Two recent Baptist News articles have highlighted the influence of David Barton in Washington, D.C. Jeff Brumley wrote, “At SBC seminary, Hawley says USA founded on covenant with God.” Michael Chancellor contributed an op ed piece, “Dan Patrick is wrong again.” Dan Patrick says, “Separation of church and state is a lie.”
In 1939, Frank Capra made the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring James Stewart. Capra’s message was more honest than Barton. The messages Mr. Smith left with viewers were that good could triumph, but there was no certainty of it; that evil businessmen were still at large, and that if people wanted to achieve a more democratic society, they would have to continue to struggle toward that end. McElvaine, Robert S.. The Great Depression: America 1929-1941 (p. 218). Crown. Kindle Edition.
Barton has been well-documented as a liar. Perhaps no one have been more castigated as a liar in Christian circles. What Barton lacks in sheer numbers of lies pales when compared to President Donald Trump, but Bartons’ ability to repeat the same “rotten barrel” of lies is unparalleled.
In her article, “The Greatest Story Ever Told About Hyperbole, Humbug and P. T. Barnum, Jennifer Mercieca relates Barnum’s Joice Heth being a one hundred-sixty-one year old ex- slave of George Washington. Mercieca reports, “To be clear: 1) the story about Joice Heth was a humbug, she was neither 161 years old nor the former slave of the Washington family; 2) the story about Heth actually being an automaton was a humbug; and 3) the story refuting Heth’s autopsy results was yet another humbug. Barnum’s story of Joice Heth was at least three layers of humbug deep.”
There’s now another tale of humbuggery taking place in Washington, D.C. and wherever MAGA crowds gather. This story also deals with a founding father, Thomas Jefferson. The star of the show, decked out in a red, white and blue suit is David Barton, a humbug historian.
Barton’s first humbug: Fabricating sayings of the founding fathers to push his fake American history. His second humbug was his book, The Jefferson Lies. The book was removed from publication by his own publisher Thomas Nelson. The lies in the book turned out to be Barton’s not Thomas Jefferson’s.
Barton is a well-known Republican consultant from Texas with no credentials in American history. John Fea, an actual American historian, has documented the truth about Barton in his work, Believe Me. Randall J. Stephens & Karl W. Giberson’s The Anointed is also an excellent expose of Barton’s distorted views.
You would not find a single member of the American Historical Society who would affirm Barton’s revisionist history. Fea notes, “Barton’s understanding of the past has been debunked by nearly every serious American historian, including those who teach at the most conservative Christian colleges.”
Giberson and Stephens rightly note Barton as “an amateur historian” and “self-taught.” For at least twenty years, I have called him a “history hobbyist.”
His third humbug has been trashing the separation of church and state known as the “wall of separation” with an organization ironically named “Wallbuilders.”
Perhaps we need a new movie entitled, “David Barton Goes to Washington” with an honest appraisal of what Baron is trying to accomplish.
When Barton’s humbuggery was exposed multiple times, he became even more famous and drew larger crowds. He was invited to conducts tours at the White House and advises state boards of education on history curriculum.
How has it come to pass that such a fake has gained such popularity? How can repeating lies for forty years continue to be an avenue to success, power and money? The most obvious answer: Demagogues, dictators and other powerful politicians use repetition as a primary conduit to spread their lies. And there’s what rhetorical scholar Jennifer Merciesa attributes to how Americans “love to be amused and we love excess, and so we reward showmen with our attention.” What’s a bit of exaggeration among friends? We live in the age of humbuggery and hyperbole passing as truth. It has elected Trump president twice and is making a home for Barton in Congress.
I wrote an op ed piece for the Dayton Daily News in 2008 disagreeing with David Barton’s revisionist history of America. The newspaper then printed a rebuttal from a local district judge. The two of us engaged in contentious email responses until I asked him, “Why are you repeating David Barton’s lies?” The judge never responded.
The judge was a Barton acolyte. And one of the legion of Barton apologists. Barton and his battalion have repeated his lies about our nation’s history for so long the lies have been accepted as truth by many evangelicals.
How a politician, wearing a red, white and blue suit, passes for a historian, is as Christians often say, “A mystery of God.” His “aw shucks” good old boy personality has been a hit among Republicans.
Barton Disciples in Congress
Mike Johnson, speaker of the House is a David Barton Disciple.
Rep. Michael Cloud Texas 27th district
Rep. Eric Burlison Missouri 7th district
Rep. Josh Brecheen Oklahoma
Sen. Josh Hawley Missouri
Rep Randy Forbes
When Barton was in Washington, D.C., leading a private tour of the Capitol for a group of right-wing pastors and meeting with members of Congress, he sat down for an interview with Reps. Eric Burlison, Michael Cloud, and Josh Brecheen on the “Fresh Freedom” podcast, during which the three gushed over Barton and the influence his work has had on their political careers. Cloud introduced Barton as “an amazing friend” and “a leader on history.”
When the GOP’s favorite pseudo-historian David Barton was on the Daily Show, he boasted to Jon Stewart about so many members of Congress coming to him for historical information. Well, one of these members of Congress is Randy Forbes, one of Barton’s most active minions in Congress and a frequent guest on Barton’s radio show.
When Paul Ryan was speaker of the House, he was a David Barton fan: Speaker Ryan is an avid fan of historian David Barton. “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving,” he said. Because of Barton’s teachings, Speaker Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment (putting political speech restrictions on pastors from their pulpits) and its devastating effects on our culture.
Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
Barton is shameless. Have you noticed? Shamelessness has become the defense of political liars. Politicians now survive sexual misconduct charges by shamelessness and denial. Barton’s script has not changed in thirty years. He tells his audiences the majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born again evangelical Christians. He must know this is a lie but he continues to repeat it. His fellow Texan liar, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, is Barton’s favorite lie repeater. Each year, in a sermon celebrating the 4th of July, Jeffress insists America is a Christian nation. Jeffress manages to out Barton’s Barton with the barf-worthy claim, “Fifty-two” of the “fifty-five” signers of the Constitution were “evangelical believers.”
Given the number of Anglican, Congregational, deists and perhaps an atheist or two among our Founding Fathers, this Jeffress claims qualifies as a “Pants on fire” lie.
Congress has always been susceptible to fake religious claims. Glen Scherer’s 2004 Grist Magazine article, “The God Must Be Crazy” revealed 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from the leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress. Among the most revered beliefs of this group: The rapture. Congress is no stranger to wacky religious beliefs.
And Barton’s beliefs are both lies and wacky. But they keep spreading. Barton is a fake. His views of “American exceptionalism” are a threat to democracy, diversity, and peace. They are absurd and apparently he has a faithful audience because we live in absurd times. After all, P. T. Barnum allegedly said, “There’s a sucker born every minute” and some of them are members of Congress.
Barton gives his MAGA audiences what they love: Entertainment, amusement, hyperbole, and frankly, bullshit.
And he has managed to franchise his humbuggery to members of Congress. God have mercy!
