{"id":6727,"date":"2024-11-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/history-lies-we-tell\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T00:00:00","slug":"history-lies-we-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/history-lies-we-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"History Lies We Tell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The present-day dangers of distorting America\u2019s past.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter<\/span>
Illustration by Brian Stauffer<\/span><\/p>\n

Worship music played softly in the background. Microphone in hand, a casually dressed man proclaimed to the attentive crowd, \u201cThe number-one qualification for being mayor of Tulsa is that I am an unashamed follower of Jesus.\u201d The congregation erupted in applause. Brent VanNorman, mayoral candidate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, continued, \u201cWithout Him, I can do nothing. And if you go back and study the history of our nation, at our founding, one, the pulpit was the tool of the Revolutionary War communicating to the people, but two, public officials had to be Christians in many areas, and we\u2019ve gone so far away from that, and we need to get back.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

On that Sunday morning in late July of this year, Brent VanNorman joined a long list of politicians who use religion to seek votes. But what about his claims? Was there a time one had to be a Christian to be a public official? This is a complex question, but if something seems off about VanNorman\u2019s claim, it might be that you are thinking about the \u201cno religious test\u201d clause in Article VI of the United States Constitution, which forbids religious tests for holding office in the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were so many false and half-true stories in The Jefferson Lies<\/i> that in August 2012 its publisher, Thomas Nelson, took the costly step of pulling the book from distribution. . . . Yet even after these events, and the immense criticism that Barton\u2019s book has attracted, his erroneous stories still circulate.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The no religious test clause represented a major departure from previous practice in the American colonies. Most colonial governments had some requirement for belief in God. Those tests for public office in the states were not eradicated by the federal Constitution\u2019s no religious test clause. However, most of those tests were either ignored or eliminated as the new nation progressed through the 1800s. Here is Benjamin Franklin, in 1780, agreeing with a Welsh friend, Richard Price, about religious tests. Writing about Massachusetts, Franklin said: \u201cI am fully of your Opinion respecting Religious Tests; but tho\u2019 the People of Massachusetts have not in their new Constitution kept quite clear of them; yet if we consider what that People were 100 Years ago, we must allow they have gone great Lengths in Liberality of Sentiment, on religious Subjects; and we may hope for greater Degrees of Perfection when their Constitution some years hence shall be revised.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n

What had the legislature of Massachusetts done? Although it continued to require the governor to profess Christianity, the new state constitution removed the requirement for state-\u00adappointed officials to be Christian. Franklin correctly pointed out that a shift in \u201cSentiment\u201d on \u201creligious Subjects\u201d had resulted in a change in the religion requirement. Based on that social change, Franklin predicted that \u201cliberality\u201d would continue to increase. He was correct; eventually such requirements were removed in Massachusetts and throughout the states.<\/p>\n

In a misleading way, however, mayoral candidate VanNorman pointed his audience back to the founding era, implying there was a clear consensus at the time that religious tests were a good thing. In fact, it was at this very time in America\u2019s history that such tests began to fall into disfavor as being illiberal and undemocratic.<\/p>\n

At this point perhaps it is worth asking: So what? So we caught this guy misleading a church group; what\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n

Although VanNorman has a right to be wrong and to express his views, his use of misinformation to seek political favor undermines his claims of being a competent, trustworthy mayor. In fact, the Founders did not intend to require all public officials to be Christian. But VanNorman\u2019s Christian audience is now laboring under a false view of history that may influence their vote for mayor in the present. If VanNorman had no intention to sway their vote, then why was he at church that morning talking about his qualifications to be mayor? Recall that Mr. VanNorman said his greatest qualification was that he was a follower of Jesus. However, he is running for mayor, not pastor. His distorted history is in the service of boosting his perceived credentials for the job he seeks.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Founders wrote a lot about the qualifications for public service in this new republic. Moral judgment and virtue were certainly on the list, but, as we have learned, being a Christian was not. Historical distortion presents a false reality and obscures the true picture.<\/p>\n

Distortions such as presented by Brent VanNorman are repeated daily across our nation. All along the political spectrum, individuals seek something in the past they can use to bolster support for a position they hold in the present. Reworking history in this way is often described by historians as creating a \u201cusable past.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the past 15 years, we have spent much of our professional time and energy studying the efforts of evangelical Christians to distort history and promote Christian privilege in government. Mr. VanNorman\u2019s episode is a modest but typical example. Let\u2019s move on to some more prominent examples in the field.<\/p>\n

A Master Storyteller<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most prolific Christian-nation storyteller is David Barton. Barton is founder and president of WallBuilders, an organization that presents American history with a political agenda. Although Barton has no formal education in history, he claims to tell the \u201ctrue story\u201d of American history. Barton has also been an activist in Republican politics, including serving as vice chair of the Texas Republican Party from 1997 to 2006.<\/p>\n

Barton\u2019s earliest significant attempt to retell the history of church-state relations in the United States was his book The Myth of Separation<\/i>, published in 1989 by Wallbuilders. There was also a widely distributed video lecture with the same title. Barton ran into some factual errors in that book, however, and revamped it into a 1996 book called Original Intent<\/i>, also published by Wallbuilders.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Barton authored The Jefferson Lies,<\/i> published by Thomas Nelson, a major international publisher of religious books. In that book, Barton claims to correct lies about Thomas Jefferson, and many of his claims relate to church-state relations. The Jefferson Lies<\/i> was so riddled with errors that when we began debunking it, we found there was enough material for a book-length critique. That became our book Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Our Third President<\/i>, which was also published in 2012. An expanded second edition of the book was published in November of 2023.<\/p>\n

The Jefferson Lies<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take just one story from Barton\u2019s book. In The Jefferson Lies<\/i>, Barton claims that Thomas Jefferson chose to end his presidential correspondence with the closing words \u201cIn the Year of Our Lord Christ.\u201d If you know what Jefferson thought about Jesus, you should be surprised by that claim. Jefferson would not choose to speak that way about Jesus of Nazareth, who\u2014in the eyes of our third president\u2014was a mere mortal.<\/p>\n

In fact, Jefferson was required by law to sign so-called sea letters, documents related to treaties of commerce with other nations. These were, in essence, form letters with the religious phrase \u201cIn the Year of Our Lord Christ\u201d preprinted. The language on the letters were required by various treaties, because as Jefferson told Albert Gallatin in 1805, \u201cSea-letters are the creatures of treaties.\u201d Jefferson didn\u2019t choose those words, but he did sign his name on form letters, as other presidents also did at that time.<\/p>\n

Barton doesn\u2019t limit his historical misadventures to Jefferson. For years he has claimed that the United States Congress printed the first English Bible in the United States. In his retelling, Congress decided the nation needed the Bible for use in schools and so, in 1782, directed Robert Aitken to print them. In fact, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken petitioned Congress to make him the official Bible printer of Congress. Congress declined, but did allow chaplains to read through the Bibles Aitken had already printed to sign off on their accuracy. Congress did not fund any of Aitken\u2019s work, but it did commend him for his service to religion and the art of printing. To be clear, Congress neither funded nor printed any official Bible for the use of schools or for any other reason. However, this is a useful narrative for Christian-nation storytellers hoping to promote the Bible in public schools in the present day.<\/p>\n

There were so many false and half-true stories in The Jefferson Lies<\/i> that in August 2012 its publisher, Thomas Nelson, took the costly step of pulling the book from distribution. In 2016 Barton found another publisher\u2014WND Press\u2014and the book was republished. Yet even after these events, and the immense criticism that Barton\u2019s book has attracted, his erroneous stories still circulate.<\/p>\n

Rewriting the Separation of Church and State<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barton isn\u2019t the only purveyor of junk church-state history. Regardless of who\u2019s teaching it, though, the point is most often to degrade the separation of church and state and to support political actions favoring a narrow version of Christianity. Some of these Christian writers who attempt to re-present church-state history call themselves Christian nationalists.<\/p>\n

For instance, Douglas Wilson is a pastor in Idaho who is a prolific author, important leader in the classical Christian school movement, and founder of a small college. Wilson writes and speaks about a broad range of subjects, including American history. He claims that all political structures are religious and that the Founders wanted only to separate the governing bodies of churches from the governance of civil affairs. As support for his Christian-nation claim, Wilson asserts that 50 of the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention were orthodox Christians.3<\/sup> For Wilson, it would have been good\u2014and even consistent with the Founders\u2019 beliefs\u2014for them to have included the Apostles\u2019 Creed in the body of the Constitution. Then, any affirmation of the Constitution would also be an affirmation of the theological claims of the Apostles\u2019 Creed. Wilson recently said, \u201cI would support measures that would exclude Hindus from holding public office in the United States.\u201d4<\/sup> Of course, this would violate Article VI of the Constitution, but that does not trouble Wilson; he incorrectly thinks Article VI only refers to Christian denominations. He added, \u201cIn the Christian nationalist project we want, we don\u2019t want this smudge or the hodgepodge. We want it to be explicitly Christian. We want prayers at the political convention to be to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; that\u2019s how we want the prayers to go.\u201d5<\/sup><\/p>\n

History With Policy Consequences<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is easy to see how faulty history can lead to exclusion of minority religions. Religious tests, even when they are taught as dogma by religious leaders to their members, are meant to limit participation in public life to members of dominant religious groups. In the case of the Christian nationalism promoted by Wilson, the consequences may be even more dire than simple exclusion. Wilson also controls Canon Press, which in 2022 published Stephen Wolfe\u2019s The Case for Christian Nationalism<\/i>. In that book, Wolfe makes a case that a Christian government could treat religious heresy as a civil offense. The penalties could include banishment, prison, or, in extreme cases, death. Although we recognize it would take an unlikely change in the Constitution for anything like that to happen, it\u2019s disturbing that, in 2024, Protestants who are taken seriously by mainstream evangelicals are even discussing such proposals.<\/p>\n

When the correct history is presented, it becomes clear that the Founders did not want to legally privilege one religion over another. Although the Framers of the Constitution believed religion facilitated moral behavior, many of them also believed in liberty of conscience such that religious judgments were best left with individuals. In their work together crafting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the delegates sought to avoid the type of religious conflicts that had roiled Europe for centuries and, as a result, decided to separate church and state.<\/p>\n

What we are seeing in the present day is the degrading of that wall of separation between church and state. In many red states this has led to a demand for policy that fits a Christian-nation history. It follows, then, that political activists and officeholders will look for ways to explicitly support Christianity, a kind of \u201cde facto establishment.\u201d These activists might not cite David Barton or Douglas Wilson, but those authors have helped create the political environment in which there is a demand for \u201cChristianizing policy,\u201d and politicians have done their best to meet that demand.<\/p>\n

Consider these current cases: in Louisiana, state legislation requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools; in Oklahoma, a directive from the state school superintendent requiring Bible instruction in public schools.<\/p>\n

Although Louisiana\u2019s public schools are ranked forty-ninth in the nation by World Population Review<\/i> and forty-first by U.S. News & World Report<\/i>,6<\/sup> state lawmakers thought one remedy for their schools\u2019 poor performance would be a little Christianity on the walls. To do her part, Republican representative Dodie Horton sponsored House Bill 71, requiring schools from kindergarten to college to post a \u201cdisplay of the Ten Commandments in each classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the law is intended to teach history, there is some fake history on display within the text of the legislation. The most egregious mistake is found in an amendment offered by Senator Jay Morris.7<\/sup> There is much wrong with Morris\u2019 historical justifications throughout his amendment, but the prizewinner is his appeal to a fake quote attributed to James Madison. Morris has Madison saying, \u201cWe have staked the whole future of our new nation . . . upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Barton is the source of this Madison misquote in the aforementioned 1989 book, Myth of Separation<\/i>, although Barton now says the quote shouldn\u2019t be used.8<\/sup> It can\u2019t be found in any of Madison\u2019s writings. Barton picked it up from a secondary source all those years ago, and it stuck. Now, here it is today, being used to justify Ten Commandments legislation.<\/p>\n

Louisiana\u2019s governor signed the bill into law on June 19, 2024. While it can be said that the Ten Commandments are shared by Christians and Jews, there are, however, different wordings of the Ten Commandments for Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Surprise! Louisiana chose the Protestant version.<\/p>\n

State representative Horton described her view of history to Laura Ingraham on Fox News: \u201cOur students will be able to look up and see that there is a moral standard that God set forth for man to live by. One that is grounded in the Constitution and the foundation of this country.\u201d It is a view more interested in promoting Christian beliefs than historical accuracy.<\/p>\n

Horton, a Southern Baptist, said during a Louisiana House debate on the bill, \u201cI\u2019m not concerned with an atheist. I\u2019m not concerned with a Muslim. I\u2019m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God\u2019s law is.\u201d<\/p>\n

These views might make sense if Horton were a Southern Baptist preacher, but as an elected leader, she is supposed to represent atheists, Muslims, and other religious minorities residing in her district. However, Horton\u2019s intersection of bad history and bad policy effectively means compromised representation of these constituents.<\/p>\n

In Oklahoma the elected state superintendent of education, Ryan Walters, recently issued a regulation requiring the use of the Bible in public school classrooms. Unsurprisingly, Walters also appointed David Barton to help review Oklahoma\u2019s social studies curriculum.9<\/sup> In Walters\u2019 memo describing how the Bible should be taught, he justifies its use on historical and literary educational grounds. Clearly, though, he is singling out the Bible for this type of use, ignoring other non-Christian sacred books and practices. Although there has been push-back from some of Oklahoma\u2019s school districts, other districts are no doubt preparing to teach sectarian Bible lessons with the blessing of the state. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n

What History <\/strong>Can<\/strong><\/i> Teach Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many political leaders today are manipulating history to persuade people that their versions of Christianity should be privileged in the present. Yet the historical record is clear: singling out one religion for favoritism leads to harassment and persecution of minority religious groups. America\u2019s heritage of separation of church and state has served us well. We should strengthen it, not turn from it.<\/p>\n

In her concurring opinion in a 2005 case that barred McCreary County, Kentucky, from posting copies of the Ten Commandments on public school walls, Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O\u2019Connor asked an important question. It\u2019s a question that should be answered by anyone seeking to erode separation of church and state: \u201cWhy would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?\u201d<\/p>\n

1 Brent VanNorman, Tulsa Mayoral Candidate Says \u201cWe Need to Get Back\u201d to Requiring Elected Officials to Be Christians<\/i>, Right Wing Watch Vimeo video, July 30, 2024, https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Z9fU06.<\/p>\n

2 Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price, 1780, quoted in Alexander H. Bullock, \u201cThe Centennial of the Massachusetts Constitution,\u201d Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society<\/i> (1882), vol.1, pp. 189, 229, 230.<\/p>\n

3 Douglas Wilson, Tenured Historians of the Golden Calf<\/i>, Nov. 7. 2022,  www.dougwils.com.<\/p>\n

4 Douglas Wilson, The Leak in the Tires of Classical Liberalism<\/i>, June 12, 2024, www.dougwils.com.<\/p>\n

5 Douglas Wilson, In The Republic I Envision, Hindus Would Not Be Able to Hold Public Office,<\/i> Right Wing Watch YouTube video, July 23, 2024, https:\/\/bit.ly\/47ega07.<\/p>\n

6 \u201cSchool Rankings by State 2024,\u201d www.worldpopulationreview.com; \u201cBest States Rankings 2024,\u201d U.S. News & World Report<\/i>, www.usnews.com.<\/p>\n

7 Louisiana Legislature Senate Floor Amendments, 2024 Regular Session Amendments, proposed by Senator Morris to Reengrossed House Bill No. 71 by Representative Horton, https:\/\/bit.ly\/47elWPc.<\/p>\n

8 \u201cUnconfirmed Quotations,\u201d www.wallbuilders.com, May 29, 2023, https:\/\/bit.ly\/4ecEbH7.<\/p>\n

9 Owen Lavine, \u201cOklahoma\u2019s Social Studies Curriculum Is About to Get the Project 2025 Treatment,\u201d Daily Beast<\/i> (July 9, 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The present-day dangers of distorting America\u2019s past. By Warren Throckmorton and Michael CoulterIllustration by Brian Stauffer Worship music played softly in the background. Microphone in hand, a casually dressed man proclaimed to the attentive crowd, \u201cThe number-one qualification for being mayor of Tulsa is that I am an unashamed follower of Jesus.\u201d The congregation erupted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[194],"class_list":["post-6727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-december-2024","tag-november-december-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}