Category: Warren Throckmorton

Eric Metaxas: I Just Love David Barton and His Work

Maybe because it is so hard to believe after all of the 2012 events, I post this to reinforce what I posted yesterday.


You remember 2012 right? American University prof and author Jay Richards recruited 10 Christian historians to read David Barton’s book on Thomas Jefferson (The Jefferson Lies, the one just recommended by Metaxas) and then read my book with Michael Coulter Getting Jefferson Right which was a response to Barton’s. Richards asked those scholars to render a verdict about the accuracy of the books and our book came out on top. Do you recall that Thomas Nelson heard from critics of Barton’s book and did their own review? Then after the review by the 10 scholars and the publisher, Thomas Nelson announced that it was pulling the book from the shelves due to historical inaccuracies. Remember that historian Thomas Kidd documented all of this for World magazine? All of that happened.
More recently, George Marsden rendered an opinion on Barton’s book versus ours and concluded that we exposed Barton’s “many inaccuracies.”
From the notes I am getting, Metaxas’ homage to Barton is surprising a lot of people.

Eric Metaxas Used David Barton’s Work to Help Him Write His New Book "If You Can Keep It" (AUDIO)

Even though Eric Metaxas didn’t footnote him, he said on his radio show today that he used David Barton’s work to help him with history for his new book, If You Can Keep It. He lauded Barton’s historical work as helping him understand the Christian foundations of the nation.

This explains a lot, including his smug reaction to actual historians who have exposed the problems in his new book.  Barton didn’t spend much time trying to defend errors until his brand was threatened. Now that WorldNetDaily Press has republished his book The Jefferson Lies, Barton accuses his critics, including evangelical scholars, of being liberals.

At the end of the segment, Metaxas said he had critics in common with Barton and again seemed surprised that his work had been critiqued. Both Barton and Metaxas dismissed the critics as those who don’t like their conclusions about America. Metaxas said he took pride in the critiques but knew he was right. Listen:

I think many people will be surprised at homage Metaxas paid to Barton. Metaxas seemed genuinely impressed with what Barton had to say and with his work overall. This is amazing to me because quite a few distinguished Christian historians have been vocal and prolific in their negative assessment of Barton’s work. Metaxas claims his recent critics have nitpicked and written whole essays about minor things.

Barton chimed and said that his critics never tells readers to go read the entire context. This, of course, is a bold faced lie. At least in my critiques, I link to Barton’s sources and link to the primary sources so readers can make up their own minds.

At the end, setting aside publisher Thomas Nelson, scholar Jay Richards, and numerous Christian historians, Metaxas recommended Barton’s The Jefferson Lies to his audience.

For more on the controversy surrounding Metaxas’ new book, see the following sources:
John Fea’s series
Tracy McKensie’s blog
Gregg Frazer’s review
My article in the Daily Caller
My blog posts addressing the errors

The errors and problems pointed out via the above links are not minor. I challenge Eric Metaxas to invite one or more of us to discuss this with him on his show.

For more on David Barton’s The Jefferson Lies see this link.

Eric Metaxas Blows Off Historical Errors in His New Book

With Ann Coulter on his Monday radio show, Eric Metaxas seemed stunned that historians would critique his new book, If You Can Keep It. Coulter warned people that her new book would likely contain errors and Metaxas jumped off of that comment to complain that people have written essays about the errors in his book. Listen at 1:02:

He acknowledges that he got religious liberty in the colonial period wrong but implies he could change a sentence around to make it accurate. He glosses over his error by implying he only got it wrong in one sentence (not so, see this post). He also claims he is correct in his interpretation of John Winthrop’s “City of a Hill” speech. I think historians John Fea and Tracy McKenzie would enjoy hearing his defense.

Without naming him, Metaxas mentioned Fea’s six-part series critiquing the book. He seems amazed that his errors deserve scrutiny.

I am amazed that he is amazed.

The sorry state of books by Christian celebrities is illustrated by this exchange. Coulter and her publisher are going into print without sufficient fact-checking. Metaxas jumps right in and seems bewildered that Christian readers would expect that a book using history to make a case should be historically accurate.

Metaxas is happy to take the adulation of his readers who don’t know any better, but he is dismissive of those who point out reasonable critiques. On twitter, he has blocked me and several others who have brought these things to his attention. From this response, it seems to me that he doesn’t care that thousands of readers will need to unlearn the factual errors they have trusted in his book.

For more on the controversy surrounding Metaxas’ new book, see the following sources:
John Fea’s series
Tracy McKensie’s blog
Gregg Frazer’s review
My article in the Daily Caller
My blog posts addressing the errors

Republicans Divided from the Start, Security Kicks Out Press

When I said the vanguard of American fascism, I wasn’t far off. The RNC in partnership with Donald Trump is according to Sen. Mike Lee in “uncharted territory.”
Watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMkjhUKQHpQ[/youtube]
Uncharted territory
Utah Senator Mike Lee commented that the disregard of rules is uncharted territory for the RNC. The press was kicked off the convention floor at one point as well.