> SOUTHERN INDIANA — All presidents of the United States should practice a religion, preferably the Christian one, or something close to it. Our nation is probably not ready yet for a Muslim president, but we’ll know in November how the Book of Mormon turns out. Candidates for president should trust in God, because “In God We Trust” is printed on our money. This motto is very important to them, because trust in God without faith in money to run campaign ads will cause the loser to weep and gnash his teeth. Voters should also trust something, too, but most of us don’t know what it is. However, if both candidates trust in God, then this puts him in an awkward position, because he must then determine which one trusts money more.

We had faith in our Founding Fathers and assumed they were religious and righteous, but Thomas Jefferson didn’t like parts of the Bible, and didn’t believe most of it. Although he was very busy serving as governor of Virginia, vice-president and two terms as president, he wrote, “At the short intervals when I could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, the subject [the Bible] has been under my contemplation.” Today, presidents contemplate how to make promises and to raise campaign funds to advertise how sick their opponent is. We don’t know what they do during their spare time, but Thomas Jefferson studied the Bible. He worked for years condensing it, because he thought most of it was “superstition.”

Jefferson was primarily responsible for the “wall of separation between church and state.” When he ran for president, critics accused him of being unfit to hold office, because he did not have orthodox religious beliefs. Although he attended the Unitarian Church, he never joined. He referred to himself as a “Christian,” “a sect by myself,” and a “Unitarian by myself.” One historian associated Jefferson with “rational religion,” or deism, defined as the belief that God exists and created the world and its natural laws, but thereafter assumed no control over it.

Jefferson said, “It is in our lives and not our words that religion must be read.” Whatever his religion or beliefs, he decided to take a razor and cut out parts of the Bible and put them into a book that made sense to him. He first mentioned this endeavor in a letter to John Adams dated Oct. 13, 1813. However, he had begun the project earlier during his first term as president, recording that he spent “two or three nights a week at Washington after getting through reading the papers of the day.” His rationale for the long, involved undertaking was, “to show a master workman and that his system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime that probably has ever been taught.”

Jefferson titled his personal Bible, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually in Greek, Latin, French and English.” Our nation wasn’t speaking Spanish back then.

 Jefferson took the parts that were meaningful to him from the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. From the nearly 500 pages of the original New Testament, he condensed it to 46. His Bible does not mention the virgin birth, the resurrection or the Trinity, but he believed what Jesus taught. He considered the Evangelicals unlearned and thought that apostle Paul was the real villain, “the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.”

Jefferson’s Bible is simply about what Jesus of Nazareth taught and did, and little more. It’s concise, clear and easily understood, a powerful piece of work. Throughout his teaching, Jesus stressed over and over to judge not, to love your enemies and to care for the poor. He blessed the peacemakers, blasted the hypocrites and said, “woe unto you that are rich.” He stressed only two commandments — love God and love thy neighbor as thyself, which is a tough one.

You either believe every word of the Bible [or another religious work], or you don’t. If you don’t believe every word of it, then you should choose the parts that make sense to you, and live by them — or ignore it all.

Why did Jefferson work for about 20 years on his Bible, when he could have been out campaigning for himself? He needed to clarify a moral guide to live by. If there were a three-way presidential race today, Obama, Romney and Jefferson, what chance would a Bible slasher have?

Contact Terry Cummins at TLCTLC@AOL.com.