Jefferson on Religion

Raising Kaine :: George Allen Is No Thomas Jefferson!: "Finally, the third and most important point: George Allen and Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom do not mix. In fact, Thomas Jefferson believed strongly in religious freedom and separation of church and state. In 1800, he wrote, in reference to a group of clergy who hoped to create an official Christian Church for the United States:

The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.

In addition, Jefferson had this to say about people who try to bring Religion out of the realm of personal belief and into the public sphere:

Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.

So how is Thomas Jefferson, a man who believed deeply that religion was a private matter that should be kept out of the public domain, like George Allen, one of the leading members of the religious right wing today? Let's put it this way, do "