Quotation: "The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."

Variations:

1. "Christianity is the best friend of government because it deals with the heart."
2. "The reason Christianity is the best friend for government is because Christianity deals with the heart."

Sources consulted: Searching on the phrase "best friend of government"

1. Monticello website
2. Ford's Works of Thomas Jefferson
3. L&B (CD-ROM version)
4. UVA EText Jefferson Digital Archive: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government, Texts by or to Thomas Jefferson from the Modern English Collection
5. Thomas Jefferson Retirement Papers
6. Quotable Jefferson (searching in the index under "Christianity")
7. Bartleby.com: Quotations

Earliest known appearance in print: 2001^[1][2]

Other attributions: None known.

Status: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Steve Russo, Why Celebrate Easter (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2001), 83.
2. ↑ To establish the earliest appearance of this phrase in print, the following sources were searched for the phrase, "Christianity is the best friend of government": Google Books, Google Scholar, Amazon.com, Internet Archive, America's Historical Newspapers, American Broadsides and Ephemera Series I, Early American Imprints Series I and II, Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, American Periodicals Series Online, JSTOR.

See Also

• Jefferson's Religious Beliefs