Category: Warren Throckmorton

From CBN News/The Brody File
This morning, CBN’s David Brody interviewed David Barton and apparently asked him about Donald Trump. Watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sSr4NQ5U80[/youtube]
On one hand, Barton admits that Trump isn’t “deep on the issues.” That’s painfully obvious. But then he invents a new paradigm for a president – the CEO model instead of the “governmental model.”
Barton used Trump’s bankruptcies as illustrations. He said Trump rebuilds because he puts good people around him. It doesn’t seem to occur to Barton that those good people didn’t stop Trump from going bankrupt in the first place.
None of this is comforting or makes me more likely to be a Trump voter.
 
 

That didn’t take long.

Yesterday, I posted a link to David Barton’s video defending himself against charges that he doesn’t have an earned doctorate. He never named the school from which he earned the degree. However, he pointed to three diplomas, one of which was partially hidden. That mystery degree is the one he told his audience he earned. I showed evidence which leads me to believe the degree is from unaccredited Life Christian University.

Today, he removed access to the YouTube video, took down the post from his Wallbuilders Facebook page, and according to one of his Twitter followers deleted the tweet pointing to the video.

This certainly looks like Life Christian University to me:

LCU is really a church and lists an accrediting body which is not recognized by any credible registry of accrediting organizations. Because my post doesn’t make sense without the video, I posted it to another YouTube account.

LCU claims accreditation from an organization called Accrediting Commission International. ACI is not listed by either the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as a recognized accrediting organization. LCU is not listed as an accredited school in either one of those data bases, nor is it listed in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data base. In a future post, I will pull together what I have learned about LCU and ACI.

For now, it is enough to know that any degree “earned” from LCU should be scrutinized. At present Barton has provided no explanation for why one day Barton said he proved his critics wrong and the next day the self-described proof is missing.

The missing video:

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 links for more on 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.

(ht/RWW)

UPDATES:

Life Christian University acknowledged giving David Barton a degree without any course work.

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.