Immaculate conceptions are rarely immaculate

He was a very prominent American, one we quote and cite often. "He thought himself a true Christian," Newsweek's Simon Schama writes, "and an admirer of the moral teachings of the Nazarene." But if told that Jesus was the son of God, he would say poppycock. For this man believed that generations of clergy "had perverted the simple humanity of Jesus the reformer, turned him into a messiah, and invented the myth that he had died to redeem mankind’s sins." If this American - a man bestowed with many gifts - were alive today and tried to run on a Republican ticket for the presidency, the party would brand him a heretic and run him out of town on a rail. Who was this man? Thomas Jefferson, the Sage of Monticello, and third president of the United States.