I find few contemporary essayists to be as obnoxious as Christopher Hitchens. I find him equally nasty whether he is writing from the Left (as he did for many years as a columnist for The Nation) or whether he is writing from the so-called Right (as he does now for The Weekly Standard and other conservative magazines from time to time). Hitchens has an interesting take on the recent controversy over U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) being sworn in on a copy of Thomas Jefferson’s translation of the Koran.
In Slate magazine, Hitchens notes that Jefferson was no friend of Islam. He didn’t consider it a “religion of peace.” And yet, Hitchens notes, Jefferson was also no friend of revealed religion in general. Hitchens writes:
“Jefferson did not demand regime change of the Barbary states, only policy change. And as far as I can find, he avoided any comment on the religious dimension of the war. But then, he avoided public comment on faith whenever possible. It was not until long after his death that we became able to read most of his scornful writings on revelation and redemption (recently cited with great clarity by Brooke Allen in her book Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers). And it was not until long after his death that The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth was publishable. Sometimes known as ‘the Jefferson Bible’ for short, this consists of the four gospels of the New Testament as redacted by our third president with (literally) a razor blade in his hand. With this blade, he excised every verse dealing with virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and other puerile superstition, thus leaving him (and us) with a very much shorter book. In 1904 (those were the days), the Jefferson Bible was printed by order of Congress, and for many years was presented to all newly elected members of that body. Here’s a tradition worth reviving: Why not ask all new members of Congress to swear on that?”
Hitchens, of course, equates all claims to divine revelation, whether the Koran or the Book of Mormon or the Bible, to equal status as superstition, to be discarded by free people. Yes, Hitchens supports an escalating War on Terror. But we must remember that he also supports an Enlightenment-anchored War on Revelation itself. Not everyone who hates Allah loves Jesus.
