Casey Kasem's Countdown of the Top 25 Evangelicals
Kathryn Jean alerts us to an interesting-sounding Time magazine piece:
THEY DIDN'T KNOW 25 EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS? [K. J. Lopez]
Time magazine this week has a photoessay on the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America." Included are Fr. Richard John Nehaus and Rick Santorum, both Catholics.
Posted at 01:13 PM
However, I'm not sure I know what her point is. It can't be that Time falsely said that Nehaus and Santorum are Protestant, because it didn't. Is she claiming that there's no such thing as Catholic evangelicals? Is she complaining that her homies got included in this group of loonies? Does she even have a point?
Anyway, in case you were wondering, the top 25 are:
Rick Warren, Howard & Roberta Ahmanson, David Barton, Doug Coe, Chuck Colson, Luis Cortes, James Dobson, Stuart Epperson, Michael Gerson, Billy & Franklin Graham, Ted Haggard, Bill Hybels, T.D. Jakes, Diane Knippers, Tim & Beverly LaHaye, Richard Land, Brian McLaren, Joyce Meyer, Richard John Neuhaus, Mark Noll, J.I. Packer, Rick Santorum, Jay Sekulow, Stephen Strang, and Ralph Winter.
Some of them sound like okay people. Some even appear to be quite admirable. But some are, as far as I can determine, liars, hypocrites, and wingnuts. Some of them (the Ahmansons, Dobson, Colson, the LaHayes, and Santorum) are old wingnutty friends. Some of the others sound worth investigating. So, we are starting a new feature: "The Most Influential Evangelical Wingnut of the Day." Let's begin with Time's item about this guy:
The Lesson Planner: Even before he got directly involved in politics, David Barton was a major voice in the debate over church-state separation. His books and videotapes can be found in churches all over the U.S., educating an evangelical generation in what might be called Christian counter-history. The 51-year-old Texan's thesis: that the U.S. was a self-consciously religious nation from the time of the Founders until the 1963 Supreme Court school-prayer ban (which Barton has called "a rejection of divine law"). 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. He has been a co-chair of the Texas Republican Party for eight years, is friends with House majority leader Tom DeLay (whom he has advised on the Pledge Patriot Act, which seeks to keep the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance) and was tapped by the Republican National Committee during its election sprint as a liaison to social conservatives.
For all that you do, David Barton, you're our "Top Influential Evangelist Wingnut of the Day!"
Here's part of Barton's WallBuilders' bio (plus his official picture, which seems to indicate that he stole some gum from Willie Wonka's factory and is in the process of turning into a blueberry -- you'll note that he looks a lot meaner, but less purple, in his Time photo):
Author and historian David Barton is the Founder and President of WallBuilders, a national pro-family organization which distributes historical, legal, and statistical information; and helps citizens become active in their local schools and communities.
David’s exhaustive research (from original writings) on the Founding Era has rendered him an expert in this field, and consequently he serves as consultant to state and federal legislators; has participated in several cases at the Supreme Court; was involved in the development of the History/Social Studies standards for both Texas and California students; and has contributed to projects and legislation set forth by countless other groups, individuals, and legislators across the country.
Wow, David is a historian, he has helped to set history standards for public school students, has participated in Supreme Court cases, and has contributed to legislation. So, he must have a Ph.D. in history, a law degree, and maybe a Masters in education, right?
Um, not exactly. The WallBuilders bio adds:
David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oral Roberts University and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Pensacola Christian College.
So, David has a B.A. from Oral Roberts University, and an honorary degree from a strip mall Christian college -- that's it as for educational attainments. One begins to suspect why "many historians dismiss his thinking."
However, there's more to this issue than just Barton's lack of degrees. See, it seems that Barton has made some big mistakes, which he's been called on. For instance, per Rob Boston (writing in April 93's Church & State Magazine), Barton claimed in the original version of his video "America's Godly Heritage" that the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" came from a speech that Thomas Jefferson made in 1801. Barton added that later in the speech, Jefferson said, "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."
However, actual historians say that Jefferson first used the "wall" metaphor in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. And the letter says nothing about the wall being "one directional," and Jefferson does not assert that it was intended to keep Christian principles in government.
Even though Barton doesn't include this "quote" in the later versions of his book and video, that doesn't stop the wingnuts from repeating this erroneous claim to this very day. (Here are just a few of the examples retrieved by Google: Bible.org: Sermon Illustrations: Pastor Joe's Political/Religious Sound Off !!!; www.devotions.com/7-6-96.htm; America’s Godly Heritage. All cite Jefferson's letter to the Banbury Baptist Association as the source of the quote, with only the first and last saying that they got this info from Barton).
Per Boston, in the first version of the video Barton also falsely claimed that 52 out of 55 of the Founding Fathers were "orthodox, evangelical Christians." Of course, while many of the Founders were orthodox members of the Church of England, none of them were evangelical Christians, since the evangelical movement didn't begin in America until the late 19th century.
And there were numerous other distortions and misinterpretations. But, per Boston, the scariest thing about Barton are the groups he associates with:
Perhaps most alarming, Barton also has had a relationship with the racist and anti-Semitic fringes of the far right. 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 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. (The organization distributes a booklet called Death Penalty For Homosexuals.)
Barton has reportedly said that he didn't know about Peters' racist views before accepting the invitation to speak -- but since Peters has been pretty open about them, my guess is that Barton will speak for any group that will pay him (see info below re his work on behalf of the GOP).
And speaking of backtracking, per Boston, in 1996 Barton issued a one-page document titled "Questionable Quotes." It states that twelve statements which various people had been attributing to the Founding Fathers (or other prominent historical figures) were actually either suspect or false. Interestingly enough, nine of these statements had been used in Barton's 1989 book, The Myth of Separation, as proof of Barton's position that the Founders had never wanted that "wall." WallBuilders issued this document only after real historians had called "no way!" on the quotes, of course.
But despite all this fraud and error, Barton's work is still held in high repute by many evangelical leaders, to include Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, and James Dobson. Oh, and also "historian" Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove.
David Barton, the founder of an organization called Wallbuilders, was hired by the RNC as a political consultant and has been traveling the country for a year--speaking at about 300 RNC-sponsored lunches for local evangelical pastors. During the lunches, he presents a slide show of American monuments, discusses his view of America’s Christian heritage -- and tells pastors that they are allowed to endorse political candidates from the pulpit.
Barton, who is also the vice-chairman of the Texas GOP, told Beliefnet this week that the pastors' meetings have been kept “below the radar.... We work our tails off to stay out of the news.” But at this point, he says, with voter registration ended in most states and early voting already under way, staying quiet about the activity “doesn’t matter.”
Barton’s main contention is that the separation of church and state was never intended by the nation’s founders; he says it was created by the Supreme Court in the 20th Century. The back cover of his 1989 book, “The Myth of Separation,” proclaims: “This book proves that separation of church and state is a myth.” Barton is also on the board of advisers of the Providence Foundation, a Christian Reconstructionist group that advocates America as a Christian nation. (Click here for an explanation of Reconstructionism.)
As you may recall, Reconstructionism holds that America should be governed by Biblical Law (to possibly include stoning witches, homosexuals, adulterers, and disobedient children), and that Christians should be the only ones doing the governing. "Non-biblical" practices such as welfare, labor unions, public schools, etc. should be eliminated. (Batholomew has more about Barton and Recontructionism.)
But here's more from the BeliefNet piece about Barton and his work for the RNC:
The lunches are coordinated by the RNC’s evangelical outreach director, Drew Ryun. “He and I make it very clear we are not partisan per se, we’re biblical,” says Barton. But according to Federal Election Commission filings, Barton has earned $12,000 this year from the RNC for “political consulting.” A spokesman for the RNC, Scott Hoganson, did not respond to questions about Barton.
Barton contends that the IRS allows pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit as long as they make it clear it’s their own personal opinion and not an official church endorsement.[...]
According to Barton’s reading of the law, it is legal for a pastor to stand up in the pulpit and say, “’Now look, I’m going to tell you something--and the church didn’t vote on this and the elder board hasn’t gotten together on it--but I’m telling you, John Kerry is not fit to be president.’ He can do that, that’s fine. The pastor has the right of free speech, but he cannot bring the corporate machinery to bear."
Meanwhile, says Barton, a pastor can talk about any issue he wants to. If he wants to preach against same-sex marriage or abortion, he can. And he can talk about the voting records of individuals or groups on those matters.
Sadly, that's not what the IRS says, but since the RNC doesn't actually care about the law or evangelicals, the fact that Barton was lying didn't stop them from sending him out to evangelize for Bush.
And despite what many people believe, WallBuilders is not a nonprofit foundation, and so Barton is always trying to sell his books, videos, and speaking services (so it makes sense that he would sell out his fellow evangelicals for $12,000 from the RNC). And while I can't recommend that you buy anything from him, some of his work is pretty funny.
As BeliefNet said:
Barton has said that God influenced his sense of mission. In America: To Pray Or Not To Pray? Barton writes: "In July 1987, God impressed me to do two things. First, I was to search the library and find the date that prayer had been prohibited in public schools. Second, I was to obtain a record of national SAT scores (the academic test given to prospective college-bound high school students) spanning several decades. I didn't know why, but I somehow knew that these two pieces of information would be very important."
As a result, Barton writes that he learned America has declined because of the 1962 and '63 Supreme Court rulings banning school-sponsored prayer. He believes God is angry at the country and has retaliated.
Yes, God punished America for "banning school prayer" by lowering our kids' SAT scores. That will teach us! (Man, I wish I had attended school prior to 1963, because I bet I could have been really smart back then.) And then God told Barton to look up those SAT scores, so that David could be the Isaiah-like prophet who would tell us that we are feeling God's wrath because of our disobedience.
Anyway, Barton's claim in his bio that he "was involved in the development of the History/Social Studies standards for both Texas and California students" seems to be true, since, as this Texas Observerarticle details, he and his group helped to shape the McGraw-Hill text books that were then bought by many of the states' school districts. The reporter, Nate Blakeslee, didn't think that this was exactly a good thing, since the books now have a more conservative, less historical slant to them. But I do love Blakeslee's snarky recap of Barton's rise to fame:
In 1989, Barton self-published The Myth of Separation, a pseudo-historical, poorly argued polemic purporting to prove that the American tradition of separation of church and state is based on a historical fallacy resulting from a misreading of the writings of the founders. Barton followed his book with a popular video titled America's Godly Heritage, which has been widely promoted by the Christian Coalition, James Dobson's Focus on the Family, and the Eagle Forum. Barton's video traces virtually every social problem in America -- from declining S.A.T. scores to increasing alcoholism -- to the Supreme Court's anti-school prayer decisions of the early 1960s.
And Bartholomew reveals perhaps the most shocking thing yet about Barton: he hangs out with Doug Giles!
Yes, Barton was a speaker at a conference on "Returning Christ to the Public Square" that the ClashChurch hosted last April. Barton is also a regular contributor to Doug's ClashRadio program, doing a bit called "David Barton's Moment in American History." And guess who was a guest on Doug's program on January 7, 2005?
Yes, it was David Barton!!!
Although Doug's radio program drives me crazy, what with all all of the stupid sound effects, annoying wavs files, and general immaturity and stupidity, I made a real effort and listened to this day's program as part of my never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way. (You can listen too, if you go to http://www.clashradio.com/listen.html.) Here's my report:
The David Barton/Doug Giles Show
Doug introduced Barton, adding that "wackos and Satanists hate this guy."
Doug then gave his ClashPoint, this being our second favorite one of all time, the one about the our luscious American tree, and Paul Bunyan on crystal meth. It's made even goofier by wav files of vomiting, and the clips from Clint Eastwood movies.
Then Doug brings on Barton, who claims that what WallBuilders does is like what Old Testament prophet Nehemiah did: "Pull out the old scrolls, and see what we used to be like."
Doug says that he smoked a lot of marijuana in junior high and high school, but during his public school days he didn't get ANY of the information that Barton presents in his video. [Doug, that's probably because Barton smoked a lot of marijuana while he was coming up with his history.]
Doug asks Barton how many books he's written. Barton can't remember -- maybe a couple dozen. [Again, I blame "wee."]
Doug and Barton whine about how much more evil America is now than it was in the '30s and '40s. [Nobody mentions racism, but I think that to them this is part of the reason why the '30s were a golden age.]
As proof of how much worse we are now than in the past, Barton says that "the violent crime rate is 694% more than it was three decades ago."
[Which is very interesting, since the DOJ says "Violent crime rates have declined since 1994, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in 2003"
They even have a graph, which shows the trend over the last three decades:
So, where did Barton get that info about a 694% increase? My guess is out of his ass. He probably knew that Doug's listeners are all idiots, so he didn't even have to sound credible.]
Then Barton says that the problem with our society is that we can't teach children any kind of self-restraint, because the schools aren't allowed to "impose morality on kids." But since "74% of Americans want prayer back in the classroom," and "68% want creationism taught" in schools, the only reason we can't impose morality on kids is those evil activist judges.
And people today have "a shallow Bible world view," in that they think that the Bible only gives us spiritual guidance, when it is also supposed to also tell us how to run the government. [Okay, this part of the conversation demonstrates why Barton is on the board of Reconstructionist group like the Providence Foundation, so pay attention.] "The Founding Fathers could tell you which Bible verse condemn estate taxes (Proverbs 13:22), which verses condemn capital gains taxes, and which condemn minimum wage laws." The Bible is also against progressive income tax.
[If there had been time, I'm sure that Barton could have shared with us which Bible verses says that we should be stoning homosexuals, and which say that non-Christians shouldn't be allowed to hold political office.}
[Oh, and Proverbs 13:22 says "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." Taken in conjunction with other verses in this chapter, I interpret it to mean that a good man leaves a tradition of righteousness as a legacy to his family, while the sinner's wealth is given to the just via the "death tax." So, I wouldn't use this verse as a basis to end estate taxes.]
Doug says that when he became a Christian at 21, he was a member of a charismatic group that didn't teach anything about how good Christians should be running the government, so he just "twiddled his thumbs" until he heard the tapes of Barton and his ilk.
Doug and David discuss how churches these days don't tell kids to go into politics or law, but, as Barton says, "24 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence held seminary degrees, so half of the signers were pastors or ministers." [I am too tired to look this up, so I will just say that I don't believe that everyone in those days who had a degree from a seminary served as a pastor or minister.]
Barton says that people today just don't use their minds like they did in the 18th century. [And Barton's claim about the 694% increase in violent crime over the past three decades seems to prove his point.]
Barton says that the Founding Fathers got most of their ideas from John Locke, who quotes the Bible extensively. This means that our country is actually based on Biblical precepts.
Doug asks, "What do the radical lesbian feminists do with this?" Barton says that they don't like it. [Radical lesbian feminists apparently being big opponents of inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property.]
And then it's time for a commercial, and then Meghan Fox pops in with her "Zero of the Week." This time it's Bill Clinton, for showing compassion for tsunami victims. She mockingly says that Clinton felt their pain, and then adds, "I'm sure he also felt up at least one reporterette too." Hey, I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds like slander to me! {If only she owned something worth suing for.]
But then it's back to Doug and Barton, who discuss what a genuine Christian George Bush is. Barton tells how George shared his faith with the Premiere of China, and knelt in prayer with the president of Macedonia. [Barton wasn't present on either occasion, but he apparently got a faith-promoting email that told these stories.]
Barton says that George has introduced faith-based programs in five different departments, and gives us another stat: "Normal prison rehabilitation programs have a 81% rate of recidivism, while Chuck Colson's program has only a 21% recidivism rate. So why wouldn't we use what works?"
[Um, maybe because even Chuck doesn't give any figures like those. Chuck says that inmates who completed his Prison Fellowship Ministry program had a recidivism rate of only 16%, compared with 36% of those who complete a vocational program, and the 67% national rate (which would include all the prisoners who are involved in no real rehabilitation programs).
Colson's InnerChange program claims a rate of 8% recidivism after two years, compared with "a 22% return rate for inmates who were eligible for the program but did not participate."
See, not all inmates are eligible for Chuck's program -- only the ones with the best chance of reforming WITHOUT any help. Also, the prisoners who don't complete the whole program (which includes getting a job and continuing with counseling AFTER release from prison) aren't counted as participants. So, these stats mean nothing. As we pointed out last year when George Bush touted Chuck's program as one of George's faith-based sucess stories, crime control expert Mark A.R. Kleiman explained that a widely cited study actually indicated that those enrolled in the faith-based program had a higher recidivism rate than the control group.
I have scoured the internets, and still have no idea where Barton came up with his citation of a "81% recidivism rate for normal prison rehabilitation programs, 21 rate for Chuck's program." So, I must conclude that Thomas Jefferson said it in his famous Gettysburgh Address.]
And then Doug and David talked about the importance of praying for leaders (praying that good ones like George fulfill their mandates, and praying that bad ones like Saddam Hussein die painful deaths and go to hell).
And then our time was up. (Thank heavens!)
So, in conclusion, I think that you can see how scary it is that David Barton in one of the country's 25 most influential evangelicals. The only silver lining is that Doug Giles isn't.
2:33:26 AM
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