New York Times shines light on Religious Right ‘Historian’

[cleanhippie]

David Barton is the scariest Religious Right leader you never heard of.

But that’s beginning to change. Today, The New York Times offered readers a front-page report on Barton, a “self-taught historian who is described by several conservative presidential aspirants as a valued adviser and a source of historical and biblical justification for their policies.”

--snip--

There’s just one problem with that: Barton’s history is bunk.

As church-state scholar Derek H. Davis told The Times, “The problem with David Barton is that there’s a lot of truth in what he says. But the end product is a lot of distortions, half-truths and twisted history.”

That’s putting it mildly. Barton’s goal is to turn America into a fundamentalist Christian theocracy where folks with his faith perspective rule the roost and everyone else is, at best, a second-class citizen. And he’s using a skewed sectarian version of history to move us toward that goal.

Barton’s degree is in Christian education from Oral Roberts University. He isn’t a historian; he’s a Religious Right propagandist.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/05/06/barton-baloney-new-york-times-shines-light-on-religious-right-%E2%80%98historian%E2%80%99/

[HowHasItComeToThis]

1. THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS POORLY EDUCATED

AND LOST IN SPACE

[kath]

2. You should post this in GD -would help to alleviate the problem of this asshole being "the scariest

Religious Right leader you never heard of."
Spews endless lies, but the fundies just eat this shit up.

[saras]

3. He seems to have mistaken "The Handmaid's Tale" as Biblical prophecy

[Meshuga]

4. The scary thing is that he has influence

And his distortions are going to become truth in states where school vouchers are given to religious schools to indoctrinate our kids.

[Leontius]

5. Most people "choose" to send their kids to religious

affiliated schools. The real danger is not this choice of schools, its in the public schools that his version of history is being accepted in that is the real danger to the education of kids.

[Meshuga]

6. Or perhaps both

But I see what you are saying especially with the Texas Board of Education recently yanking Thomas Jefferson from their teaching standards.