Thomas Jefferson

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Started thinking about Jefferson's greatness today while walking Rocky. It's not just that he was brilliant and fought hard to start the US off without slavery. Detractors have rightly noted that whenever he was short of cash and wanted a fresh shipment of books from Paris, he'd sell off a fellow human being to indulge himself. But that's exactly why he knew slavery had to be outlawed. How many can resist the immense financial benefits of slavery, if allowed? The Bible warns again and again about how easily we are corrupted by money, and yet we always try to get around this stricture. Even those who will swear to a literal interpretation of the Bible in every other way will find a way to justify the accumulation of wealth. Our greed is like water pushing through the rock of morality, finding any fissure to seep through, wearing down the foundation, looking for a way to stream out.

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