Tuesday, September 22, 2009
An Evening with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison & Alexander Hamilton
Directions: Watch the video clip carefully and post at least 2 responses sharing the insights did you gain?
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22 comments:
From watching this I was able to better understand Thomas Jefferson's views on religion and the role it had in his politics. From watching this I think that in some ways it wasn't to his benefit to keep his religion private. I think that some people may have wanted him to be open about his religion because at the time religion, Christianity was a huge part of life. However because he was a deist if he was open about that it would have been harmful to his politics. Because he thought that the creator no longer had a role in the world and the peoples affairs that annoyed and upset some people, which could have made him unpopular among some. His view on religion, I think was able for him to help a nation and government that had a separation of church and state.
Some of the insights I gained watching this video was that Jefferson was a deist. I also learned that he did not believe Jesus was the son of god or that he rose to heaven. Also that Thomas Jefferson is kind of the poster child for unresovled issues. I learned that Jefferson was a racist and that his reputation now is in trouble.
I would like to respond to the question of Jefferson’s reputation. In my own personal opinion, Jefferson deserves the reputation he currently holds as a great man. After all, he authored the document around which the basic principles of our country were built, as well as made the largest single land purchase of any president. That is only a few of his politically important achievements, as the others in regards to architecture and science are not pertinent to this class. One must remember that no one is perfect and everyone does that which is amoral every now and again. That said, I acknowledge that owning slaves and being admittedly racist is more than simple imperfection. However, racism and slave owning were the order of the time and had Jefferson lived in a more modern time perhaps his racist views would have been different. The mark of racism should detract only slightly from the reputation of Jefferson as a genius and founding father of our country.
Personally, I found the discussion regarding Jefferson’s religious beliefs and the reaction of others to them quite interesting. I believe completely that people would be upset over a president running who is of an uncommon religion such as deism. This idea of certain individuals being upset over aspects of an elected official persists today; the most recent example being the 2008 elections where the race issue seemed ever present. Barack Obama sought to avoid the issue of race, just as Jefferson attempted to sidestep the issue of his religious beliefs, as neither issue had any significance in regard to their political ability. It seems that being a nation of differences it would be best to simply accept those that do not influence others, such as one’s religion or race. As ‘Jefferson’ implied with his closing remarks, now is the time to embrace our diversity.
Some insights I gained were about Jefferson and race. That he was a racist, but he talked of equality among all. He kind of made himself sound like a hypocrite. And that this now is detrimental to his image. He may now be remembered more for his views on race rather than his views on politics and what his accomplishments for the country.
From this video i learned how Jefferson was a deist and that he didn't believe that Jesus was the son of god. He did believe that Jesus was the greatest man to ever live though. He also doesn't believe in the inspiration of the bible. He also believed that there was a single creator of this earth and it is like a clock and he is just watching this clock unwind. I learned that Jefferson was the poster child for the unresolved issue in America. Jefferson was a racist and he believed in apartheid. He was a slave owner. Jefferson's racist views had made a negative effect to what a real genius Jefferson was as one of the founding fathers.
I agree with Steve that the people would be upset over some one of an uncommon religion was running for president. I believe that religion shouldn't effect some one to run for president though. I think that the people shouldn't hold it aganist what religion they are because even though they are an uncommon religious they could be a political genius. I also think that race shouldn't effect the peoples decision for presidency for the same reason as i stated before.
From this clip, I learned along with all of you that Jefferson was a racist and his religious views did not follow that of the common people. However, this did not affect his political abilities. The fact that he was a deist did not change his great ideas on government. I believe that if people had known at the time his religious beliefs, he would not have been as well respected. Jefferson not speaking of his religious views is another example of how brilliant he was. He realized what people respected and wanted to be exactly that.
Some insights I gained watching this video was that Jefferson believed on keeping his views on religion private. I believe that all candidates for election don't have say what religion they do or do not belong to. It is their right to keep it a secret, and no one should be elected or not elected because of their religion or race for that matter. I think that if Jefferson had talked about his religious beliefs the government may be different now and that he probably wouldn't have been elected. I agree with Lauren that his views would have made him unpopular. I also agree with Stephen that his reputation should remain that of a great man with all of his political acheievments intact.
From watching this video clip I learned a great deal about Jefferson's religious views and beliefs. I learned that Jefferson was a deist and that he preferred to keep his religious beliefs private. I also learned that Jefferson didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God and that Jesus didn't rise on the third day. I also learned that Jefferson thought that Jesus was one of the greatest men every born but just a man, nothing else.
Another insight I learned from the video clip was that Jefferson was a racist. I learned that Jefferson owned slaves but didn't think much of it and talked equally about them. I believe, although that Jefferson should be remembered for his accomplishments and for the great man he was, more than for his racial views, similar to what Stephen said.
Very nicely stated Michelle! Jefferson was a great man with great political views and his religion does not change that. However, I find it a little strange that he was racist but he himself was very different from the majority of people. If he thought that everyone should be the same, then why did he choose himself to be different?
Some of the insight I gained from watching this clip is that Jefferson was a deist. He believed that the Creator designed the Earth but no longer intervenes with human life. He called himself a Christian, yet he did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He simply believed that Jesus was the greatest man to ever live, but only a man. Jefferson tried to keep his religion a private matter for the sake of political issues, and when people found out about his religious beliefs some were angered and did not agree. He did this so that people would not judge him based solely on his religious beliefs.
I agree with the many of you who say that Jefferson was smart to keep his religious views private. I believe that he most certainly would have been judged for not having a religion. In that day religion had much more influence on society than it does today. Jefferson most likely would not have gotten as many supporters as he if he had said he was a deist. Without his many supporters Jefferson might not have been able to make as many contributions to this country as he did.
I was surprised to learn that Jefferson’s reputation is in trouble. I agree with Stephen, I think that Jefferson was a great man. Jefferson did many important things for this country. I do not think that he should be judged so heavily on his faults. No one is perfect, including Thomas Jefferson. If everyone was only judged on the things that they did wrong then the world would not be as it is today, it would be much worse. Besides, if Jefferson was alive today his views on racism and slavery would probably be very different.
I agree heavily with what Steve said about how Jefferson's reputation should remain as it was. At that time, slavery was the norm. Owning slaves wasn't considered racism, it was considered normal. He contributed a lot to the formation of this country and his reputation shouldn't be lowered because of that one flaw
Anyways, some insight i gained by watching this video was that although religious toleration was fairly high in the colonies, Jefferson still felt the need to hide his true beliefs because he feared he would lose political credibility. This gives insight to the level of which religions were tolerated. It is now obvious to me that the toleration that is much talked about of the colonies was actually not as i had thought
From the clip, I discovered that Thomas Jefferson was deist. I believe that this shaped his views on the ability of the people to rule themselves. He thought that God had made the universe and the people perfect, therefore, more control was not needed over them to help them make the right decisions.
I also found Jefferson's opinion on race contradictory. Although he believed that "the people" should rule and
that America should have no peasants, he continuously fails to define who the people are. I believe it is true that we now see Jefferson more for his prejudices rather than his brilliance.
I also gained the insight that Jefferson was a raciest yet he claimed that he believed all people are created equally. In addition, Jefferson owned slaves and believed in apartheid which also goes against his words, that all people are created equal to one another. Jefferson seems to be a hypocrite and he was attracting racial attention in doing this. This is a negative thing to his reputation because some people may think of Jefferson being a hypocrite instead of the great political leader that he truly was.
I agree that Jefferson was a bit of a hypocrite. He preached liberty and justice and equality, yet he had slaves. He was also incredibly racist. I think that this is very sad. We look up to him as one of the more important founding fathers, he is one of the most well known fathers. Now we learn all the hidden things that no one wants to share with the world.
I have gained much insight from watching this video clip about the religious views of Jefferson. I personally can not understand how someone can call themselves a christian, yet not follow, or believe in the teachings Christ Jesus. That really amazed me. I completely disagree with his views on religion, but i still think he was an amazing politician. I think that your religion shouldn't be used to judge how you run your country.
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