That noted author of speculative fiction, David Barton, is still at it – selling fiction as fact – undeterred by having his package of Jeffersonian lies exposed and pulled from the bookshelves.
Warren Throckmorton, as ever, is on the watch where Bartonism is concerned, and reveals that Barton is now selling these fantasies in Ohio – to Springboro School District. A school district that last month added creationism to its curriculum.
Because there is all sorts of evidence that the earth was created in seven days and is about 5,000 years old.
Yes. David Barton is reaching out to corrupt the minds of Ohio children by teaching his fantastical tales of an America that never was.
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It is a summer course. It is taught by video by Barton and his fellow religious extremist John Eidsmoe. You may not be familiar with Eidsmoe, but as Throckmorton observes, this is the man who was Michele Bachmann’s mentor at Oral Roberts University.
That should tell you all you need to know right there. But as far as details go, kids will learn to think “biblically” whatever that means.
Just going out on a limb here, I would guess it won’t include teaching kids to have slave girls, concubines, or multiple wives, or to never shave or never eat shellfish, or that they will be stoned to death if they disobey their parents or engage in unapproved sexual activities.
You know, stuff that is actually IN the Bible.
Kids who attend will get to have “educational opportunities for learning about your American and Christian heritage.”
As far as the Constitution goes…well, try to connect these two sections if you can:
First distinction – We begin with history.
Great! You say. History! Fact! Okay. And then…
We teach the history of law and government as it originated from God as recorded in the Bible. Going forward, we trace the progression of this foundation through Columbus, the Pilgrims, our founding fathers and we study their belief systems. As students learn these foundations, they begin to see our nation’s history as part of who they are. They begin to see it as their HERITAGE, their inheritance. It’s truth. It’s powerful. It’s motivating. It gives individuals a sense of their purpose and destiny as Americans.
Wait a second! I thought you said you were going to begin with history! You are beginning with fantasy. The minute you say “law and government originated from God as recorded in the Bible” you have ignored the thousands of years of history of law and government that predates Jewish law and government.
There is a reason the Ten Commandments are written in the format of a Hittite vassal treaty: the Ten Commandments were written AFTER the appearance of this treaty form in the Near East.
Third distinction – We teach students HOW TO THINK. While teaching the Constitution, we help the students turn on their brains. We show them how to reason through current events from a Biblical and principled foundation, so they will not be deceived by the media or anyone else.
Somehow, I don’t think children are really being taught to think. They are being indoctrinated to BELIEVE, which is not the same thing.
If you are going to write history, what you say should have at least some passing familiarity with fact; it should have more in common with David McCullough’s 1776 than with, say, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. The America Barton wants kids to believe in is as fantastical as Howard’s Hyborian world. It is all speculative fiction.
No historian is likely to consider the 1942 Battle Stalingrad from the perspective of the Balrog that won the battle for the Russians because a Balrog was not present. By the same token, we should not consider American history from the perspective of a God who was not there.
I am speaking of the United States Constitution, of course, which religious extremists continue to insist embodies biblical law – somehow while not mentioning God, the Ten Commandments, or Jesus. It’s a neat trick.
Then there is the little problem that our government is founded on the principle that political power derives from the will of the people.
Not, it might be noticed, from God. Or from people who pretend to speak for god, like a Pope, or people who claim to be appointed by God, like, say, a king. The people. All of us. Not priests.
We cannot define what Barton peddles as historical fiction because even historical fiction has a historical basis. What Barton writes does not.
He likes to talk about the religious origins of our country while selling theocracy. But even the Protestants of the Revolutionary Era distrusted higher church authorities, let alone a government run by one.
Jesus said praying in public was hypocrisy, yet now our religious extremists, who claim to be followers of Jesus, hold gigantic prayer rallies in football stadiums.
Stadiums – and schools too, if Barton has his way – according to Jesus himself, full of hypocrites.
And ignorant hypocrites at that.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
