Did the Founding Fathers Oppose Christianity ?

In a debate on a usenet group with an atheist, he said the following:

>The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. >The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this >raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They >are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites." - Thomas Jefferson

>Which are you?

My response:

You take that comment out of context. Thomas Jefferson was a very perspicacious person. He believed in Christ but was against these Christian sects who supposedly spoke for God (priestcraft). He saw through their hypocrisy and inability to answer questions about God such as who He is, why God has ceased to speak, what happens after death, etc. Questions that can only be answered by revelation through the Priesthood.

29 He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.

(2 Nephi 26:29)

16 Nevertheless, this did not put an end to the spreading of priestcraft through the land; for there were many who loved the vain things of the world, and they went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honor.

(Alma 1:16)

Because the Priesthood had not been restored yet, many of the questions about God and life had not been answered that the Prophet Joseph Smith brought to light like the true identity of God, the fact that we also have a spirit body existing within out physical bodies, what heaven is like, etc.

"I am like a huge rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and womenall hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus will I become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 304.)

80 And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.

(Doctrine & Covenants 101:80)

VISION OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND U.S. PRESIDENTS by the third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sainsts Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Temple:

I will say here, before closing, that two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead, gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they: "You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God." These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. I thought it very singular that notwithstanding so much work had been done, and yet nothing had been done for them. The thought never entered my heart from the fact, I suppose, that heretofore our minds were reaching after our more immediate friends and relatives. I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others; I then baptized him for every President of the United States except three; and when their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them. (1877, J.D. 19:229)
* * *

[138] I am going to bear my testimony to this assembly, if I never do it again in my life, that those men who laid the foundation of this American Government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits, not wicked men. General Washington and all the men that labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord. Another thing I am going to say here, because I have a right to say it. Every one of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence with General Washington called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that l should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the house of God for them. Men are here, I believe, that know of this--Brothers J.D.T. McAllister, David H. Cannon and James C. Bleak. Brother McAllister baptized me for all these men, and I then told these brethren that it was their duty to go into the Temple and labor until they got endowments for all of them. They did it. Would those spirits have called upon me, as an Elder in Israel, to perform that work if they had not been noble spirits before God? They would not. I bear this testimony because it is true. The spirit of God bore record to myself and the brethren while we were laboring in that way. * * * (Rept. of Pres. Wilford Woodruff, Gen. Conf., April 10, 1898, pp. 89-90)

You are a fool and hypocrite.