David Barton, director of Wallbuilders ministry, appeared a few months back on the Mike Huckabee show. According to the Wallbuilders website, its purpose includes “Presenting America’s Forgotten History.” This consists primarily of focusing on the role of Christianity in the nation’s founding. Historians have published hundreds of books on the founding, many of which describe the crucial role of religion. Unfortunately, Barton has read none of them. He is convinced that modern scholars have purged their research of allusions to Christianity and men of faith. (See my post Barton's Forgotten Christian History for a list of books on religion in America.) Consequently, he and his staff of researchers bypass the rich historical writing on religion in American and go directly to the original sources. American’s should read the original sources of our nation’s founding. But a little historical background can be helpful in preventing the commission of some serious errors of fact or interpretation. To suggest an analogy, Barton’s approach resembles the case if a recent graduate from a bible college set out to write a bible commentary without any exposure to Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Spurgeon, Edwards, Warfield, MacArthur, and Piper. Let’s look at the video and some of Barton’s errors.
As is his custom, Barton makes himself available only to friendly interviewers who provide a forum for his ministry and will not challenge any of his statements. Huckabee identifies himself as a fan and a friend of Barton. Huckabee then shares his reaction that first time he watched a video of one of Barton’s presentations. Huckabee describes how he felt “stunned” because Barton was telling him things he was “never taught in school.” Later I will provide a simple answer why Huckabee’s teachers never told him the things he heard on Barton’s tape.
Huckabee provides the agreed to set up for Barton with his allusion to the Declaration of Independence and the men who signed it. Barton directs the viewer’s attention to a painting of the signing of the Declaration and notes the prominent position of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Implying the existence of an academic conspiracy against Christian founders, Barton explains that “we have been trained to recognized the two least religious guys.” Barton then introduces the viewers to signers Benjamin Rush, Roger Sherman (who Barton fails to actually identify by name), Charles Thompson, Robert Treat Paine, and Stephen Hopkins.
May I suggest a few reasons--other than a secular, academic conspiracy-- why Franklin and Jefferson stand out.
Benjamin Franklin was the most well known American of the colonial and early national era. He enjoyed success as a writer, a scientist (for which he became a member of the Royal Society of London), and a diplomat. Until the formation of the new government and the election of George Washington, Franklin was the face of America to the rest of the world. His skills as a writer earned him the initial assignment to draft the Declaration of Independence. He refused because he did not like the idea of the other members of the drafting committee revising anything he might write. The committee turned to Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson, too, was an accomplished writer. He already earned a reputation for his A Summary View of the Rights of British America. He, of course, wrote the text of the Declaration of Independence. (Ironically, Franklin could not resist revising. He suggested changing Jefferson’s phrase (“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”) Later Jefferson became governor of Virginia and served the new national government as Secretary of State, Vice-President, and President for two terms. Later he established the University of Virginia.
Now compare Franklin’s and Jefferson’s accomplishments with those cited by Barton for Charles Thompson: “he is responsible for a famous American edition of the bible;“ for Robert Treat Pain “ a chaplain;” and for Stephen Hopkins, “a Quaker--very outspoken--he used the Christian religion as the basis for why we should separate from Great Britain . . . ”
It should be obvious, even to Huckabee, why his teachers never taught him the things shared by Barton: his teachers had better historical sense than Barton. They know what is important and what is not.