Thus, Barton’s claim in The Jefferson Lies that Jefferson “openly embraced and promoted” the Restoration and Christian Primitivist movement fails when one considers the words of Jefferson in their context. Jefferson’s hope for a return to the doctrines of Jesus had been expressed during his presidency in his Syllabus, and his extractions from the Gospels. Even before his presidency he rejected the Trinity and attended Joseph Priestley’s Unitarian congregation in Philadelphia. All of Jefferson’s expressions about getting back to the teachings of Jesus are more properly associated with
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