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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTim Alberta: The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/01/evangelicals-american-politics-tim-alberta-book-excerpt-00129319I had never seen a sanctuary so full on a Tuesday night.
The people packed into FloodGate Church in Brighton, Mich., werent here for Bill Bolin, the right-wing zealot pastor whod grown his congregation tenfold by preaching conspiracy-fueled sermons since the onset of Covid-19, turning Sunday morning worship services into amateur Fox News segments. No, they had come out by the hundreds, decked out in patriotic attire this October evening in 2021, to hear from a man who was introduced to them as Americas greatest living historian. They had come for David Barton. And so had I.
It would be of little use to tell the folks around me the people of my conservative hometown that Barton wasnt a real historian. They wouldnt care that his lone academic credential was a bachelors degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University. It wouldnt matter that Bartons 2012 book on Thomas Jefferson was recalled by Thomas Nelson, the worlds largest Christian publisher, for its countless inaccuracies, or that a panel of 10 conservative Christian academics who reviewed Bartons body of work in the aftermath ripped the entirety of his scholarship to shreds. It would not bother the congregants of FloodGate Church to learn that they were listening to a man whose work was found by one of Americas foremost conservative theologians to include embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims.
All this would be irrelevant to the people around me because David Barton was one of them. He believed the separation of church and state was a myth. He believed the time had come for evangelicals to reclaim their rightful place atop the nations governmental and cultural institutions. Hence the heros welcome Barton received when he rolled into FloodGate with his American Restoration Tour.
Throughout his decades of public life working for the Republican Party, becoming a darling of Fox News, advising politicians such as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, launching a small propaganda empire, carving out a niche as the American rights chosen peddler of nostalgic alternative facts Barton had never been shy about his ultimate aims. He is an avowed Christian nationalist who favors theocratic rule; moreover, he is a so-called Dominionist, someone who believes Christians should control not only the government but also the media, the education system, and other cultural institutions. Barton and his ilk are invested less in advancing individual policies than they are in reconceiving our system of self-government in its totality, claiming a historical mandate to rule society with biblical dogma just as the founders supposedly intended.
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Tim Alberta: The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Dec 2023
OP
StopTheNeoCons
(904 posts)1. American Taliban
Bernardo de La Paz
(51,767 posts)2. Evangullibles. . . . nt