DAVID BARTON CONTROVERSY

By on Aug 7, 2012 in Current Issues, Features

About a month ago in Under God Indivisible And Joined With Apostates I reminded you that as God sends spiritual blindness upon the world, this postmodern time in which we live has headed people deeper and deeper into the shadows of darkness.

What they’re falling for is the deception sweeping through Christendom that somehow it’s now become God’s “dream” for all of the various factions calling themselves Christian to unite and begin working together to make the world a better place.

There’s another strain to this virus as well, which is what’s growing into a real spiritual fetish about bringing “America back to God,” as it it ever even was of God. The United States was never a covenant nation to the Lord and it doesn’t replace Israel.

With this in mind, let me call to your attention again something called Under God Indivisible, a Leadership Conference which happened back on July 27th. Under its own Our Mission section UGI was clearly billed as a Christian leadership conference:


(source)

For UGI to be billed as a Christian leadership conference and also include non-believers as well was wrong; and yet, this is what happened:


(source)

As you can see, one of the speakers was Word Faith heretic Kenneth Copeland’s friend David Barton. Barton is aligned with the New Apostolic Reformation and dominionism, ((http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/05/mainstreaming-dominionism.html, accessed 8/7/12.)) and as Brannon Howse has brought out:

On his April 4, 2011 David Barton’s radio program description included, “Culture can be divided into 7 pillars of influence- Family, Religion, Education, Media, Entertainment, Business and Government.”

This is the exact same pillars of C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation “Seven Mountain Mandate”. In a May 31, 2007 letter C. Peter Wagner wrote:

In my view it is not possible to get an operational handle on how to initiate corporate action toward social transformation without taking into account the seven mountains or what I like to call “molders of culture.” The seven are religion, family, business, arts & entertainment, government, education, and media.

Barton appears to have identified himself with the dominion theology crowd by promoting what he called the seven pillars on his radio program. (source)

Barton is also billed as “one of America’s most popular Christian history writers” ((http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/19820, accessed 8/7/12.)), which brings us to today’s The David Barton Controversy where we’re told:

David Barton, [is] president of the WallBuilders organization and a frequent guest on Glenn Beck’s broadcasts,… Liberal critics have long accused Barton of misinterpretations and errors, and readers of the History News Network recently voted a new Barton book, The Jefferson Lies, as the “Least Credible History Book in Print.”

But now some conservative Christian scholars are publicly questioning Barton’s work, too. (source)

It’s about time, Barton’s been under the radar with his fanciful revisionist history for too long now. Thomas Kidd continues:

Jay W. Richards, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and author with James Robison of Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It’s Too Late, spoke alongside Barton at Christian conferences as recently as last month.

Richards says in recent months he has grown increasingly troubled about Barton’s writings, so he asked 10 conservative Christian professors to assess Barton’s work. Their response was negative. (source)

Uh-oh, looks like there’s trouble in the “America’s God’s nation” camp. By the way, Richards is a Roman Catholic whom the sinfully ecumenical James Robison believes is a Christian, along with Roman Catholic priest Jonathan Morris. All of these spoke with Barton at the “Christian” leadership conference I mentioned above.

Kidd then gives us a few examples of what critics are saying about David Barton’s American mythology:

Glenn Moots of Northwood University wrote that Barton in The Jefferson Lies is so eager to portray Jefferson as sympathetic to Christianity that he misses or omits obvious signs that Jefferson stood outside “orthodox, creedal, confessional Christianity.” A second professor, Glenn Sunshine of Central Connecticut State University, said that Barton’s characterization of Jefferson’s religious views is “unsupportable.”

A third, Gregg Frazer of The Master’s College, evaluated Barton’s video America’s Godly Heritage and found many of its factual claims dubious, such as a statement that “52 of the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention were ‘orthodox, evangelical Christians.’” (source)

Then there’s Cincinnati Pastors Boycott Thomas Nelson Publishers and David Barton’s “The Jefferson Lies” where we find out:

The pastors/church leaders pointed to four major concerns the group has with The Jefferson Lies:

1.       It glosses over Thomas Jefferson’s unorthodox and heretical beliefs about Jesus Christ;
2.       It minimizes and justifies Thomas Jefferson’s racism;
3.       It excuses Thomas Jefferson’s practice of enslaving African-Americans.
4.       The Jefferson Lies is riddled with factual distortions and falsehoods.

Rev. Damon Lynch said, “David Barton falsely claims that Thomas Jefferson was unable to free his slaves.” In fact, Jefferson was allowed to free his slave under Virginia law, but failed to do it. The Jefferson Lies glosses over Jefferson’s real record on slaveholding, and minimizes Jefferson’s racist views…

Presbyter Chris Beard said, “We are protesting as concerned believers in the evangelical Christian community, who believe that many are being misled by David Barton’s teachings.” Rev. Ray McMillian added, “You can’t be serious about racial unity in the church, while holding up Jefferson as a hero and champion of freedom.” (source)

All of this is true; yet Barton apparently remains unfazed. Kidd informs us:

He questions how many of his new critics have actually read his work, especially The Jefferson Lies… He says that all of his books, including his latest, are fully documented with footnotes,… A full-scale, newly published critique of Barton is coming from Professors Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter of Grove City College, a largely conservative Christian school in Pennsylvania.

Their book Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President (Salem Grove Press), argues that Barton “is guilty of taking statements and actions out of context and simplifying historical circumstances.”

For example, they charge that Barton, in explaining why Jefferson did not free his slaves, “seriously misrepresents or misunderstands (or both) the legal environment related to slavery.” (source)

Not surprisingly, Barton fired back:

In a response posted on the WallBuilders website, Barton says that Throckmorton and Coulter’s book typifies attacks by “academic elitists” who position themselves as the “sole caretakers of historical knowledge.” He contends that Throckmorton and Coulter are hostile toward his “personal religious beliefs.”

Barton also disputes several of their specific arguments. For instance, contrary to Getting Jefferson Right, Barton insists that Jefferson did not merely buy a copy but was an investor in a 1798 edition of the Bible, which reveals Jefferson’s philosophical support for the sacred text. (source)

In closing, as a former Roman Catholic I have my differences with Jay Richards; that noted, it is important to note that Richards:

emphasizes that he and the scholars he consulted about Barton are politically conservative evangelicals or Catholics.

They largely agree with Barton’s belief that Christian principles played a major role in America’s founding, but Richards argues that Barton’s books and videos are full of “embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims.” (source)

Here I do stand in agreement with Jay Richards. May the Lord set him free from slavery to Rome’s false gospel.

HT: Brannon Howse

Further reading