These Founders were Christians

To the editor:

Before disparaging the religion of our Founding Fathers, Kerrie Lintner should get her facts straight.

On April 21, 1803, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence): "My views ... are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the 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 any one to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others."

In a letter to Charles Thompson Jan. 9, 1816, Jefferson wrote regarding his book, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth": "A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."

James Madison, who studied for the ministry before he took up the law, made copious notes in his personal Bible including: "It is not the talking but the walking and working person that is the true Christian."

Maybe not all the Founding Fathers were Christians, but these two certainly were.

JOHN MITCHELL

Jackson