That Wacky David Barton

David Barton is the darling history revisionist of the right wing, the go to guy when they need to sell the "Christian Nation" myth. He was really popular with Glenn Beck and Huckabee wanted everybody to listen to the guy at gun point, 'cause he's so sooper dooper objective when it comes to history and all. Well, he recently proved to the world that he is just one funeral protest away from being Fred Phelps:

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There's a passage that I love in Romans 1 - I don't love what the topic is - but it talks about homosexuality and it says that they will receive in their bodies the penalties of their behavior. And the Bible again, it's right every time, and studies keep proving that and that's why AIDS has been something they haven't discovered a cure for or a vaccine for, because it's the fastest self-mutating virus known to mankind. Every time they just about get a vaccine discovered for it, it transmutes into something new and they have to start over again. And that goes to what God says, hey you're going to bear in your body the consequences of this homosexual behavior.

And it's "good news" 'cause it proves the Bible is correct. YAY AIDS! Thank God for dead soldiers and dead Ryan White.



And thank you, Republicans, for making such a despicable human being famous.

And in a similar vain, here's one of Fox News' token black commentators, Jesse Lee Peterson, explaining how America "is over" because women have forgotten their place and left the kitchen:



It's funny 'cause he's serious.

Well, Barton was on the Daily Show last night peddling his usual lies.

Quote :

During the first part of the interview (starting around the 5:00 mark,) Jon Stewart made the point that, looking at things from a non-Christian or non-religious perspective, Christianity seems pretty safe in America and rather ubiquitous, contrary to Barton's claims that it is constantly under attack.

Barton responded that that was not necessarily the case, especially when it comes to public policy issues, where he cited an incident in St. Louis where a five year old student was supposedly yanked out of his chair and yelled at by a teacher merely for praying before eating his lunch in the school cafeteria.

Stewart was justifiably skeptical of this story, but Barton insisted that it had happened and that the school principal also yelled at the student for praying, which prompted Stewart to declare that, if that was the case, then those school officials are "idiots" and the discussion moved on.

But Stewart's initial skepticism was correct, though it helps to be rather well-versed in Religious Right mythology in order to recognize the incident that Barton was citing.

This myth involved a student named Raymond Raines and it has been around since 1994 when Newt Gingrich and various Religious Right leaders frist started making Raymond's sorry tale the centerpiece of their campaign to pass a constitutional amendment protecting the right to expressions of faith ... despite the fact that it wasn't true:

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The St. Louis case concerned 10-year-old Raymond Raines who, his mother said, was given detention because he sought to pray over his lunch. When lawyers for the Rutherford Institute heard about the case, they filed a lawsuit against the principal and issued a press release denouncing the school system.

"I know it sounds bizarre, but we have substantial evidence to believe it happened," said Timothy Belz, the St. Louis lawyer working with the Rutherford Institute.

On NBC-TV's "Meet the Press," Gingrich described the situation as "a real case about a real child. Should it be possible for the government to punish you if you say grace over your lunch? That's what we used to think of Russian behavior when they were the Soviet Union."

But school officials said the incident never happened. Rather, they said, Raymond was disciplined for fighting in the cafeteria.

"I can tell you he was not reprimanded for praying," said Kenneth Brostron, the school's lawyer. "Do you think it makes sense that the teachers would look around the cafeteria and target the one student who was praying quietly at his seat?"

So despite the fact that this incident took place nearly twenty years ago - and never actually happened - David Barton is still citing it today as proof that Christianity is under attack in America.

Weird. I remember this whole Jesus thing frowning on dishonesty.

Dishonesty?

ODS wingnuts make up crap and lie?
I'm shocked.


Check out this fucking lunatic Pastor Sean Harris.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/lawrence-odonnell-sean-harris-sermon_n_1473705.html

Jefferson and Christianity

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A history and political science professor at The Master’s College offers a brief review of David Barton’s claims in The Jefferson Lies—and Barton responds, and Frazer rebuts

Our online debate between history writer David Barton and his critics demanded a lot of attention from readers: thousands of words, numerous footnotes, complicated argumentation. That many of you read, pondered, and commented is a good indication that poor history teaching in many colleges hasn’t killed among many of us the desire to learn what really happened.

The debate isn’t over yet. One of Barton’s critics, Gregg Frazer, a history and political science professor at The Master's College, had 1,200 words he wanted to get off his chest, and we said yes. Frazer is the author of The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution, published last year by The University Press of Kansas.

A quick read, noteworthy for Barton's "response". The man doesn't even attempt a substantive rebuttal on any of the points offered, instead choosing to play the martyr. "They don't like me 'cause I'm all important culture warrior and shit." Conservatives eat that shit up. Frazer's response is short and viciously to the point:

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Those who read my short piece above will recognize that I disagreed with far more than David Barton’s interpretation of one document. I did not even interpret documents; I simply recorded them accurately and in context, thereby eliminating the “evidence” for his thesis in one chapter. Furthermore, I disagree with much of Barton’s book, but was limited by WORLD to just 1,000 words, so I focused on the core issue: Jefferson’s religious beliefs.

Besides, what has been in question all along is not Barton's standing as a cultural battler, but his standing as a historian. That is determined by how accurately one writes history, not how well one stems the progressive tide.

Barton's a complete and dishonest hack, as is any politician or "journalist" who listens to him.