Pat – No Jefferson had plenty of problems with the Old Testament. He thought Jesus corrected the deism of the Jews, he thought the Jewish religion was deficient and cruel at times.

Here is the other thing even historians fail to consider at times, Jefferson was a human with human inconsistencies. His religious views were informed by the Enlightenment and to many today left him holding some views which seem quite inconsistent.

Dr. Marshall Foster is the president of the World History Institute, which is dedicated to uncovering the unchanging truths and lessons of history that have liberated nations around the globe. For three decades, Marshall has taught these truths, along with their Judeo-Christian roots, through many venues from best-selling books and dynamic seminars to documentaries, radio programs, and historic tours.

He oversees the education of more than 10,000 students and families each year on historic training tours. Marshall Foster holds Bachelor of Science in Economics and Doctorate of Divinity degrees. He is the co-host of a new weekly radio show on the gold coast of Florida, The Story of Liberty, which is exploding in popularity.

This is the sole entry under the tag history in the website’s blog:

http://www.worldhistoryinstitute.com/2010/11/18/how-approach-your-role-history/

” Mr. Foster may not agree with Rev. Kayser on the death penalty (I have seen nothing on that) but he is enough in sync that he appears to support Kayser’s approach to history. Kirk Cameron said at the end of his movie that he wants monumental to be a movement. With Mr. Foster involved, I think it is fair to ask what the movement is about. ”

It is arguably a very fair point, especially given the underwriting of the Providential Christian Festival by reconstructionist groups, including Kayser’s own ‘church’.

He had obviously problems with the story of Jesus, but he had not as much problems with the Old-testament-concept of God. As far as I see, he believed in fact in “God’s purposes and plans in historical events”.

And that’s just the central idea of Mr. Foster’s “Providential History Festival”. As long as Mr. Foster doesn’t equalize God’s dominion with a clerical dominion of the one or other “sect” – and I don’t see that – Jefferson might have supported the festival.

(N.B.: It’s not my religion. I have much more trust in an unworldly Jesus and much less trust in a world-ruling God than Jefferson.)

For starters: the tiny ‘snippet’ of the Bible Kayser uses to justify to state-sponsored murder of gay people was probably written in about 560 B.C. (it comes in the second, newer, part of the Book of Leviticus, the purpose of which was to try to maintain, using some quite draconian ideas, Jewish cultural identity during the exile in Babylon). Christians should, when understanding the Bible, embrace the ‘bigger picture’, the paradigm for which is set out in the events we Catholic (and many other) Christians will be celebrating over the next week-and-a-half.

That’s what people call “guilt by contact”, isn’t it? Paul – Kayser – Foster – Cameron. Strangely, a sin that Jesus did NOT mention in the sermon on the mount!

Jurisprudentially, it’s also very odd: if he believes that consensual same-sex relations are a (capital) crime, then whether they are ‘kept secret’ is irrelevant. After all, if someone murders a person, that is murder – whether done ‘discreetly’ or not.

As well as being thoroughly nasty, these people have absolutely no logic. No real surprises there perhaps …