Before he died, Thomas Jefferson expressed his desire that his three biggest accomplishments be listed on the obelisk that marks his grave at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. They were that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence (the acceptance of which we celebrate in America at 250), the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (written in 1777 and adopted in 1786), and the founder of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville).

Missing in those three accomplishments is that he was our third president or that he negotiated the largest land addition to the United States in our history, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

We often hear today that many of our founding fathers were essentially unbelievers. Jefferson is often held up as a prime example of this. Yet he wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which says our rights come from the Creator.

In 1777, the same year he wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he helped co-found, as a layman, an evangelical church, which called for an evangelical pastor. Jefferson wrote the by-laws for the church, saying that he and the other laymen were “desirous…of gospel knowledge” and wishing to have the Holy Scriptures explained to them. Jefferson gave more money for that church than any other layman.

The minister they called for that church, Rev. Charles Clay,........

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