Published: Thursday, October 18, 2007
WATCHMEN
U.S. law is not Christian in orgin
"Is not the Bible basically the foundation of our legal system...?"
asked a Tuesday letter writer.
Absolutely not, according to Thomas Jefferson, a principal author of the Declaration of Independence, in his letter to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
U.S. law is founded upon British common law. But the common law is older than Christianity in Britain.
"Here, then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it," wrote Jefferson.
He wrote much more on this subject, including his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, wherein Jefferson describes the First Amendment as "thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
David Daye
Langley
asked a Tuesday letter writer.
Absolutely not, according to Thomas Jefferson, a principal author of the Declaration of Independence, in his letter to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
U.S. law is founded upon British common law. But the common law is older than Christianity in Britain.
"Here, then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it," wrote Jefferson.
He wrote much more on this subject, including his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, wherein Jefferson describes the First Amendment as "thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
David Daye
Langley
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