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Chris Rodda

Chris Rodda

Posted: April 1, 2010 03:57 PM

David Barton Keeps Up His Lies At Glenn Beck Event

What's Your Reaction:

On Saturday, March 27, the first of Glenn Beck's much-anticipated American Revival events took place at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Florida. For many of the attendees, the highlight of this all-day event seems to have been a several-minute pause in the program when an elderly woman in the audience needed medical attention. Here, Mr. Beck showed his true humanity and Christian character, halting the show and raising the house lights so that medical personnel could get to the woman. (A communist, fascist, Marxist, socialist liberal would, of course, have just ignored the situation and let the old broad croak.) And to make the moment even more special, Beck began softly humming "Amazing Grace," with the audience spontaneously joining in.

Joining Mr. Beck for his American Revival event were Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano and David Buckner, the guy best known for actually passing out on Beck's show (a medical situation that did not prompt any hymn-humming from Beck).

The third featured speaker at the event was none other than the star of the "Texas Textbook Massacre," Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton.

For those unfamiliar with Barton, he is the most popular of all the Christian nationalist history revisionists and a former vice-chair of the Texas Republican Party who was used by the GOP in recent elections to travel the country stumping for their "family values" candidates. He is very well connected with the far-right members of Congress. In 2005 Time Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. But outside evangelical Christian circles and those of us who fight the religious right, few people are aware of who he is or just how dangerous he is. That, however, is now changing. Because of his role in the Texas textbook lunacy, and now, even more, because of his hooking up with Glenn Beck, people who never paid attention to Barton before are suddenly curious about who the hell this guy is. And this may be his downfall. He is no longer flying under a radar, where he was only visible to his blind followers.

Enough videos of Barton's performance at Beck's American Revival have now been posted online for me to be sure that Barton is still using the same presentation that I witnessed at a church here in New Jersey a few years ago. As I wrote in another post a few months ago, back in October 2008 I attended a presentation given by Barton and approached him after his presentation to give him a copy of my book, Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, a book debunking many of his lies, as well as those of a number of his fellow revisionists.

On January 16, 2009, I became the subject of a segment on Barton's WallBuilders LIVE! radio show, in which he lied about me, my book, and our encounter at his presentation. In response, I decided to make a little video that addresses not just the lies Barton told about me on his show but also the lies he told in the presentation that I attended.

Unlike Barton, I don't have the resources to produce and distribute a plethora of slick videos. All I have is the camera on my laptop, a rudimentary knowledge of iMovie, and YouTube. The only advantage I have over Barton is that I'm telling the truth -- about both him and American history. Hopefully, at some point, I'll be able to make a higher quality video, but for now, my homemade effort will have to do.

I've posted this video before, but since Barton is still using the same presentation, I'm still using the same video to respond to it. There's some stuff at the beginning about what Barton said about me on his radio show last year, but, other than that, my video is still current because Barton hasn't changed his presentation.

 
 
 
On Saturday, March 27, the first of Glenn Beck's much-anticipated American Revival events took place at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Florida. For many of the attendees, the highlight of this all-day even...
On Saturday, March 27, the first of Glenn Beck's much-anticipated American Revival events took place at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Florida. For many of the attendees, the highlight of this all-day even...
 
 
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04:58 AM on 04/04/2010
"A communist, fascist, Marxist, socialist liberal would, of course, have just ignored the situation and let the old broad croak." You choice of words in describing the woman tells it all. NEED I SAY MORE. (Yes, a far left liberal would have describe a woman exactly the way you did.) btw. How do you know what the woman's age was? She might have been a "hottie" and you would have used the same words since she was sitting at a Beck event.
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DevonTexas
Eternal Optimism
10:13 AM on 04/02/2010
It's really shameful that people with political agendas can have such an effect on education in America. Well. we once took God of the schools now perhaps we can get the religious fanatics out too.
01:25 AM on 04/02/2010
David Barton is an excellent historian who carefully documents his work. His research reveals what secularists have been working hard to expunge from public knowledge for years... Chiefly that the personal writings, eye-witness accounts and concepts expressed in our country's historical documents clearly support the fact that a large portion of the founding fathers were men of faith, well acquainted with the Bible and tenets of Christianity and were thoroughly influenced by it. Its easily seen when you read the period documents. Only a revisionist with an agenda would deny it.
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diamoonda2u
07:59 AM on 04/02/2010
Ok...backup...take two steps AWAY from the David Barton books and videos and open up the bible and read it for yourself....

then ye may know the truth and the truth will set you free...
09:49 AM on 04/02/2010
You are totally misinformed. Barton is a liar. If you actually looked into his claims, you would see that for yourself. HE is the revisionist!
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07:44 PM on 04/01/2010
I'm starting to wonder if we will have to go through a period of Christo-fascist government for most people to really get how evil these people are. Sort of the way the Catholic-Protestant wars in Europe soured those people on religious fanaticism (many of those fanatics ended up migrating here). I hope not, for all our sakes. Thanks for your work to prevent it, Chris.
10:02 PM on 04/06/2010
Although fascists suckered liberal european Christians to their advantage - fascists were never Christian. Although some wars fought in Europe are attributed to religion, the root of conflict was always about control and little about religion. Nothing has done more to devastate humanity than the modern godless movements of fascism, socialism and communism. It's estimated that 65 million were murdered in China by Mao - millions more elsewhere by Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Che and others. If you want to research real evil read the "The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression" published by Harvard University Press. Now the fanatics of the godless euro movements have migrated here, teaching in our universities and influencing our politics. We know the results. I hope for all our sakes that America wakes up to repel the nonsense of failed euro ideologies.
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Eykis
Odd realm of Purgatory I reside in with HPo~
04:15 PM on 04/01/2010
Chris, great article and fanned.

PLEASE keep posting updates on this loon from Texas. I am a native Dallasite now living in Nashville -- what is going on in Texas is unbelievably horrendous.


Thank you for your hard work and KEEP THE LIARS upfront where they belong.

The sooner we can get rid of Hate Radio and Faux Noise, the better off this country will be and the TEABAGGERS will just float away.