Ted Cruz Super PAC president and history advisor David Barton has a problem with adolescence since the concept isn’t in the Bible. Watch:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/W_n9Is_2OrY[/youtube]
Let’s take our middle school kids and put them in the military (but no gluten free meals!). Feel safer?
Let’s see, what else isn’t real?
Airplanes. Space travel. Lanyards. America.
Hard Cider. Cars. Computers. Cell phones. Celiac Disease. Antibiotics.
Neuroscience. Glasses. Little League. Wednesday night church. Asphalt.
Wallbuilders.
Anybody want to add to the list?
Category: david barton
Ted Cruz Says Politicians Should Not Wear Their Faith on Their Sleeve
My head exploded when I heard this:
Ted Cruz sounded critical of politicians who say God told them to run. Oh my.
He needs to have a conversation and at least his father, wife, David Barton and Glenn Beck. Just days ago, Beck told Utah that Cruz had been anointed by God to be president.
What Cruz said was fine but there is no evidence that any of his closest advisors and supporters think so.
David Barton and Tithing: I Wonder What's On Ted Cruz's Odometer?
On his Foundations of Freedom program, president of one of Ted Cruz’s Super PACs David Barton told Glenn Beck that God will bless you if you tithe, including — as an illustration — the provision of a car that run for 200,000 miles. He seems to have a similar view of the subject as does Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris and Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael. Watch this clip provided by Right Wing Watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJddWVhOqoQ[/youtube]
I would like one of the Cruz inner circle to explain how Ted Cruz can hope to be blessed when he has admitted that he doesn’t tithe. The elder Cruz and Barton earnestly teach tithing as a prerequisite to being blessed. Since Cruz hasn’t (doesn’t?) tithed, how can Beck and Barton claim Cruz is the man God sent to be president?
Las Vegas Police Department Contradicts David Barton's Claims About Decline in Violent Crime
Recently, David Barton told an audience that violent crime in Las Vegas has declined 75% due to the use of biblical principles by that city’s police department and churches. Listen (clip courtesy of Right Wing Watch):
There are so many problems with his analysis that it is hard to know where to begin. On the matter of religious schools and achievement, Barton completely ignores the fact that those who attend religious schools have been chosen to go there. The students have not been randomly assigned to public versus private schools for a fair comparison. The private schools can eliminate students who aren’t performing well or misbehaving, and they don’t have to worry about providing an education for students with disabilities or learning disorders. Private schools can select their students to create a higher achieving result.
Because the claim about Las Vegas crime rates is a new one, I decided to check it out with the Las Vegas Police Department. Lo and behold, Barton is again wrong.
Barton told the Patriot and Preacher radio audience:
But when God is reintroduced back into policy, for instance, in Las Vegas, the churches there worked with the police department to teach morals in the city, the violent crime rate has gone down 75 percent in Las Vegas by the reintroduction of biblical teachings back in the city through the police department and the churches.
I sent the above audio to the Las Vegas PD Office of Public Information and asked if Barton’s claims were true. About the claim of a 75% decline in crime, Officer Rodriquez said flatly, “That is not true.”
Rodriguez added, “Sadly, we’re seeing an increase in violent crime year to date as compared to the same period last year.” For the calendar year 2016 thus far, homicide is up 79% over last year (1/1 — 3/16/15). Violent crime overall is up 24.8% in Las Vegas as compared to the same period in 2015.
While the LVPD collaborates with faith based groups around Las Vegas, Rodriguez said “officers are not preaching and teaching the Bible” in the community. Furthermore, the department collaborates with all religious groups in the same manner. They work with Jewish, Muslim, and other non-Christian groups to build bridges.
Not surprisingly, Barton’s claims about crime in Las Vegas fail the fact checking test.
Mostly, this would be an annoyance if not for the fact that David Barton advises Ted Cruz. I am working on a post which demonstrates that Barton
and Cruz promote very similar incorrect facts about climate change. Cruz has been known to play a little fast and loose with the facts and he uses Glenn Beck as a surrogate. It is one thing to simply be mistaken, it is another thing when those easily debunked falsehoods make it into policy provisions. Can you imagine a David Barton appointment to a policy making post in a Cruz administration? I can imagine needless fact-free debates over AIDS, PTSD, climate change, crime rates, etc.
David Barton Condemns Guilt By Association Now That Ted Cruz Is The Target
Once upon a time, Ted Cruz Super PAC head David Barton believed Marco Rubio’s gay-marriage-supporting staff would cause Rubio problems with conservatives.
Now that Ted Cruz is being associated with dominionists and Pentecostals by Matt Drudge, Barton now thinks guilt by association is “ridiculous.” This evening, Barton was featured in a damage control piece at Cruz Net Daily:
Barton condemned any use of “guilt by association” tactics on the Right, by anyone, and was equally critical of similar attacks that might be levied against Trump, Marco Rubio and other candidates.
“Look at Rubio’s funders; so many of them are supporters of gay marriage,” said Barton as an example. “So do we read into that that Rubio is a pusher of gay marriage? No, that’s not a fair read. You’ve got 330 million people in the United States. Are we going to look at every voter who might vote for Trump, or Rubio, or Cruz, or for Kasich and say, ‘Well, look at what this voter believes, that’s ridiculous.’
Recently, Barton did not object to Bryan Fischer’s negative characterization of Rubio’s staff who support gay marriage. Watch:
A little closer to home for me is Barton’s love of guilt by association when he attempts to discredit my debunking of The Jefferson Lies. About me, he told World Net Daily:
Reflective of the change in Throckmorton’s overall philosophy is the fact that he currently writes for the progressive Huffington Post,[22] even though in 2008, he attacked that site as being part of the “far Left.”[23] He also now regularly contributes to Salon,[24] another of the nation’s most progressive and liberal news organizations. Furthermore, two of the nation’s most secular groups, “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” and People for the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch” praise Throckmorton’s current writings and cite him as an expert in promulgating their beliefs.
Barton says I am a liberal because I have written for HuffPo and Salon (and it is a stretch to say I ever “regularly” contributed to Salon). He has to turn me into a liberal to sell his false narrative about The Jefferson Lies being the victim of liberal attacks. As I have written previously here, that story is false. For the purpose of defending his book, guilt by association is Barton’s operating procedure.
On the specific point of Cruz’s beliefs, I wish reporters would ask him about his various “anointings.” His religion is not a Constitutional barrier to seeking office but his beliefs might make some people think twice about voting for him. Given the views of his advisors (including his father), it is only fair to know how he believes those beliefs will guide him as president.