12. Who was the first U.S. president to be accused of atheism during his election campaign?
From Quiz Offbeat Presidential Firsts and Onlies
Answer:
Thomas Jefferson
In 1800, the 'New England Palladium' wrote, "Should the infidel Jefferson be elected to the Presidency, the seal of death is that moment set on our holy religion, our churches will be prostrated, and some infamous 'prostitute', under the title of Goddess of Reason, will preside in the sanctuaries now devoted to the worship of the most High". Federalists also called him a "howling atheist" and an infidel. Following such calumny during his presidential campaign Jefferson became increasingly reluctant to publicly share his religious opinions.
This we know: Whilst Thomas Jefferson was certainly unorthodox in his beliefs, better to call him a Unitarian than an atheist, and he called himself a Deist (which denotes belief in God). Jefferson opposed Calvinism, Trinitarianism, and Platonic elements in Christianity. (For example, Plato influenced St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.) Jefferson questioned the miracles of Jesus, yet he accepted Christ's moral teachings, and he believed in divine intervention (Providence) and in an afterlife.
Some of Jefferson's expressed beliefs may have fueled his enemies' slander. Jefferson insisted on the famous "wall of separation between Church and State" to prevent religious tyranny of the very kind from which many settlers of the New World had fled. He reserved special vitriol for the "Five Points of Calvinism", which he believed to be demonic, and wrote: "It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin."
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