One of the things brought up last night in Keith Olbermann's segment on Christian nationalist history revisionist David Barton, who is now teaming up with Glenn Beck to promote his wildly distorted version of American history, was how the history revisionists like Barton claim that it is really the secularists and academics who are revising history. Barton actually devotes an entire chapter of his book Original Intent to attempting to show proof of this absurd claim, something I wrote about at length a few years ago. I re-posted that piece last night, and today I'm recycling another post. This one is a video I made after being bashed by Barton on his radio show last year.
On October 25, 2008, I attended a presentation given by 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.
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: No, Mr. Beck, Jefferson Did Not Date His Documents 'In the Year of Our Lord Christ'
I'm going to take on another of pseudo-historian David Barton's favorite lies: that Thomas Jefferson dated his presidential documents "in the year of our Lord Christ.'
Chris Rodda: No, Mr. Beck, Congress Did Not Print a Bible for the Use of Schools
David Barton, the pseudo-historian from Texas who's probably more responsible than any other individual for spreading the erroneous belief that America was founded as a Christian nation, has now teamed up with Glenn Beck.
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.
Sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition
I just finished listening to your videos. Great work--again. Thank you.
I much enjoyed reading your book, particularly appreciating your tenacity and meticulousness. I consult it frequently as I blog around. Are we yet to expect a Volume II?
Joyce Meyer, is an evangelist but she also is a very mainstream personal coach-SHE HAS A HUGE WORLDWIDE FOLLOWING -- i find her enjoyable sometimes and Barton has the ear of her husband and was on the show - I was extremely disappointed by this :
info on the Joyce Meyer program with David Barton
02/13/2010 - One Nation Under God
http://www.joycemeyer.org/ourministries/broadcast/
I am very glad that you wrote about this person. I hope the Joyce Meyer group wakes up to what he is peddling... but I think there is slim chance of that...
Thank you for this important work. I look forward to reading your book.
So needless to say, when I read this headline, I nearly fell off my chair laughing.
I'm sorry to hear that there's this other "David Barton" fellow ruining the good name of David Barton.
If the facts are telling us something that is in conflict with our beliefs, perhaps we need to adjust our beliefs.
I'm willing to adjust mine if you are willing adjust yours.
Children are human beings first and will need to live being able to think not just perform textbook responses.
Questioning things is a sign of intelligence since humans are naturally curious encouraging questions and allowing curiosity to be explored we will have smarter humans using their natural abilities.
I don't think the ideology of religion should be injected into schools. We have the freedom of religion and each person can send their own children to the religious church of their choice for religious teachings.
There is no need to inject one ideology into public schools where many different religious beliefs exist and are part of our freedom that the conservatives want to deny.
It is unfair to have one group forcing their beliefs on others. They already have freedom to worship as they choose without forcing it into our public schools.
What percentage of text book authors lean conservative?
What are the political leanings of the decision makers, who purchase text books?
How much reasoned thought have you given to conservative ideology?
It is reasonable to think that perhaps a left leaning industry might lean left in its interpretation of history. Anyone with even limited critical thinking skills would conclude that our text books lean more to the left then to the right.
They tend to lean in a more conservative manner to stay in the middle.
The Founding Fathers were wise enough to preserve our Democracy and our religious freedoms with the Separation of Church and State knowing that religion should not dictate politics and politics and government should not interfere with religion.
The ideology of many conservatives is to deny our freedoms by eliminating the Separation of Church and State by forcing their ideology to be taught in a religious context in public schools.
Your arguments don't hold water on any level.
History and new archaeological finds update our knowledge and the facts, not any left conspiracy theory you may have.
What percentage of conservatives can write a paper let alone a text book that can withstand peer review?
Reason thought given to conservative ideology. An oxymoron. Anyone capable of giving reasoned thought to conservative ideology will by definition not be conservative.
"While it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people. It is true that most stupid people are conservative." John Stuart Mill
They have grown up with a world view that is often distorted, and when that distortion falls in the face of logic, then they'll just shift and change the facts in order for it to fit in their world view.
Texas dominates the textbook subject matter because of our size.
Doesn't the bush clan have money invested in text book publishing ?