On October 25, 2008, I attended a presentation given by Christian nationalist history revisionist David Barton. After his presentation, I approached him and gave 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.
Rather than just write about the lies Barton told about me on his show, I decided to make a little video with iMovie, something I've never tried to do before. I ended up getting a bit carried away, making a video that's over an hour long, but once I got started, I wanted to address not just the lies Barton told about me on his show, but also the lies he told in the presentation I attended in October.
For those unfamiliar with Barton, he is not only the most popular of all the Christian nationalist history revisionists, but 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, and is very well connected with the far right members of Congress. In 2005, was named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America by Time Magazine. But, outside of evangelical Christian circles, and those of us who fight the religious right, few people know who he is.
Barton's pals in Congress, who regularly appear on his radio show to push their far right agenda, include Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Randy Forbes (R-VA, Mike Pence (R-IN), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Trent Franks (R-AZ).
Another one of Barton's buddies, described by Barton as "One of the Really Cool Guys," is Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. During Jindal's gubernatorial campaign in 2006, Barton appeared with him at churches in Louisiana, and, on October 18 and 19, 2006, had him on his radio show for a two part interview. Referring in the opening comments of the program to Jindal's election to Congress two years earlier, Barton remarked, "That is the election in which we saw a huge increase in Christian voter turnout, and he is part of that product of what we were able to put in office in 2004."
Barton is currently joining forces with Newt Gingrich and his newly launched Renewing American Leadership organization. According to a March 20 U.S. News & World Report article, "This spring, Gingrich will speak to a handful of large gatherings for politically conservative clergy that have been organized by David Barton, an influential evangelical activist who spearheaded the Republican National Committee's rigorous outreach to pastors in 2004."
I realize that only those people already interested in Christian nationalist history revisionism will be likely to watch this entire video, but I would urge those not familiar with David Barton to at least watch enough of it to see how easily he is able to dupe his audiences into believing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a necessary element in getting these people to vote for and support the agenda of his political cohorts.
The video is split into nine segments because of the ten minute limit on YouTube. The first four segments are primarily about what Barton said on his radio show, with a few examples of the lies from his presentation thrown in where they relate to the radio show segment. The last five segments debunk a number of other lies from the presentation itself.
Chris Rodda: No, Mr. Beck, Our Constitution Is Not Based on the Book of Deuteronomy
I sometimes get criticized for coming right out and calling David Barton a liar. It's moments like that one with John Hagee that expose him as the liar that he is, and that is exactly what I will continue to call him.
Chris Rodda: David Barton Keeps Up His Lies At Glenn Beck Event
A featured speaker at Glenn Beck's American Revival event was none other than the star of the "Texas Textbook Massacre," Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton.
What I'm really encouraged by is the great feedback I've been getting from Christians on this video. There are many, many Christians out there who are as disgusted by Barton and the other revisionists as I am. In fact, awhile back, the minister who wrote the foreword to my book suggested that we create a study guide for my book for the use of churches like his. Since I deliberately avoided current politics in the book, churches could certainly use it without risking any potential IRS problems over pushing a political agenda. I may revisit my minister friend's suggestion, maybe not the original idea of a printed study guide, but a series of videos covering each chapter of the book.
Thanks, Chris, and cheers.
Way to point out the sell job this guy is trying to do on our history by listing issue by issue the fallacy of his interpretation of American constitutional history. He believes in the philosophy of the winner gets to write history and he wants to be the winner which makes him another hypocritical religious right winger.
This guy is the latest in the long line of snake oil salesmen and evangelical bible thumpers. My question is how much money does he make selling this garbage? It must be quite a bit since he is able to own original letters and books which puts him in the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker category. It would be interesting to find out how much each church he goes to are paying for his gospel meetings which are thinly disguised as history lessons. Or does he depend on selling his alternate history books?
Keep up the hard work.
these manipulators are influential to a large portion of the electorate and need push back like this I thank you for all your work.
I just watched a few of the segments and intend to watch each of them.
Your work is relevant, important and appreciated!