Writing at the Pietist Schoolman blog, Grace College history professor Jared Burkholder penned an open letter to Tim and David Barton in response to the Bartons’ claim that Christian historians don’t rely on primary sources (see these linksfor moreon the Bartons’ claim). The letter begins:
Dear David (and now Tim) Barton,
Maybe you can clarify something for me. Why do you continue to insist that because you read primary sources you have a unique voice when compared to professional Christian historians like me, who you say fail to make use of original sources?
I am hardly the first to be annoyed by this, but suffice it to say this is utterly incomprehensible to me. Primary sources are to historians what hammers are to carpenters; what keyboards are to composers; what language is to writers. They are the tools of our trade, the most basic implements we learn to use.
Go read the entire letter, it is a hammer. Burkholder concludes:
Whatever the reason, stop lying. Stop using this absurd line that citing primary sources and original documents somehow means you are unique or magically makes you an authority. We all use original documents. It is so routine that it’s difficult to believe this requires being said at all. It is literally what we do for a living.
Jared’s letter is important business. Barton’s work has been used by Eric Metaxas and is reportedly consulted by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Not only is he reaching millions with false stories, he trashes legitimate historical work done by actual historians, including many Christians. His defamation of academic historians has caused widespread confusion (read the comments) about who people can trust to tell them the truth about American history.
Today, religious right activist and self-styled historian, David Barton placed a video on his YouTube account where he claims to have two honorary doctorates and an earned PhD. About a year ago, he said he didn’t have a PhD. Now he says he does and has been hinting at this for weeks. The video appears to have three degrees in the background. The first one appears to be his honorary degree from Pensacola Christian College and the third appears to be from Ecclesia College. The mystery “earned degree” appears to be the one which is partially hidden in the background. Watch (UPDATE 9/8/16: Barton first set the video to private and then made it unavailable. However, I have it here:
Looking closer at it, I think it is a degree from the unaccredited prosperity gospel fave school Life Christian University (click for larger image).
Let’s recall that this is the same fellow who is reportedly a favorite historian of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. On September 13 & 14, he will be hosting legislators at his Washington DC pastors’ briefing and leading a tour of the Capitol, hosted by a member of Congress.
Now look a little closer at the reflection on the glass case, what appears to be half of the crest which goes on the LCU degrees and the signatures. The title and format of Barton’s diploma are nearly identical to those elements on the diplomas displayed on the LCU website.
Here is the reflection of the school name reversed. It sure looks like Life Christian University to me.
I can’t find a listing of faculty and the doctorates offered are in theology and ministry, not history and/or education. According to Guidestar, LCU is actually a church.
IRS Filing Requirement
This organization is not required to file an annual return with the IRS because it is a church.
That seems a little shady.
The requirements have no doubt been slipped for some of those distinguished graduates and may have been in Barton’s case. The requirements say that a student must first get a masters and DMin to go for the PhD. Did Barton do that? He has never said he had anything other than a BA from ORU. The school is not accredited by a regional accrediting body which is perhaps why he didn’t name it in his video. Here is what the LCU website says about “Distinguished Degree Holders:”
The distinguished ministers shown on this page are some of the most renowned preachers and teachers in the world today. Many are recognized throughout the entire world, but all of them are famous in heaven. It has been the privilege of Life Christian University to recognize their published works, along with their lifetime ministry achievements in consideration for earned degrees from LCU. The Doctor of Ministry, the Doctor of Missiology, the Doctor of Theology and the Doctor of Philosophy are all earned degrees, recognized for the highest level of academics and spirituality. LCU is honored to be associated with God’s greatest ministry gifts given to the Body of Christ today.
Sounds like their published words and ministry achievements were used “in consideration for earned degrees.” In other words, they didn’t take courses, they were given a degree because they were famous. Is this how Barton got his degree? He needs to clear this up.
Barton’s smug rebuke depends entirely on what degree he actually has. It appears his degree comes from the same school which awarded Joyce Meyers and Benny Hinn a PhD in theology. The school does not award degrees in history which Barton should have disclosed.
Barton’s video raised more questions than it answered. Mr. Barton, from where did you get your MA and PhD and what did you major in? Why did you hide part of the diploma in the middle? Why didn’t you just tell your audience in the video? These questions aren’t hard or unreasonable.
One, Tullian Tchividjian got remarried sometime over the weekend of 8/26. He has been in Texas and is working on a book.
Two, Mark Driscoll is going to speak this month at a Phoenix meeting of the Christian Legal Society. I wonder if the subject of RICO will come up?
Three, Dustin Boles is no longer at Acts 29 church Mosaic Church in MS (staff in March, staff now). He is working for something called Alvix Laboratories as of late August.
Evangelicals have a put a lot of trust in those guys, probably more than should be given to a human. I continue to wonder if the big church culture is too big for anyone to navigate unscathed.
In the recent sales pitch to representatives from Gateway Church, David Barton commented on the schools of Government he has helped establish at Charis Bible College and Ecclesia College. Watch:
Transcript:
In the last two– in the last year we’ve had two Christian colleges come to us and say, ‘Hey we want to do a School of Government. Will you guys do our School of Government?’ And so, all right, I can do that, cuz I’ve been in politics a long time. I’ve recruited thousands of people for office, trained– I’ve recruited hundreds, trained thousands. And what we did, so you know, we’ve got a lot of people in office, like those two senators I mentioned, we don’t want anything like that coming out of these colleges. So what we do at the whole. There’s five levels to what we do.
The first level is nothing but biblical world view. You’re going to understand the Bible applies to every issue. You’re going to be able to show us what the Bible says about capital gains tax, about estate taxes, about progressive taxes, capitation. You are going to show us what the Bible says about social programs, ya know, we are going to get biblical worldview down.
Once we do that, we’re going to get American history down. American history you think is secular. We’re going to show you that it’s God-filled. The third thing we do is we’re going to show you what the Bible says about government in general, and the fourth thing is we’re going to teach you the Constitution, and the fifth is we’ll show you how to get elected.
Now I don’t want you close to office if you don’t have those other foundations. And so that’s what we try to do in that holistic view is we want a biblical foundation, biblical thinking. From that, we’ll look at history, and from that, we’ll look at how that applies to our involvement in the Seven Mountain philosophy, whether that be business, or media, entertainment, the judiciary, whatever it is. We want people in those seven mountains, but we want to have them having the right view of God, and history, and the Bible. And so that’s what we try to do with all of those, is-is pull all of those together, if that makes sense.
I think Barton should call his schools: the Anti-Federalist School of Government. It was the anti-federalists who believed the Constitution should have included a connection to God and the Bible.
In any event, those who deny dominionism should take a look at this. Barton’s goal is to train future politicians in the teaching that Christians should be setting the tone in all areas of life so that they can legislate Christian answers to political issues.
On August 25, I posted research into the attribution of the following quote:
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Commonly attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I traced the quote back to a now deceased researcher at the Liberty Museum in Philadelphia who added the quote to Bonhoeffer’s exhibit in the museum. The current director of the museum did not know the source and the quote does not appear in any of Bonhoeffer’s writings according to the foremost expert on those writings, Victoria Barnett. It cannot be found before a 1998 newsletter reporting on the opening of the Liberty Museum Bonhoeffer exhibit. Eric Metaxas, author of a biography on Bonhoeffer, has used the quote frequently attributed to Bonhoeffer but has not provided a source for the quote.
Quotes like this are also spread by websites which archive quotes for use on social media. One such website is Goodreads. Today, Goodreads let me know that they have changed the attribution of the quote to “anonymous.”
Before
After
International Justice Mission and several others have also made similar changes in the use of the quote. Good Timing
Thinking about this some more, I believe it is a good time to clear this up. So many people have enlisted Bonhoeffer through this quote for so many different and contradictory causes. Most recently, people for and against Donald Trump have tried to bring Bonhoeffer on their side. With Bonhoeffer’s aura and imprimatur, this quote is used frequently to make the justice of one’s cause seem self-evident.
Recently, Eric Metaxas used a part of it again to encourage a vote for Trump. He said “not to act is to act” and “not to vote is to vote.”
This is not a time for being so "heavenly-minded" we are no "earthly good." Not to act is to act. Not to vote is to vote. Please reconsider.
I really doubt Bonhoeffer would have agreed with the perversion of the quote. Not to vote is not to vote. One cannot vote and not vote at the same time. How is the not voting vote to be counted?
To illustrate the absurdity of just taking the form “not to ____ is to ____” and substituting one’s current cause or preoccupation, let’s take another recent blog topic: tithing. I really doubt Robert Morris would go along with “not to tithe is to tithe.” If one is hungry, it won’t fill your stomach to say, “not to eat is to eat.” Also, thinking about the silence from Metaxas on the attribution of this quote, I think it confuses things to say, “Not to take responsibility is to take responsibility,” right?
Freeing the quote from Bonhoeffer invites us to consider that it might not be as wise and universally applicable as it first seemed.
