‘Tis the season for Christians to celebrate the first chapter of the New Testament of their bible — the birth of the philosopher, Jesus, who founded their religion. Of all the major religions that trace their origins to an individual, Christianity is the only one that associates charitable giving with the birth of its founder. So that’s a good thing.
As significant as the religious impact Christianity has had on human history, the philosophy behind the mythology has been more important. While the mythology has spawned organized churches that have, at times, been less than stellar adherents of the philosophy of their founder, his teachings have had only a positive impact.
That positive impact includes the fundamental principle that underlies the western-European concept of self-government that culminated with the American Declaration of Independence (DOI) in 1776.
In books such as Pulitzer Prize winning “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution” by Bernard Bailyn, and “The Five Thousand Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World” by W. Cleon Skousen the authors detail how that fundamental principle enunciated in the DOI evolved from the ‘Judeo-Christian ethic’ inherent in Jesus’ philosophical teaching.
As further evidence of the primary influence of Christianity on the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights …” enshrined in the DOI, you can look to another book: one that was compiled by the principal author of that seminal phrase from the DOI, Thomas Jefferson.
The book Jefferson compiled was ‘The Jefferson Bible’, completed in 1803. I say that Jefferson “compiled” it, rather than “wrote” it. What he did was cut-and-past (literally, with scissors and glue) the parts of the New Testament that gave Jesus’ personal history, and his teachings — but which excluded the mythology, such as his ‘virgin birth’ and miracles attributed to him.
The first verse of Jefferson’s ‘bible’ is:
And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
The last verse describes Jesus’ burial.
There laid they Jesus: and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
There is nothing about the mythology of the “annuciation” or “resurrection”.
Yet Jefferson does not reject Jesus teachings. In fact, his purpose in compiling his ‘bible’ was to profess his belief in those teachings. Jefferson said so in a letter to his friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush (that accompanied the original copy of his ‘bible’) in which he expressed his view of Christianity. Jefferson wrote that his ‘bible’ was:
…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.
Among the “Anti-Christian” ideas Jefferson said were wrongly “imputed” to him was his supposed advocacy of a strict “wall of separation between church and state” — a comment he wrote in passing in a private letter that some anti-religionists subsequently erroneously claim to be a principle enshrined in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Aside from the historical fact that Jefferson was not one of the authors of the Bill of Rights, his belief in the relationship between government and religion are well known from the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which he did author. Nowhere in that Statute does he mention a “wall of separation”.
Paragraph three of that Virginia Statute makes it clear that any effort by government to restrict the free exercise of religion would be “an infringement of natural right”. That is just what the final arbiter of the meaning of the First Amendment, the United States Supreme Court, said in recent pronouncements on that Amendment.
Two cases, decided in 2022, found that governments had infringed the rights of Christians to exercise their religious freedom when those governments tried to say that any expression of religious belief that was in any way associated with a government function was prohibited by the First Amendment.
I previously described those cases so I won’t rehash them here.
I’ve read large parts of the King James version of the Christian bible New Testament, and can even recite a few random passages from it. But I don’t make even the slightest claim to being a biblical scholar.
However, I have read the entire ‘Jefferson Bible’, and like him, I am “attached” to Jesus’ doctrines “in preference to all others”. In that sense I am, like Jefferson, a Christian — though I do not subscribe to the mythology.
Some have called me a ‘Grinch’ and ‘Scrooge’ because I don’t actively participate in a certain kind of outward display of ‘the Christmas spirit’ — which appears to mean running up credit card debt to buy presents, and seeing how much electricity can be consumed with lighting on homes.
I don’t judge those who choose to display their Christian devotion by gift giving and light shows if that’s what makes them happy. But I expect the same respect in return, if I choose not to.
I’ve also noticed over the years that for many the ‘Christmas spirit’ seems to end (like Cinderella’s fantasy date at midnight) on December 25.
On December 26, I don’t hear any carols played on the radio stations, nor widespread greetings of “Merry Christmas” from strangers. Conversations often become all about plans for New Years Eve.
Ho, Ho, Ho… Merry Christmas!