Thomas Jefferson's comments on Christianity

Though it appears he denied the deity of Christ, Thomas Jefferson used public monies to teach American Indians the words of Jesus, attended Christian services held in Congress during his time as President, and declared the following:

"God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them" ("A Summary View of the Rights of British America").

"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 these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever [...]" (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII).

In a letter to Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803:

"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 any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others [...]."

And in a letter to his daughter Martha dated April 25, 1803, Mr. Jefferson promised to send a copy of An History of the Corruptions of Christianity, in two volumes, by Joseph Priestley. In referencing the book in a letter to Henry Fry on June 17, 1804, Jefferson observed:

“[...]I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has ever been taught but I hold in the most profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been invented by priestcraft and established by kingcraft constituting a conspiracy of church and state against the civil and religious liberties of mankind [...].”