father, son and holy ghost. Dump the 1200 pages and read the new Testament. When GOD walked the earth. Jefferson was great, but you must develop the experience for yourself it is not a survey course here. Infact it is no intellectionalism, its SPIRITUAL

It is called the Word of GOD, the new testament

I suggest you take three hours and read just the "red" letters of the New Testament.

After you see the glory, mysticism and splender of the Word. Not unlike the elk scene you talk about. What is the difference. Then read the words of Mathew, Luke, John, Peter and Paul. They speak the same Word in their voice.

Simply, love your neighbor as yourself and GOD with all your heart. Those elk are no less or more the wonder and splender than yourself. It is the living SPIRIT

For someone with your writing ability this should be the least that you can do. Then study Buddha, Krishna, Mohammad and see the journey from other paths. But learn to go deep inside to, learn contemplation, concentration and meditation. I strongly suggest SRF. Then you will wonder why christian churchess spend so much time in the Old Testament before GOD brought the WORD.

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the advice! Will do. I've been a Catholic Kriyavan for several years. Cheers.

[bannorhill]

So we should be like Jefferson and only follow the parts of the Bible we want to?

When the Bible says every 7 years there should be a year of Jubilee and all the slaves should be freed we can ignor it? That does not really apply.

Maybe we can decide to cut out the part that says feed the hungry or help the homeless. How about the 10 commandments and adultery? We can not possibly be expected to follow that. Homosexuality? They didn't really mean that.

Maybe we can decide to cut out the part that says feed the hungry or help the homeless. That is so inconvienient!!!

Or maybe we should examine ourselves and follow the whole Bible instead of making excuses to avoid the wisdom it contains.

[Pacific231]

Enough with the knee-jerk response. You obviously don't know a thing about the Jefferson Bible. Educate yourself before making a fool of yourself.

[bannorhill]

Percival Everett in his introduction of the Jefferson Bible says

“ Jefferson's recasting of the four Gospels of the New Testament…was an interesting (or not) bit of play intellectualism. Many claim his "translation" amounts to little more than a paraphrasing of the parts of the Bible with which he agreed. In fact, a glance at [several earlier translations of the Bible] might lead one to agree with this assertion. Still, he took it upon himself to do it, whatever it was he did. He decided that the rules of the club to which he wished to belong were not the rules he wanted to play by. So instead of changing clubs, he changed the rule book by literally cutting and pasting together only the sections that he found relevant to his interpretation. "

It seems my "knee jerk reaction" was the same as an editor who educated himself about the work before doing the introduction. Maybe you (Pacific231) are the one who needs to educate yourselve before making a fool of yourselve.

[mredder4]

A question to which I sadly suspect that I already know the answer: Is there any existing church that uses the Jefferson Bible for it's teachings, as opposed to say the King James or other versions? I suspect not, but hope that someone can answer me positively.

[cayuse]

I would simply say it is not Churchianity. Christianity, meaning to become Christ and the Son of GOD by being Spirit. In the World, but not of the World. This is the true meaning of except through ME no one goes to the Father. The living word, being like Christ in Spirit not in body as Jesus the man.

You do not come to earth with the Church and you cannot leave with it. It is your ego self becoming spirit, the teaching of Christ, obviously not most the churches. The great saints teach you to make your journey from material ego self to Spirit, they do not welcome you to a club to be saved.

Romans says it all. Jesus died of body that we may live beyond materialism (sin) and become the Sons of God. SRF

[Pacific231]

I'd look closely into Unitarian Universalism. This whole page is informative and also describes the sources from which UU's draw spiritual inspiration.

http://www.uua.org/visitors/6798.shtml

Not prosteletizing (sp?) or anything, but IMO this is a good answer to your good question. :-)

[joceeco]

"Treat people the way we want them to treat us." Does that mean that Thomas Jefferson wanted to be treated like the African Slaves were treated during his time on earth?

[Thad]

Hi Anita,

While I'm one of the folks who still prefers reading ink on pulp to liquid crystal, it bears noting that The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth is of course public domain and freely available online ( http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefJesu.html , as one source among many).

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

Thad: Thanks for posting the link. It's about 130 pages online.

[totalliberal]

My hero Hunter was a very lucky guy. So were the elk family.

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks totalliberal!

[doc1400]

Be just; justice comes from virtue, which comes from the heart.

Where is Thomas Jefferson's virtue in his keeping slaves and refusing to speak out against slavery.
Where is Thomas Jefferson's virtue in his six illegetimate children with his slave housekeeper Sally Hemins.

There was no worse hipocrite in colonial america than Thomas Jefferson. He was an absolute
fraud.

[Thad]

Seems to me that you're shooting the messenger.

Jefferson was a deeply flawed human being, who committed unforgivable acts (Hemings was FOURTEEN YEARS OLD when she joined him in France). But that doesn't automatically make everything he ever said or did wrong. I have to admit I'm a pretty big fan of the Declaration of Independence (though it was of course a group effort; "self-evident" was Franklin's choice of words, replacing Jefferson's "sacred and undeniable").

Maybe -- and I am going out on a limb here -- Anita Thompson harbors a certain appreciation for flawed men who wrote profound things despite turbulent personal lives. Fancy that.

[mredder4]

He was also a man.

To err is human; to forgive, Divine.

[LMPE]

As Bill Maher noted in "Religulous", Thomas Jefferson called Christianity "...one of the greatest frauds ever foisted on humanity."

Also, Jefferson owned a copy of the Koran. Nowadays, the Christian right would call this founding father a possible terrorist.

[Pacific231]

IIRC, the one Muslim member of Congress was allowed to use Jefferson's copy of the Koran for his swearing in.

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

That's interesting. Who was it?

[Lt]

It is a nice thought, if only the evangelicals thought the same way,

but in the meantime let's all just pray that American evangelicals might

one day become human beings, like Thomas Jefferson was.

[NotThisTime2008]

This IS a wonderful story!
A great read on a snowy windy Christmas Day
Here's to the future and religiously practicing the Golden Rule!

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi NotThisTime, The Golden Rule: He with the Gold Rules, unless of course, you have a pair of bolt cutters.

[Over40]

What, no comments? This is a wonderful Christmas story. Thank you, Ms. Thompson! And those elk thank you too!

[Anita Thompson - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank YOU Over40...