Be Careful Who You Lionize: Bio of "Historian" David Barton's Hero Devours His "Founders Bible" With Slavery, Incest and Homosexuality

This one ranks along with the Creation Museum's "Adam" being a gay actor with a porn site.

David Barton has been pushing the "American Is A Christian Nation" meme so hard and so long that he's now at his sloppiest in establishing it: he has now created "The Founders' Bible", a copy of the New American Standard Bible (naturally) combined with:

... more than 150 articles (averaging 4 pages each) by our Signature Historian David Barton covering everything from the founding of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia, on May 14 of 1607, forward to the present day. It deals with virtually every political hot button including Radical Islam’s current Jihad against America.

And if the articles are at all like Barton's public rants for his organization Wallbuilders (considered a hate group), The Founders Bible is sure to find its way into the homes of every homophobic, anti-feminist, Islamophobic, and Dominionist believer in the country. He will be signing copies of the Bible at Glen Beck's Restoring Love rally in Dallas on July 26th.

Before that event, however, Barton might have to do some serious backpeddling, since this piece just came out:

William Throckmorton:
Founders’ Bible Cites Pro-Slavery Leader as Proponent of America as a Christian Nation
William Throckmorton's piece is worth reading and his subsequent articles will definitely be interesting. What caught my eye (and the eyes of many others) was a comment citing the wikipedia entry for man in question, James Henry Hammond: he was THE most ardent advocate for slavery on RELIGIOUS grounds and constantly opined in Congress and as Governor of South Carolina that even as inferior as they were, black slaves had it better than the poor industrial workers of the North. He was the politician who coined the term "Cotton is King." And if this isn't enough to make people wince about David Barton's hero, like a Popeil product commercial, we can say "Wait! There's more!!":

His Secret and Sacred Diaries reveal that his appetites did not end there. He describes, without embarrassment, his 'familiarities and dalliances' with four teenage nieces - the daughters of Wade Hampton II. Blaming the seductiveness of the “extremely affectionate” young women, his political career was crushed for a decade to come, and the girls with their tarnished social reputations never married.

AND...

As a young man, Hammond had a homosexual relationship with a college friend, Thomas Jefferson Withers, which is attested by two sexually explicit letters sent from Withers to Hammond in 1826. The letters, which are housed among the Hammond Papers at the South Carolina Library, were first published by researcher Martin Duberman in 1981, and are remarkable for being rare documentary evidence of same-sex relationships in the antebellum United States.

In The Founders Bible, Barton gushes with admiration about how Hammond so eloquently supported one of John Adams' pro-Christian statements and practically puts Hammond on a saint's pedestal. But now people like Throckmorton are gushing with disgust about Hammond's pro-slavery pronouncements. And other people (like me) are gushing laughter at the ardent "Christian Nation" politician's incest and homosexual dalliance.

Don't Think - Believe
- inscription at the entrance of the Creation Museum

Vetting is a process examination and evaluation: a process which always seems to elude those like David Barton and his followers. And the inclusion of St. Hammond into The Founders Bible is yet another piece of hilarity in the world of the Right's non-vetting process: we saw it in the VP pick of Sarah Palin, but it was evident back in 2007 when the Creation Museum discovered (6 weeks after its opening) that the beautiful "Adam" for their creation video was a gay actor with a website selling soft-core porn.

Then again, the process of vetting involves some deep thinking, and when searching for just the right quote from a distant, relatively obscure (to the American public), blind belief takes hold and the thought process is cast aside.

David Barton's work has been based upon blind belief - a belief that the United States of America was actually founded as a totally Christian nation. His "proof" has been laughed at by true historians the world over. Would that this latest gaff might get even more people laughing.

Values Voter Summit: O'Donnell, Fischer, and The Usual Panoply of Clowns

"Vetting" Is A Dirty Word

It all started with Sarah Palin, I think. One wonders what the McCain campaign thought of the woman as they asked her questions. Actually, one wonders whether or not they asked her any questions at all.  Of course, desperation grabs at anything that looks good on the surface, and on the surface, Palin looked very good. Besides, the Republican Party had not bothered to groom anyone like Palin and they discovered too late that their base wanted new blood. They also followed one of the primary dictates of the Christian Right: if they say that they're Christian and pro-life, refer to God enough times and hate the Left with a ferver that borders on paranoia, then they're a fit warrior in the culture wars. Palin looked right and sounded right, therefore she was right. 

The problem with those dictates: they're the basis of  good, entertaining comedy. And the thing that a political party has too much of is comedy...and the clowns that perpetuate it.

The Values Voter Summit might be looked upon as an assemblage of clowns trying to look indignant at the way the country is being run. At best, it is a group of our country's highest ranking, most vocal, most self-righteously arrogant dullards. At worst, it is a group that hopes to spread self-righteous tyranny. They have recently taken on the mantle of "Social Conservatives" since the terms "Christian Right" or "Religious Right" have had some negative connotations. But that term, however, has been overshadowed by the efforts of some to declare that the United States is a "Christian Nation" and there have been rumblings from them of a "Christian ONLY Nation". No matter what they call themselves, they are evolving into what Sinclair Lewis warned us about: "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." 

The much-trumpeted Summit is sponsored by Tony Perkins and his Family Research Council. It serves as the pinacle of his career as a lobbyist for the Christian Right. And since his only boss is the venerable James Dobson, Perkins takes it upon himself to rally his culture war troops once a year to spout anger and revenge against liberals, moderates, atheists, homosexuals, unions, illegal immigrants, progressive churches and non-Christians.  Put another way: "social justice" is not on the program. 

This last Summit (Sept. 16-19 in D.C.) was, (as usual) entertaining, regaling the rest of the country with its bloviators, tiresome buzz-words, demonizations and pronouncements which eluded critical thinking. The speakers and awardees were carbon copies of last year's Summit with the exceptions that Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell substituted for Carrie Prejean and Bryan Fischer substituted for just about every hate group in the country. And among the likes of Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Gary Bauer was Prof. Dr. Ergun Caner, the Muslim-turned-Christian impersonator, which proves that the Summit coordinators believed in forgiveness, if not sagacity. 

And the stars, Fischer and O'Donnell,  proved that the dictates of the Christian Right were strongly adhered to (esp. in the case of O'Donnell, but more about that later). 

Bryan Fischer exuded confidence - slightly subdued - while he quoted scripture, compared  the Biblical Joshua to George Washington, said that Christians who don't vote would be giving the country over to pagans and atheists, condemned politicians who supported same-sex marriages, civil unions or even domestic partnerships as evil and posited "the involuntary transfer of resources" (taxing the rich) as "theft." Everything to Fischer was (and always is, in his radiocasts) black and white, good or bad. Nothing was nuanced. Nuance takes a commitment to reason. And if there's anything Fischer is not committed to, it's reason. But while hardcore conservatives questioned the wisdom of putting Fischer on the stage,  he nonetheless elicited applause with his hatred cloaked as bona fide fact and his eschatology as that put forth by the finest Biblical scholar.

Christine O'Donnell's speech was not nuanced either. Oh, it contained the rather pointless "This is OUR country" phrase that will doubtless go down in the annals of the Summit as a "turning point" (whatever that might be). Her pre-witchcraft moments were about as pithy as a sledge hammer while she tried to convince people that she was serious about God, love of country and anything else that could rally them. 

If the choice of Sarah Palin by Republicans was the first instance of bad Republican vetting, and Carrie Prejean was the mistake of the Christian Right, then O'Donnell is certainly the "oh, sh*t!" of the Tea Party movement. A former campaign manager called her a "fraud," and now she is being charged by an ethics watchdog group of embezzling $20,000 in campaign funds. What's more shocking, however, is the numbers of people in Delaware who voted for her without knowing some of her "principles":

Christine O’Donnell led a campaign against masturbation, claiming it is a form of adultery.

and...

... warned coed dorm rooms would lead to ‘orgy rooms.’

... wanted to stop the ‘whole country from having sex.’

... believed that spouses who have been cheated on possess compromised ‘purity.’  

... believed contraception is ‘anti-human.’  

... claimed abstinence-only education has been an ‘incredible success.’  

... excused gay bashing as ‘kids being kids.’

... warned about mice with ‘fully functioning human brains.’ 

... warned that former President Clinton hosting a TV show would be a ‘threat to our national security.’  

All of these last-minute in sights to O'Donnell beg the question: should the people who voted for Christine O'Donnell be voting at all? Voting is not just a right, but an act of responsibility. Casting a ballot for someone you do not know about is irresponsible. In addition, putting up a front (in this case, exposure at the Values Voter Summit) for a candidate simply because she said "God" so many times before, is not only irresponsible, but downright deceptive.

Conclusion: The Summit As Laugh Fest

Well-entertained audiences will tell you that frightened clowns are the funniest: we are delighted when one clown is running for fear of being sprayed by seltzer water or being hit by a pie in the face. And so it was at the Summit: Fischer, Perkins, O'Donnell, Bauer, Schlafly all regaled us with their fears, even in the Summit's "serious" panels, e.g. HOW TO REACH THE ONLINE GENERATION (WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL) or SOCIAL JUSTICE: AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? and the most fearful of all:  THE REAL COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

The Summit so entertained the rest of the country, that it had us clamoring for more, we want more Fischers, O'Donnells, Angles, Bachmanns and Palins. What matters that they make any headway into our secular system, eventually we will be laughing too hard to vote for them.

One comment about the Summit, the Republican party and the Tea Party that was particularly apt: 

"...if you won’t vet your candidates, send them to Jerry Springer so that the audience can vet them, and the others, send them to rehab and a priest."