“National Treasure” (An introduction or “Where it all started”) By Pastor Todd DuBord (M. Div.) (www.nationaltreasures.org) Dear U.S. Supreme Court, Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, and Thomas Jefferson Foundation, As Well As Many Other U.S. Governing Officials: I am writing you to share my extreme disappointment with the false, misleading religious history and information given at three locations by governing personnel: the Jamestown settlement, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate, and the U.S. Supreme Court Building. In July of this year (2006) my wife, Tracy, and I were offered a gift-trip to Washington, D.C. and Virginia by some pastor friends of ours from a large Sacramento Church, who, along with a travel company, were hosting a Christian heritage tour back to the southern-east coast. One of the primary purposes of the trip was to rediscover the history, and particularly the Christian history, of America’s Founders, early settlements, and national capital. It of course was an awesome week-long tour, which included seeing sites from the first English settlement in Jamestown, Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s estate), Mt. Vernon (George Washington’s estate), Ford’s Theater (where Lincoln was shot), a tour of the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and the U.S. Supreme Court Building, to a close-up view of the White House and a walk through of a host of memorials: the Holocaust Museum, Korean War Memorial, World War 2 Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Washington Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial, among other sites. As great as the trip was, it was unfortunately hindered on three occasions by the revisions or exclusions of religious history and information. Quite frankly, as a Christian religion major in my undergraduate and graduate studies, I was stunned by the information given (or not given). Let me discuss each in turn. The Absence of Christian History at the Jamestown Settlement Tour While the tour guide of the Jamestown museum and settlement was cordial and informative on many points, there were two momentous, religious oversights. First, we were not only taught several times, but asked to repeat on several other occasions, the reason the first settlers came here to America: “to make money.” While this is 1 partially true, it was not only totally overstated by its emphasis and repetition, but there was absolutely no hint of the religious purpose given and stated under the Virginia Charter of 1606, which called for the “propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” There was also absolutely no mention of the fact that the colonists' first act, after having landed at Cape Henry, April 27, 1607, was to erect a large wooden cross and hold a prayer meeting, conducted by their minister, Reverend Robert Hunt. As colonist George Percy noted back then, “The nine and twentieth day we set up a cross at Chesupioc Bay, and named the place Cape Henry.” In fact, it seemed whenever there was an opportunity to address any of the religious characteristics or zeal of this first community, they were avoided. Secondly, at the Jamestown museum and settlement, as the tour guide was leading us through the very heart of the replica of the community, the Anglican Church, we asked if the guide could speak about the significance of the three religious plaques (the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, etc.) placed on the wall at the front of the church. Our guide’s response was that she was unable to speak about it, a clear reference to all of us that she was trained to minimize the religious aspects of the settlement. We were all appalled, and shared so with her, especially understanding that this was an educational tour and that the religious education was being eliminated from the heart of a people who were devoutly Christian. As a result, I am first respectfully requesting that the religious history, particularly the devout Christian faith and foundations of the first American settlers, be rediscovered and reintroduced into the Jamestown tour guides’ information and other educational parks and organizations about America’s early colonization history. The Absence of Christian History and Faith of Thomas Jefferson on Monticello Estate Tours From Jamestown we traveled to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. What a beautiful estate! Again, while our guide was cordial and informative about many matters, when asked about the religious faith of Thomas Jefferson, he abruptly and actually quite arrogantly said, “We all know Jefferson was a strict deist [a person who believes in a Creator who does not involve Himself in the daily affairs of men], who ardently fought for the separation of Church and State.” His added comments left everyone believing Jefferson was essentially (what might be called today) “a liberal democrat,” and especially one who would have never allowed any mixture of religion in government. Again, while these statements have some truth in them, they were exaggerated 2 and gave no hint of how his religious passion prompted him to use both his governmental positions and even funds to establish churches, distribute Bibles, and promote Christianity. Let me explain. Religiously speaking, Jefferson was raised Anglican (Church of England), which is one significant reason why he (like others) opposed the tyranny of king, priest, or whomever. That is also why, in the New World (specifically Virginia), he pushed for one of his crowning achievements, the Bill for Religious Freedom, which passed in 1786 by the Virginia General Assembly. (At the time, Anglicanism was also the only denomination funded by Virginia taxes). It helped to establish a freedom of religion (not freedom from religion) in our country, and would serve as a predecessor of sort for the later First Amendment and the religious liberties it would guarantee in the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses. Seemingly ironic to many today, the Bill for Religious Freedom and the later First Amendment were born during a time when government was busy also aiding the progress of Christianity, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Let me give a few examples. (1) Despite that Jefferson would later struggle to lead national days of fasting, thanksgiving, prayer, and the like, the Continental Congress (of which he was a part—1775- 1776 and 1783-1784) would appointed official national days of fasting and prayer for the colonies every year, like this one on May 16, 1776: The Congress....Desirous...to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God's superintending providence, and of their duty, devoutly to rely...on His aid and direction...Do earnestly recommend Friday, the 17th day of May be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewailed our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God's righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain this pardon and forgiveness.” Could you see Congress making similar declarations today? (2) Regarding the proposed seal for the United States, Jefferson first recommended one reflecting the "children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by night….”, later accepting Benjamin Franklin’s suggestion to adapt the Old Testament account of God’s parting of the Red Sea. (See below) http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html Do these symbols seem like they could come from those who are ardently in favor of the separation of Church and State? (3) In 1777, one year after the creation of the Declaration of Independence, though Jefferson was not on the Continental Congress at the time, it voted to import 20,000 copies of 3 the Bible (from “Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere”) for the people of this new nation, because they could not obtain them from England during the Revolutionary War. The Committee of Commerce recommended this to Congress because “the use of the Bible is so universal, and its importance so great” (Journals of Congress, Vol. 8, pp. 734-735)--http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/ampage?collId=lljc&fileName=008/lljc008.db&recNum=360&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field (DOCID+@lit(jc00897))%230080361&linkText=1 This import was affirmed by the thirteen Colonies by a narrow 7-6 vote, but it was not enacted upon by Congress, probably because Robert Aitken (1734-1802), a Philadelphia printer and the first to publish a Bible in this U.S., was already busy printing the New Testament in 1777, which would also be followed in 1778, 1779, and 1781. (At first the committee thought domestic productions too expensive, only to learn in the end that it was being done by Aitken at less cost than it would be to import). On January 26, 1781, Aitken petitioned Congress to officially authorize a publication of both Old and New Testaments, which he was preparing at his own expense (Journals of Congress, Volume 19, p. 91--http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/ampage?collId=lljc&fileName=019/lljc019.db&recNum=102&itemLink=D?hlaw:14:./temp/~a mmem_1jAn::%230190103&linkText=1) On September 12, 1782, the Congress “highly approve[d] the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken….recommended this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.” (Journals of Congress (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/ampage?collId=lljc&fileName=023/lljc023.db&recNum=115&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field (DATE+17820912)::%230230115&linkText=1 ) (4) In acquisition of additional land for the U.S., then President Jefferson signed a 1803 Indian treaty with the Kaskaskias tribe, negotiated by William Henry Harrison, governor of the land and superintendent of Indian affairs, in which “the United States will give annually for seven years one hundred dollars for the support of a [Catholic] priest….the United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church” (Public Statutes At Large Of The United States, 1948, 7:78-79, Article 3rd-- http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=007/llsl007.db&recNum=90 ).