The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

Jefferson does not say that rights are a gift from god, but that rights are secured by “a conviction in the minds of the people” that the rights are a gift from god. This actually supports the idea discussed in Chapter 2: that religion is not the source of, but a substitute for, morality. Jefferson is saying that most people are not sophisticated enough to ponder moral questions, so they should adhere to religion. This belief actually undercuts the Christian nationalists’ claims because it means that Jefferson, as a member of the elite, along with the other founders, did not need religion and would not have needed it to draft the Declaration. Jefferson was also writing in poetic terms. He used the biblical language of a wrathful god to prophesy a Civil War over slavery. Langston Hughes would express the same sentiment 150 years later, in “Warning,” a beautiful poem that likened retributive justice to the wind, not a deity.

The average person is not sophisticated enough to have morals that God