history – Page 29 – Warren Throckmorton

From Barton to Scherr: Thomas Kidd on Various Visions of Thomas Jefferson

Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture seeks “to advance knowledge of the role Christianity has played in mediating larger social and intellectual forces.” The Spring issue

includes an article by Arthur Sherr (sic), entitled “Thomas Jefferson Versus the Historians: Christianity, Atheistic Morality, and the Afterlife.” When the article appeared, we asked for comment from other historians who have studied the role of religion in Jefferson’s thought. (Last week’s response by John Ragosta is here.)

Thomas Kidd weighs in, finds some problems in Scherr’s analysis and then recalls his work on David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies for World Magazine.

I covered many conservative and Christian historians’ rejection of Barton for the evangelical periodical WORLD Magazine in 2012. For one of those articles, I interviewed Dreisbach, who told me that he had a “‘very hard time’ accepting the notion,” advanced by Barton, “that Jefferson was ever an orthodox Christian, or that Jefferson ever embraced Christianity’s ‘transcendent claims.’” According to Scherr, Dreisbach is “closer to Barton than Barton’s opponents.” But in fact, across the ideological and faith spectrum Barton found virtually no scholarly supporters for The Jefferson Lies.

Let the last sentence sink in. While I think Dreisbach could be more vocal in response to Barton, I agree with Kidd that Barton has found no scholarly support for The Jefferson Lies.

By the way, a belated happy birthday (April 13) to Thomas Jefferson wherever you are.

Deja Vu All Over Again: David Barton Misleads Audience Again About Crime Statistics

Watching Maris and Mantle hit home runs during the early 1960s, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was reported to say that the frequent long ball was like “deja vu all over again.” That’s about how it feels watching David Barton mislead churches when he speaks.
On March 30, Barton spoke to Victory Christian Center in Austin, TX. Right Wing Watch has one aspect of the speech which is a newer wrinkle in his misleading ways, but watching the rest of the speech, I had that deja vu feeling again.
There were many whoppers but I’ll note one I have written about at some length. Barton again told his audience that crime has gone up 694% since the Bible was removed from public schools. The camera work doesn’t permit a look at the slide he used but he said nearly the same things about the claim as he has in past speeches. Start watching at 38:24.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/91349660[/vimeo]
After 38:24, Barton claims:

You remember Benjamin Rush said if you ever take the Bible out of public schools you’ll spend all your time and money fighting crime when you could prevent it? I’ve been a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department and I can show you violent crime statistics for a number of years back. When we took the Bible out of schools, violent crime increased 694% since that point in time. Wow. Think of how many more lives would be alive today because of that increase in crime…

While there was an increase in violent crime between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s, Barton does not disclose to his audience that violent crime among youth and adults has dropped dramatically since the mid-1990s. The murder rate now is about the same as before the Bible was removed from schools. This chart provides the rest of the history about overall violent crime rates that Barton didn’t tell.

And as I pointed out in that prior post, the Bible had been long gone from schools many places around the country before the 1960s and is absent from schools in other nations where the crime rate is much less than our own.
This is just one fact claim in this speech; there are other outrageous claims. After all the debunking from Christian and non-Christian historians and scholars, he continues to have a platform to mislead people (e.g., at Urbana University in Ohio later this month).

MD County Official Uses Faux George Washington Prayer in Violation of Judge's Order

A First Amendment case is brewing in Maryland involving sectarian prayers and a prayer book wrongly attributed to George Washington.

The prayer recited by Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier Thursday that she said is from George Washington has been proven to not belong to the first president, but is often used by Christian Conservative politicians, according to a scholar.

Friend and Messiah College history professor John Fea provided the expert commentary:

John Fea, chair of the History Department at Messiah College, said the prayer comes from the so-called George Washington Prayer Book, which was found in a chest of papers by one of Washington’s descendants in the 1890s. The University of Virginia, which houses the Papers of George Washington, and the Smithsonian Institution have concluded, based on the handwriting, that it was not written by Washington, Fea said.

David Barton Slated to Speak at Urbana University April 28

On April 28, David Barton is slated to speak at Urbana University in Ohio. With the title, “David Barton – an expert of historical and Constitutional issues,” the event is promoted on the school’s website. However, his presence there may not place Urbana on Barton’s list of a dozen acceptable colleges.
The Barton event is being sponsored by a small group of people in the area informally called, “We the People,” according to Karen Bailey, Champaign County Auditor. Bailey is one of the initial sponsors who is paying for Barton to come to town. In a phone interview, she called the event “a gift to the community.” She said other sponsors were coming on board but that Urbana University is being paid for the use of facilities.
The event caught my eye because Urbana University seems an unlikely place for Barton to speak. While there is a religious background to the school (Swedenborgian), the school would not be on my short list of institutions which would be friendly to Barton’s brand of historical revisionism.
While he may be a gift to those who want to believe in Christian nationalism, he will be a lump of coal to other groups, such as:
Scholars and academics – Barton says that students at Christian colleges are falling away from faith because of their “pagan professors” who were trained by professors who “hate God.” Scores of academics, including Christians, have called out Barton on his historical problems.
PTSD sufferers and advocates – Last year, along with Kenneth Copeland, Barton engaged in offensive suggestions about cure to PTSD sufferers. Barton drew a special rebuke from the conservative Gospel Coalition’s Joe Carter, who called Barton and Copeland’s advice “gospel-destroying and demonic.”
AIDS/HIV patients – Barton has called AIDS/HIV a punishment for sin.
Native Americans – Barton invoked just-war theory to help rationalize the destruction of Native American tribes, prompting Baptist leader Randy Adams to call the theory “outrageous” and unhelpful.
LGBT people – Barton has promoted the idea that homosexuality should be re-criminalized.
Those offended by Christian nationalism – Some, perhaps many, African-Americans are offended by the Christian nationalism promoted by Barton. Then, there was Barton’s awkward defense of Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of slaves and his false contention that Jefferson couldn’t free his slaves during his life.
Those who value historical accuracy – Exhibit A is the removal of Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies from publication in the midst of a successful sales run due to historical errors. Exhibit B is the fact that the Family Research Council removed his Capitol Tour video from You Tube because of historical errors. Focus on the Family had to edit two broadcasts to remove two historical falsehoods which Barton repeatedly told in his speeches. Other instances are too numerous to mention.
Not knowing the topic of his talk, it is hard to know what stories he will tell. He might tell them that violent crime has shot straight up until now since the Bible was removed from the public schools (it hasn’t), or that the first English Bible was printed for the use of schools (it wasn’t), or that the Constitution quotes the Bible verbatim (it doesn’t).

The David Barton Dozen: Ecclesia College (AR)

In October of last year, David Barton said there are about a dozen colleges that he believes are right on history and the Constitution. John Fea identified six of them as

Liberty University Law School
Ohio Christian University
Oklahoma Wesleyan University
Pensacola Christian College
Brewton-Parker College
Louisiana College

I think a seventh can be added: Ecclesia College in Arkansas.
Barton is on the Board of Regents and recently spoke there. While in the area, he spoke to a group of GOP state legislators demonstrating again his hard-to-explain influence. Even though he teaches things like the Constitution quotes the Bible verbatim and the Bible is a part of our law via the 7th Amendment, GOP legislators can’t seem to get enough of him. Neither of those claims are true of course, but that doesn’t stop him.
All posts on David Barton.