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David Barton (author)

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For other uses, see David Barton (author) (disambiguation).

David Barton (born 1954) is an American white nationalist[1] and fundamentalist minister[2] and Republican political activist, known for giving speeches on behalf of Neo-Nazi and Christian Identity groups[1]. He is the author of several books criticizing separation of church and state in the United States. He was described in a 2005 Time magazine article entitled The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals as "a major voice in the debate over church-state separation."[3] Barton has been widely accused by both conservatives and liberals of practicing historical revisionism, and described as being a pseudohistorian,[4][5][6] and his work has been criticized by historians. He has also come under fire for fraud after intentionally falsifying quotes by the American founding fathers. [3][7][8] Barton also came under fire after speaking at white power functions, such as Christian Identity adherent and Holocaust denier Pete Peters' ministry, claiming twice that he "didn't know they (the groups he spoke at) were part of the Nazi movement".[1]

Biography

Barton graduated in 1972 from Aledo High School in Aledo, Texas.[2] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University in 1976 and has no academic qualifications in history.[9][10]

After graduating, Barton served as a church youth director.[11] He taught math and science, and eventually became principal at Aledo Christian School, a small (less than 100 students) Christian school which grew out of Aledo Christian Center, a church started by Barton's parents.[2][12][13]

In 1987 Barton formed Specialty Research Associates, which "focuses on the historical research of issues relating to America’s constitutional, moral, and religious heritage." Specialty Research Associates has submitted amicus curiae briefs in a number of court cases.[10][14][15]

Barton is the founder and president of the Aledo-based group WallBuilders, an organization which presents "America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built."[16] WallBuilders publishes and sells most of Barton's books and videos, which include Barton's position that the modern view of separation of church and state is not consistent with the views of the Founders.

Barton is married and has three grown children, including a daughter who does minority outreach for the Republican Party of Texas.[2]

Affiliations

Barton is a former Vice Chairman of the Texas Republican Party. Barton has also acted as a political consultant to the Republican National Committee on outreach to evangelicals.[3][17][18][19]

Barton serves on the Board of Advisors of the nonprofit National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools organization, publisher of a controversial Bible curriculum for use in public schools (not to be confused with The Bible and Its Influence curriculum).[20] This curriculum contains a number of direct quotations from Barton's books, as well as recommending the resources published by WallBuilders, and advocates showing that group's video, Foundations of American Government, at the beginning of the course. [21]

One of the WallBuilders speakers is Rick Green, a former Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives and a candidate for the Texas Supreme Court in the April 13, 2010 runoff election.

Barton serves on the Board of Advisors of the Providence Foundation.[22] In an article discussing Barton, The Nation described the Providence Foundation as "a Christian Reconstructionist group that promotes the idea that biblical law should be instituted in America."[23]

In Barton’s best seller,[citation needed] The Myth of Separation, the author states his belief that Christians were the ones who were intended to hold public office. Thus, Jews and other sects were not allowed to serve as elected officials. According to Skipp Porteous of the Massachusetts-based Institute for First Amendment Studies, Barton was listed in promotional literature as a "new and special speaker" at a 1991 summer retreat in Colorado sponsored by Scriptures for America, a far-right Christian Identity ministry headed by Pastor Pete Peters. Peters' organization, which is virulently anti-Semitic and racist, spreads hysteria about Jews and homosexuals and has been linked to neo-Nazi groups.Church & State Volume 46, No. 4, April 1993, pp 8-12

Media

Barton received two Angel Awards (awarded to "people in any form of the media who have successfully contributed to the advancement of quality in life without the unnecessary need for violence, profanity and sexual content to sell to their audience"[24]) from the group Excellence in Media.[25] He has appeared in Time magazine, and has been a guest on Trinity Broadcasting Network, The 700 Club, Fox News Channel, ABC, and National Public Radio.

Reception of Barton's work

Barton's work has achieved popular success, but not academic acceptance:

Many historians dismiss his thinking, but Barton's advocacy organization, WallBuilders, and his relentless stream of publications, court amicus briefs and books like The Myth of Separation, have made him a hero to millions—including some powerful politicians.

— 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, Time Magazine, [3]

Senator Sam Brownback praised Barton’s work for providing "the philosophical underpinning for a lot of the Republican effort in the country today—bringing God back into the public square."[26]

Richard V. Pierard, Stephen Phillips Professor of History at Gordon College describes Barton's work as follows:

Moreover, American history is rewritten to become

“Christian history,” the story of a people chosen by God and who honored him in the past. David Barton and a host of other evangelicals have produced books and videos setting forth a “holy history” of America—an idyllic past to which we must return if the nation is to be saved

from destruction at the hands of secularists.[7]

Writing in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, (then Republican) Senator Arlen Specter stated:

Probably the best refutation of Barton's argument simply is to quote his

own exegesis of the First Amendment: "Today," Barton says, "we would best understand the actual context of the First Amendment by saying, 'Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination.' " In keeping with Barton's restated First Amendment, Congress could presumably make a law establishing all Christian denominations as the national religion, and each state could pass a law establishing a particular Christian church as its official religion.

All of this pseudoscholarship would hardly be worth discussing, let alone disproving, were it not for the fact that it is taken so very seriously by so many people.

— Arlen Specter, Defending the wall: Maintaining church/state separation in America, [4]

Unconfirmed Quotations

In an article titled "Unconfirmed Quotations," Barton conceded that he has not located primary sources for eleven of the alleged quotes from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions, but maintained that the quotes were "completely consistent" with the views of the Founders.[27] This drew heavy criticism from Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who accused Barton of "shoddy workmanship", and said that despite these and other corrections, Barton's work "remains rife with distortions of history and court rulings".[8] WallBuilders responded to its critics by saying that Barton followed "common practice in the academic community" in citing secondary sources, and that in publishing "Unconfirmed Quotations," Barton's intent was to raise the academic bar in historical debates pertinent to public policy.[27]

Barton has denied[2] saying that, in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists,[28] "Jefferson referred to the wall of separation between church and state as 'one-directional'—that is, it was meant to restrain government from infringing on the church's domain but not the other way around. There is no such language in the letter." This denial is contradicted[2] by a 1990 version of Barton's video America's Godly Heritage in which Barton states:

On January 1, 1802, Jefferson wrote to that group of Danbury Baptists, and in this letter, he assured them—he said the First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between church and state, he said, but that wall is a one-directional wall. It keeps the government from running the church, but it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.

His legitimacy was reported to be growing in 2006, due largely to his first work which was not self-published, a 2003 article in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy, (Volume XVII Issue No. 2, 2003, p. 399), a "rather tame survey" on Jefferson’s writings about the First Amendment.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Blakeslee, Nate (2006-09). "King Of the Christocrats". Texas Monthly. 34 (9): 1. ISSN 0148-7736. Retrieved 2008-11-10. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, Time
  4. ^ a b Specter, Arlen (Spring 1995). "Defending the wall: Maintaining church/state separation in America". Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. 18 (2): 575–590. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ David Barton - Propaganda Masquerading as History, People for the American Way
  6. ^ Dissecting the religious right's favorite Bible Curriculum, Rob Boston, Americans United for Separation of Church and State
  7. ^ a b Boston Theological Institute Newsletter Volume XXXIV, No. 17, Richard V. Pierard, January 25, 2005
  8. ^ a b "Wallbuilders Shoddy Workmanship". Church & State. 49 (7). Americans United for Separation of Church and State: 11–13. 1996. Retrieved 2007-07-06. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ The Foundations of American Freedom, Christian Broadcasting Network
  10. ^ a b The Turnaround in Education, David Barton
  11. ^ The Turnaround in Education, David Barton, Oral Roberts University
  12. ^ Aledo Christian School
  13. ^ Aledo Christian School history
  14. ^ Amicus Curiae Brief
  15. ^ WESTSIDE COMMUNITY BD. OF ED. v. MERGENS, 496 U.S. 226 (1990)
  16. ^ Wallbuilders Overview
  17. ^ History of the Republican Party of Texas
  18. ^ The Dobson way, Dan Gilgoff U.S. News & World Report, 1/9/05
  19. ^ David Barton & the 'Myth' of Church-State Separation, Deborah Caldwell, Beliefnet
  20. ^ NCBCPS Board of Directors and Advisors
  21. ^ The Revised Curriculum of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, Mark A. Chancey, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, October 2005
  22. ^ Providence Foundation Mission statement
  23. ^ In Contempt of Courts, Max Blumenthal, The Nation, April 11, 2005
  24. ^ Angel Awards History
  25. ^ Angel Awards 2007 Winners
  26. ^ A man with a message; Self-taught historian's work on church-state issues rouses GOP, Chris Vaughn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 22, 2005
  27. ^ a b Barton, David. "Unconfirmed Quotations". WallBuilders website.
  28. ^ Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists

Critics:

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