Ignorant Okie Sen. Coburn lies, misquotes Jefferson
Johnny Asia
held up a big graphic displaying a quote from Thomas Jefferson:
" To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of
ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical "
This quote resided in the background while Coburn went on and an
about earmarks, and abortion, and waste and fraud in the federal
government. If Senator Coburn had actually read the original source of
the quote, however, I don't think he'd be so quick to use it.
Jefferson's actual words originated in the Virginia Statute for
Religious Freedom:
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/lib-edu/education/bor/vsrftext.htm
to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the
propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical
The Statute goes on to say...
our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any
more than our opinions in physics or geometry, that therefore the
proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying
upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and
emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious
opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and
advantages, to which, in common with his fellow
citizens, he has a natural right, that it tends only to corrupt the
principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage.