Category: Warren Throckmorton

In court filings Monday, Gospel for Asia denied all allegations of wrong doing, asked the court to compel the plaintiffs Matthew and Jennifer Dickson to enter into arbitration to settle their dispute and/or to dismiss the suit.
In February, Matthew and Jennifer Dickson brought sued GFA alleging fraud and mismanagement on behalf of themselves and the class of GFA donors. On Monday, GFA’s lawyers responded with denials, a motion to dismiss the suit and a demand that the Dicksons enter arbitration. The GFA legal response included signed agreements by the Dicksons while they were GFA employees which included a clause stating they wouldn’t sue over disputes but rather enter arbitration.
GFA’s response concludes:

Defendants [GFA leaders] pray that arbitration be ordered, or, alternatively, that judgment be entered that Plaintiffs take nothing by this suit against any of the Defendants, that class certification be denied, that all relief prayed for by Plaintiffs in this action be denied, and that Defendants be granted such other and further relief, at law and in equity, to which they may be justly entitled. DATED: April 15, 2016.

GFA’s motion to compel arbitration
GFA’s motion to dismiss the suit
GFA’s brief supporting motion to dismiss
GFA’s response to the complaint
The original complaint Dicksons v. Gospel for Asia
 

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary historian and professor John Wilsey was on Michael Brown’s radio show Line of Fire yesterday talking about American Exceptionalism and David Barton.
You can listen to it here. He was on from 25:00 to 49:00.
Specifically he mentioned my book with Michael Coulter, Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President as a factual response to Barton’s The Jefferson Lies.
Wilsey pointed out how Barton is often correct on certain points of history but has a pattern of omitting key elements, thereby making his claims false and misleading. Wilsey’s illustration was Barton’s citaton of Virginia’s 1782 law on manumission. That law allowed slaves to be freed but Barton failed to disclose in his first book that those slaves could be freed by their living owners. In other words, emancipation was legally allowed after 1782. Barton claims Virginia law didn’t allow private emancipation of slaves which he says hindered Jefferson from freeing his slaves. This is contradicted by Virginia law and the example of other slave owners in Virginia at the time.
I would have preferred for Brown to disclose to his audience that Barton’s initial appearance on the Line of Fire was riddled with errors.
However, I am glad Brown had Wilsey on to address even if briefly Barton’s historical misadventures.
Wilsey’s newest book is American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. I believe readers of this blog will find it interesting and helpful.

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?
 

Everybody makes mistakes. I certainly don’t expect presidential candidates to be flawless in their public statements. They speak constantly and answer questions on a broad spectrum of topics. They will misspeak.
On the other hand, a consistent record of incorrect claims implies either lack of care for truth or an unacceptable ignorance when it comes to important issues. Motives are hard to discern but fact checking can get us closer to the truth.
The folks at Politifact compiled a report card for the GOP candidates which I summarize here. John Kasich leads the way with over half of his claims (53%) being rated as true or mostly true. Cruz is a distant second with 22% being rated as true or mostly true. Trump is far behind with only 8% of his claims rated as mostly true or true. See the images below for the full report.
John Kasich

Ted Cruz

Donald Trump

If Trump gets the nomination, the GOP will reject the candidate who is the most factual, best liked, and most likely to beat Hillary in favor of the one who is the least factual, least liked, and least likely to defeat Hillary in November.
Brilliant.
 
 

Today Baylor University historian Thomas Kidd opines on the plight of Republicans as the November election approaches. After reviewing the options on the GOP side (Trump, Cruz, Kasich), Kidd comes down about where I do: Kasich is (for him reluctantly, for me enthusiastically) the best choice. However, he echoes the worry of many Kasich supporters that a contested convention might not go to the Ohio governor.
Faced with a Cruz-Clinton match up, Kidd also shares my conviction on Cruz.

Sorry, folks. If it is Cruz vs. Clinton, I’m afraid that I’ll have to vote for a third party candidate, or not vote for president. In a way, it doesn’t matter what I do – Cruz would win Texas, for sure, with or without my vote. And I “get it” if many of my evangelical friends do support Cruz, and don’t share my alarm about the Barton-Beck connection. But for me, those traveling companions make Cruz a non-option.

Kidd didn’t mention Cruz’s father Rafael. Recently, Rafael Cruz told a Grove City College audience that the USA was the only nation on earth founded on the Word of God. Cruz has also said that the Constitution was divinely inspired.
Cruz and his supporters like to say that Cruz is a constitutional conservative. Given what Cruz’s advisors say about the Constitution (e.g., Barton says that the Constitution contains Bible verses quote verbatim), I have to ask what does it mean to be a constitutional conservative in the Cruzian sense. Given his advisors, I am not inspired to think he has a view which supports true freedom of conscience for all.
On the matter of religious liberty, Kidd has some reservations about Kasich. The answers I have heard from Kasich lead me to believe he has a balanced and reasonable view. Kasich has urged various groups to work together and has said that legislation may be needed to protect religious liberty. However, he is also sensitive to minority groups who understandably fear a loss of their rights in public accommodations.