David Barton
Is America A Christian Nation
Is America a Christian Nation? Many people don’t think so today. The truth is, however, that our great nation was founded on principles that are all throughout the Bible. Author and historian David Barton highlights our christian heritage in this eye opening message.
David Barton (author)
Barton in the docudrama America: A Call to Greatness (1994)
David Barton (born January 28, 1954 in Aledo, Texas) is an American evangelical Christian conservative political activist and author. He is the founder of WallBuilders, a Texas-based organization which promotes the view that it is a myth that the United States Constitution insists on separation of church and state. Barton is the former vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas. He has been described as a Christian nationalist and “one of the foremost Christian revisionist historians”; much of his work is devoted to advancing the idea, based upon research that many historians describe as flawed, that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation.
Barton collects early American documents, and his official biography describes him as “an expert in historical and constitutional issues.” Barton holds no formal credentials in history or law, and scholars dispute the accuracy and integrity of his assertions about history, accusing him of practicing misleading historical revisionism, “pseudoscholarship” and spreading “outright falsehoods.” According to the New York Times, “Many professional historians dismiss Mr. Barton, whose academic degree is in Christian Education from Oral Roberts University, as a biased amateur who cherry-picks quotes from history and the Bible.” Barton’s 2012 book The Jefferson Lies was voted “the least credible history book in print” by the users of the History News Network website. The book’s publisher, the Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson, disavowed the book and withdrew it from sale. A senior executive said that Thomas Nelson could not stand by the book because “basic truths just were not there.”
A 2005 Time magazine article entitled “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals” called Barton “a major voice in the debate over church–state separation” who, despite the fact that “many historians dismiss his thinking… is a hero to millions—including some powerful politicians.” Barton has appeared on television and radio programs, including those of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck. Beck has praised Barton as “the Library of Congress in shoes.” In September 2013, POLITICO reported that he has returned to the political arena and is advising state legislators on how to fight the Common Core academic standards promoted by the Obama administration.
Early Life
Barton is a lifelong resident of Aledo, Texas. He graduated from Aledo High School in 1972. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University in 1976.
After graduating, Barton served as a church youth director. He taught math and science and eventually became principal at Aledo Christian School, a ministry of the charismatic church started by Barton’s parents. Barton has stated that he had obtained a fluency in Russian by the mid-seventies, and worked as a translator for the Russian gymnastics team when they visited the United States in 1976. He further states that he smuggled Bibles into the Soviet bloc during this period.
In 1987 Barton formed Specialty Research Associates, Inc., a company which states that it “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 court cases.
Barton is the founder and president of the Aledo-based group WallBuilders. WallBuilders publishes and sells most of Barton’s books and videos, some of which present Barton’s position that the modern view of separation of church and state is not consistent with the views of the Founders. Among other beliefs about the religion clauses of the First Amendment, they argue that its religion clauses were not intended to include such faiths as Paganism and Witchcraft, but only monotheistic religions, and perhaps solely Christianity.
Barton is married and has three grown children, including a daughter who performs minority outreach for the Republican Party of Texas.
Politics
Barton is a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party under state chairman Susan Weddington. He has also acted as a political consultant to the Republican National Committee on outreach to evangelicals.
There was a Tea Party movement to get him to run against Senator John Cornyn in the 2014 Senate election from Texas. However, Barton announced on November 6, 2013, that he would not run for the seat.
Barton heads the Keep the Promise PAC, a political action committee supporting Ted Cruz during his campaign for election as U.S. President in 2016.
Affiliations
Barton serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. This curriculum contains direct quotations from Barton’s books, recommends the resources published by WallBuilders, and advocates showing that group’s video, Foundations of American Government, at the beginning of the course.
Barton serves on the board of advisors of the Providence Foundation. 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.”
In his book The Myth of Separation, Barton argues that Christians were the ones who were intended to hold public office and that Jews and members of other sects were not. 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, which has been linked to neo-Nazi groups. Barton’s assistant Kit Marshall said in 1993 that Barton was previously unaware of the anti-Semitic and racist views of these groups. In September 2011, Barton sued two former Texas State Board of Education candidates for posting a video on YouTube that stated that he was “known for speaking at white supremacist rallies.”
Barton is a lecturer for Glenn Beck’s online Beck University.
Media
In 2007 Barton’s group Wall Builders received two Silver Angel Awards from the group Excellence in Media. Time included him in its list of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” Barton has been a frequent guest on Trinity Broadcasting Network, including the “American Heritage Series” in 2007 and the “Building on the American Heritage Series” in 2011. Barton has also appeared on the The 700 Club, and The Daily Show.
Barton’s 2013 appearance on Kenneth Copeland’s “Believer’s Voice of Victory” received wider attention when Barton made statements linking abortion and climate change.
