JEfferson and Madison were both Desits; they were persuaded of the cosmic Cause point but were highly skeptical of the many efforts to organize it into groups of noisemakers down below, with good reason, too.
What you are missing in Obama's statement is that commons, the grounds for our secular society's evolution, requires that mystic beliefs show their connection to practical and social considerations. In other words, regardless of the language used by the cohort of believers, it has to be discussed among those who may not so believe, and thus be translated into terms of secular benefit. Even love has a secular benefit. Compassion has a secular benefit. Ethics sensibility has a strong secular benefit. The fact that all these things can be also found embedded in mystic dictates is outside the point.
This the requirement of dialogue imposed by the separation of Church and State, which Jefferson, at least believed in most strongly.
A lot of minority religions around at the time, such as the Baptists, agreed firmly, because it saved their versions of faith from being overwhumped by majority sects such as the northern Congregationalists, for example.