Dan, I see that there have been 189 posts to the Feelings thread since I last looked at it, and there is no way I'm going to open up the thread and try to see what the masses have had to say about your challenge, at this hour of the night! <gg>
This is just a preliminary response, because I really can't pay proper attention to your original request or your present post until tomorrow afternoon.
In the meantime:
1) Three unsourced quotes will not give you "three for three": I intend to give you entire web sites. So, batten down your hatches! <gg>
2) Kindly supply URL, or name of author/title of book, for any quotes you may cite. The fact is that some sources are more authoritative than others, some are more into axe-grinding/special pleading than others, etc.
3) I am having real trouble crediting your Adams quote, for example. Adams was an overt Unitarian (and possibly also a covert Deist). The whole point of Unitarianism is that it rejects the Trinity; that is what "Unitarianism" means.
4) I presume you were jesting when you wrote, re Madison: ...no non Christian would talk in such favorable terms of light and truth if he was not one....
If you were not jesting, let me point out that "light" is a central symbol & metaphor in all major religions, and that every religion claims to have possession of the "truth."
I agree with you that Madison was a Christian -- but not for the reason you cite here.
Will get back to you.
jbe
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