Dispatches From the Culture Wars
In some ways, it must be nice to be a fundamentalist. No matter what happens, you have the perfect explanation. When you’re caught lying your ass off, as David Barton is on an almost daily basis, you can just blame it on Satan. How convenient.
In some ways, it must be nice to be a fundamentalist. No matter what happens, you have the perfect explanation. When you’re caught lying your ass off, as David Barton is on an almost daily basis, you can just blame it on Satan. How convenient.
When David Barton’s book was pulled by Thomas Nelson, Scott Lively was one of his most vocal defenders. That’s not a surprise, of course, since Lively, like Barton, is a fake historian telling ridiculous lies about history. His specialty is lying about Hitler and gay people, while Barton’s is lying about American history. Barton is now returning the favor by headlining a fundraiser for Lively. Birds of a feather and all that.
Right Wing Watch is going through David Barton’s new Founder’s Bible, which contains many more of the kind of claims he makes constantly — taking a Bible verse and distorting the hell out of it to make some tenuous connection to something we now know to be true. Did you know that the Bible foretells the use of DNA evidence in criminal cases?
David Barton’s hilariously idiotic attempts to find analogs between America’s founding and passages in the Bible continue. This time he’s claiming that the 4th of July celebrations are based on “Biblical precedent” because, golly gee, they celebrated things too! This is from his new Founder’s Bible, which Right Wing Watch is quoting:
In doing some research for my book, I found out that Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s two sons were beaten up several times when she was challenging the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in their school. One of those sons was William Murray, who is now a Christian fundamentalist. And the man is either utterly irrational or a baldfaced liar. Here’s what he writes on the website of his PAC:
David Barton can’t seem to get much of anything right. Not only is he wrong about practically everything he says about the founding era of the country, he is equally ignorant of modern American history. Like his recent claims on his radio show about Lawrence v Texas, the case that overturned state sodomy laws.
It is with great irritation that I call your attention to yet another article full of fake quotes from the founding fathers — not by David Barton and his ilk, but by someone on “our side.” Yes, I know this is a year old. I don’t care. This crap has to stop.
Bart Gingerich writes an interesting, if too brief, article at the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s blog about David Barton and Wallbuilders. Gingerich was homeschooled and got his history degree from Patrick Henry College, which he entered as a big fan of Barton’s work. He is now a staunch critic:
David Barton isn’t the only wingnut who invents his own delusional history. Kenneth Copeland told Barton on his own TV show that the Berlin wall came down because German pastors were reading his books and praying for the wall to come down. This is funny stuff.
Diane Passno, who works for Focus on the Family and has a new anti-feminist book out, appeared on James Dobson’s radio show and the two of them had a good old time beating up that tired old straw woman feminist who allegedly believes in a world without men. And Passno claims, with a straight face, that feminism was originally a Christian movement.
Things are getting bad enough for David Barton that even the Christian Reconstructionists are blasting his distortions of history. Joel McDurmon of American Vision, who does believe in “restoring America’s Biblical foundation,” takes Barton to task for several blatant errors.
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