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 linksfor moreon 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.
In the recent sales pitch to representatives from Gateway Church, David Barton commented on the schools of Government he has helped establish at Charis Bible College and Ecclesia College. Watch:
Transcript:
In the last two– in the last year we’ve had two Christian colleges come to us and say, ‘Hey we want to do a School of Government. Will you guys do our School of Government?’ And so, all right, I can do that, cuz I’ve been in politics a long time. I’ve recruited thousands of people for office, trained– I’ve recruited hundreds, trained thousands. And what we did, so you know, we’ve got a lot of people in office, like those two senators I mentioned, we don’t want anything like that coming out of these colleges. So what we do at the whole. There’s five levels to what we do.
The first level is nothing but biblical world view. You’re going to understand the Bible applies to every issue. You’re going to be able to show us what the Bible says about capital gains tax, about estate taxes, about progressive taxes, capitation. You are going to show us what the Bible says about social programs, ya know, we are going to get biblical worldview down.
Once we do that, we’re going to get American history down. American history you think is secular. We’re going to show you that it’s God-filled. The third thing we do is we’re going to show you what the Bible says about government in general, and the fourth thing is we’re going to teach you the Constitution, and the fifth is we’ll show you how to get elected.
Now I don’t want you close to office if you don’t have those other foundations. And so that’s what we try to do in that holistic view is we want a biblical foundation, biblical thinking. From that, we’ll look at history, and from that, we’ll look at how that applies to our involvement in the Seven Mountain philosophy, whether that be business, or media, entertainment, the judiciary, whatever it is. We want people in those seven mountains, but we want to have them having the right view of God, and history, and the Bible. And so that’s what we try to do with all of those, is-is pull all of those together, if that makes sense.
I think Barton should call his schools: the Anti-Federalist School of Government. It was the anti-federalists who believed the Constitution should have included a connection to God and the Bible.
In any event, those who deny dominionism should take a look at this. Barton’s goal is to train future politicians in the teaching that Christians should be setting the tone in all areas of life so that they can legislate Christian answers to political issues.
Rememberthis? Barton said he got his story about elementary school kids threatening an intruder in a one-room Old West school from a novel by Louis L’Amour. L’Amour was an Americana fiction writer who in 1986 provided Barton with some historical material he used in 2013.
I thought of Barton’s use of that third hand source yesterday when his son Tim told Gateway Church representative Kerry Wood that Wallbuilders only uses original sources for their materials. Barton said professors just have ideas, not sources. Back in 2013, Barton told Glenn Beck that in the 1850s, elementary school kids took guns to school and once saved a teacher from a would be attacker. Since the kiddies had their guns at school, they deterred the attacker from shooting their teacher.
Barton’s source for this story turned out to be a Louis L’Amour fictional novel Bendigo Shafter. Barton later admitted this but said it was fine because L’Amour said the story was true. Barton transcribed an audiotaped 1986 interview with L’Amour as follows:
There’s a case I [L’Amour] use in one of my stories; I use it in the story called Bendigo Shafter. All the kids coming to school used to hang their guns up in the cloakroom because they were miles from home sometimes, and it was dangerous to ride out without a gun. And this is taken from an actually true incident. I use it in my story and tell the story, but it really happened. Now a man came to kill the teacher. It was a man. And he came with a gun, and all the kids liked the teacher, so they came out and ranged around him with their guns. That stopped it. But kids twelve and thirteen used to carry guns to school regularly.
In 1986, L’Amour said the story was true but he didn’t point to any original source as Barton’s son insists is necessary. Without knowledge of the source of the story, Barton changed the details around (e.g., elementary kids instead of those aged 12-13 years) and presented it to Beck and the world as a historical fact.
First, watch Tim Barton tell his guests that the Bartons always use the original sources and then listen to Barton’s yarn to Glenn Beck about the gun-totin’ kiddies.
Apparently, Wallbuilders and Gateway Church/The Kings University are cooking up a business deal. Today, on his twitter account, Tim Barton broadcast from the Wallbuilders’ library along with some folks from Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. The broadcast was mainly for the benefit of some Gateway staff. It wasn’t clear to me what kind of deal they were planning but it involved using Barton’s DVDs and books.
Listening to the Barton father and son team in sales mode was interesting. If you buy what they are selling, you would think that no historian gets it right. Truth comes only from Wallbuilders. Barton had some special words for Messiah College history chair John Fea. Listen:
I think Barton is referring to John’s article here for Religion News Service. Since the state constitutions are easily retrieved, I can’t wait to see how Barton will spin this.
I can’t tell if The King’s University is set to make Barton’s materials available to students or Gateway is going to market them. In any case, it was clear throughout the sale’s pitch that Barton was badmouthing actual historians to set himself apart (and of course in a certain way, that’s true).
Now Gateway and/or The King’s University people should find out from actual historians what the truth is. I challenge them to contact me or Fea or Thomas Kidd in their neck of the woods at Baylor to ask why Barton attacks Christian professors so often.
