More Historical Revisionism from the National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools
One segment in this promotional television special contains the beginning of the video of a song called America Again by Christian recording artist Carman. America Again These lyrics are, of course, full of the same Christian nationalist historical revisionism found elsewhere, although the misquotes were changed a bit by Carman to make them rhyme and fit into his song. One of the lies comes from the following popular misquote, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: "The God who gave us life gave us liberty...Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction...that these liberties are the gift of God? The Bible is the cornerstone for American liberty." The first phrase used to assemble this misquote, "The God who gave us life gave us liberty," comes from A Summary View of the Rights of British America, an essay outlining grievances against the British government, written by Jefferson for the use of the Virginia delegates who were being sent to the First Continental Congress in 1774. What Jefferson was referring to in the passage from which the phase in the misquote is taken were the property rights of the colonists and the restrictions on the free trade of the colonies with countries other than Great Britain. ...Accept of every commercial preference it is in our power to give for such things as we can raise for their use, or they make for ours. But let them not think to exclude us from going to other markets to dispose of those commodities which they cannot use, or to supply those wants which they cannot supply. Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own. The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. This, sire, is our last, our determined resolution; and that you will be pleased to interpose with that efficacy which your earnest endeavours may ensure to procure redress of these our great grievances, to quiet the minds of your subjects in British America... The second phrase, "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction...that these liberties are the gift of God?," comes from Notes on the State of Virginia, originally written by Jefferson in 1781 as a response to a list of questions about Virginia from the French consul to the United States, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, and then expanded on a |