David Barton recently gave a speech to the Arkansas Tea Party Alliance. At the end of his presentation, a person in the crowd asked him about the background of his book The Jefferson Lies. Specifically, the questioner wanted to know why it was pulled from publication. Barton then launched into his false victim narrative. Watch:
Initially, he referred to Right Wing Watch who he said is funded by George Soros. After lamenting his Wikipedia page, he implied that someone (perhaps Soros inspired people? He once said that “secular guys” recruited us) got Christian professors to attack his book on Jefferson. He then said that Thomas Nelson got scared by the controversy and pulled his book because they were bought out by Rupert Murdoch and didn’t want any controversy. He defended himself saying that he had boxes of documentation for his claims and that his new book has a chapter debunking his Christian critics. Now we have gone silent (lulz).
Here we go again.
1. I have never been recruited by anyone to write a critique of David Barton’s work. I do it because I want to and it is immensely satisfying to know the truth. George Soros does not fund my work.
2. There are scores of Christian professors around the country who have weighed in on Barton’s history, not just six.
3. Thomas Nelson said plainly that they lost confidence in the book’s facts. Thomas Nelson did their own review of the claims made by Barton’s critics and determined his books was historically unsound. This was reported widely (not just on MSNBC). The claim about Murdoch has no support. Barton has never offered any proof that Murdoch had anything to do with his book being pulled. Furthermore, HarperCollins Christian (what Thomas Nelson was folded into) has published other controversial books since Barton’s was pulled.
4. Barton’s new book does have a chapter addressing some of our claims. However, he also changed several claims in the new book in keeping with our critiques without giving us any credit. I don’t agree that he satisfactorily addressed our claims and we certainly haven’t gone silent.
It never ceases to amaze me how Barton can stand before Christian people and say the things he does.
I challenge Barton to provide proof that Thomas Nelson pulled his book because they didn’t want controversy.
I challenge him to offer proof that I have been recruited by secular guys, George Soros or anybody to attack his work.
I challenge any of the crowd at the meeting to check Barton’s statement with the Christian professors Barton denigrated. You can get the rest of the story about Jefferson by reading Getting Jefferson Right.
Category: david barton
End Times Preacher Says Speaker Paul Ryan is a David Barton Fan
If that is true, then perhaps the end times are upon us.
Right Wing Watch today summarized an article from Charisma News by Dan Cummins in which Cummins asserts that Speaker Paul Ryan is a fan of David Barton. Cummins believes the end times are coming and America is under judgment.
It upsets me when I hear all the doom-and-gloom “prophetic words” about how Congress is nothing but a bunch of crooks. Most of these spiritual giant slayers have never stepped a foot into the Capitol or visited their congressman. They have no clue of what God is doing in their government or that God has big future plans for it. Their opinions are shaped more from media spin and propaganda than a biblical worldview of God’s end-times agenda for governance.
Do I believe America is in a period of judgement? (sic) Yes! Most definitely. God has given us over to our selfish desires. Yet the biblical pattern for national revival is almost always preceded by a time of judgment. “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Psalm 72:16 and Micah 4:1-3, clearly state that in “the last days” God will take a remnant of believers (wheat) and plant them in the tops of world governments (tops of the mountains) and build “the house of the Lord,” beginning in the top levels of the world’s governments. The resulting consequences of God’s moving in world governments would then shake the earth with revival. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the house of the Lord.”
I can confirm that this is beginning to happen in Washington, D.C., London, Ukraine, Poland, Moscow and several nations in Africa.
I’d sure like to know how it is happening in all those other countries. However, Cummins lets us in on the secret in Washington, DC.
Did you know there are more “passionate followers of Jesus Christ” (I prefer this to the overused sometime meaningless term, “Christian”) in the 114th Congress than at any time since President Calvin Coolidge? There are. We are working with close to 200 sincere followers of the Lord in the House and Senate.
Did you know, on occasions, as many as 90 pastors will be praying together in the Capitol Rotunda while the House of Representatives is debating controversial freedom of religion amendments on the House floor? Did you know that, on most Wednesday evenings, prayer for America is happening in the Rotunda? It is!
Have you heard? Beginning on Sunday, Sept. 4, three Christian worship services will begin in the Ways and Means Room in the Capitol building for all federal employees and Capitol Police. It’s been 150 years since regular Sunday church services were held in the U.S. Capitol. This is big news!
How did this all begin to happen? America has been praying, that’s how! And God is right now in the process of answering those prayers by raising up godly men and women in Congress, the most important branch of government.
Let me share our personal first-hand experiences of being a small part of what God is doing in Congress. I know there are other great ministries on the Hill reaching out to Congress in very influential ways, and we thank God for their work. But I can only share with you about what JoAnn and I are doing.
Though we may never agree totally with everyone’s politics, let me tell you why I’m thankful that Paul Ryan is speaker of the House and that he won his primary race. Speaker Ryan, a Roman Catholic, is a passionate disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. He is surrounding himself with godly spiritual pastors.
He said, “The only hope for America is a spiritual awakening. … We must have spiritual solutions to our problems, or we’re in for troubled times as a nation” (spoken to JoAnn and me alone in a private, 30-minute conversation). He asked that I help him invite pastors to the Capitol for spiritual advice. So far, we have had more than 200 pastors visit the Capitol, and we plan for many more for this fall.
Ryan makes meeting pastors a top priority in his busy schedule. JoAnn and I have an open working relationship with his staff. They told us that in six weeks’ time, they had to turn down more than 500 invitations to various important events (I saw the print out sheets), “but he’s doing the pastors briefings because he’s passionate about it,” a top staffer told us.
Speaker Ryan is an avid fan of historian David Barton. “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving,” he said. Because of Barton’s teachings, Speaker Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment (putting political speech restrictions on pastors from their pulpits) and its devastating effects on our culture.
He understands “first causative principle”—that the 1954 Johnson Amendment eventually was responsible for prayer and Bible reading being taken out of schools in 1963, the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and redefining of marriage in 2016—all because pastors were silenced from speaking out politically. That’s why Speaker Ryan wants the Johnson Amendment repealed legislatively. He knows pastors being set free to preach again to the nation regarding these moral and political issues is a must to turn the nation around.
For Cummins, revival means Christianity in the government.
I will defer to any actual historian who wants to weigh in, but I am very skeptical of the link between the Johnson Amendment and the Supreme Court decisions on prayer and Bible reading, and so on. For one thing, pastors aren’t silenced from speaking out politically. How ironic that this guy thinks he is being silenced when he is writing an article for Charisma News in which he says church services are being held in government buildings. Loud silence.
No surprise when Barton is involved, but there is a lot of misinformation about the Johnson Amendment. Even in their churches, pastors can say whatever they want but they can’t use church money or resources to campaign. Woe unto any church that takes tithes and offerings and uses them to support a candidate for political office, whether GOP or Dem.
Historians, especially Christian historians, your country needs you to step up and loudly rebuke this error. The Speaker needs to hear from you.
Finally Disclosed, David Barton's List of Recommended Colleges
In 2013 when David Barton first launched his war on Christian colleges, he declared that he worked with and approved about a dozen Christian colleges. At the time, he didn’t make a list of them. Messiah College history professor John Fea also speculated about the list but we couldn’t come up with a dozen.
Now we don’t have to guess. Earlier this month, Barton listed them (a dozen!) on a new FAQ page and here they are:
What colleges or universities does WallBuilders recommend?
There are many good institutions of higher learning whose educational approach is not only academically excellent but is also consistent with traditional conservative moral, religious, and constitutional values. The listings below include some of these schools. (Recommendations do not necessarily mean that WallBuilders agrees with everything taught at these schools, nor with every professor who teaches there.) This list is definitely not exhaustive, but it does include many schools with whom we have actively cooperated.
I am surprised that Oklahoma Wesleyan University is not there. In 2013, president Everett Piper was proud to be considered one of the 12. I am not sure that the history faculty at all of those schools will take kindly to being on the list. Four of the schools (Charis, Ecclesia, Patrick Henry, Pensacola) are not regionally accredited.
So as we get set to go back to school, if you want to study history at a school approved by David Barton, here are your options.
David Barton: If You Don't Vote for Trump You Will Have to Answer to God
Since the Bible doesn’t reveal who we are to vote for, I am not worried about it. I think people who vote for Trump are wrong but I am not ready to speak for God on the subject. My conscience is clear.
But never fear, David Barton knows what God thinks and he is dealing the fire and brimstone.
Right Wing Watch has the audio.
A questioner asks Barton how to explain to her anti-Trump friends that we can’t have the perfect candidate. She says people are getting stuck on little things. I don’t have time to do a transcript of the whole mess but I linked to RWW which has the audio. Essentially, Barton’s advice boils down to God wants you to vote for Trump and you better do it or else.
I will account to God and I have to vote because He put that ballot in my hand and I’m going to have to account to Him for what I did with it. And I can’t use the false standard of I have to have somebody perfect because there is nobody perfect except for Jesus and, by the way, when He was on earth, they didn’t think He was perfect; we only think He’s perfect now. Back then, they called him a winebibber and a glutton; he had all sorts of campaign ads run against him. So nobody is going to fit the criteria, so let’s get God’s mind on this thing instead of finding excuses.
As I pointed out in a recent post and Jonathan Merritt wrote today at The Atlantic, all these Trumpvangelicals need to apologize to Bill Clinton. At one point, he asked forgiveness and many evangelicals just banged on about how much character matters. Now, Trump gets forgiveness he doesn’t even ask for.
David Barton Claims "Doctorate in Education"
Not the first time. Is this a severe case of “degree envy?”
It appears to be a matter of great importance to Glenn Beck for David Barton to have an “actual doctorate.”
RWW’s Kyle Mantyla reports that Glenn Beck and David Barton were talking on Beck’s show and got into a conversation about Barton’s doctorate. Watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpaIQJmJZiM[/youtube]
As Mantyla points out, Barton’s education is spelled out on his website bio.
David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oral Roberts University and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Pensacola Christian College.
Ordinarily honorary doctorates are not considered “actual doctorates” because there is no program of studies which lead to the award of the degree. The degree is an honor but should not be relied on to communicate expertise.
If Barton has an earned doctorate, good for him. Now he needs to disclose where he earned it. Otherwise, he and Beck should admit and repent of their academic fraud.
This one ranks up there with Barton’s claim that he played Division One basketball in college and translated for Russia’s Olympic gymnastic team.
Of course, the book Beck was promoting with the segment is entitled “Liars: How Progressives Exploit Our Fears for Power and Control.” And Beck says I am the “liberal bastard.”