Beware False Apostles of “Americanism” – Part Two
PART ONE OF FALSE APOSTLES of Americanism ended with these these words of Pope Saint Pius X applied to so-called “Christian Ministers” who distort Sacred Scripture to defame the Catholic Church. It should come as no surprise that anyone who can pervert the Scriptures is fully capable of distorting historical documents to present the country’s “Founders” as Christian men intent on building a Christian nation, when in fact, their program was to destroy the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations that did not join the Framers in their subterfuge and efforts to establish a secular commonwealth built on the economic, political and moral principles of “Liberalism”. Pope St. Pius X saw through the charade:
“We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker – the City (any country) cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found (Novos Ordo Secolorum), nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization….It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants.” (St. Pope Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, April 15, 1910).
Because many of “Framer” were trying to establish a new Commonwealth without Christ (He is not mentioned once in the Constitution, religion and God’s Laws are excluded and relegated to the private sphere – see note 1 below), because many were at war with His Church, because the American Revolution was a phase of the French Revolution and the broader Liberal Revolution sweeping the globe, the Catholic Church, according to Framers like John Adams, was a “monster that had to be annihilated:
“Cabalistic Christianity, which is catholic (sic) Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1,500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die” (John Adams, (July 16, 1814) Letter to Thomas Jefferson).
It was not just Catholics, many Protestants were opposed to the liberal program of the “Framers”:
One of America’s unsung founders was Elias Boudinot. Boudinot was a president of the Continental Congress, a United States Congressman and from 1795 to 1805 he was the Director of the U.S. Mint, an Evangelical and a Co-Founder of the American bible Society. Boudinot was alarmed by the disregard for Christian principles by many leaders of the new American government;
“But has not America greatly departed from her original (17th century) principles, and left her first love? Has she not also many amongst her chief citizens, of every party, who have forsaken the God of their fathers, and to whom the spirit may justly be supposed to say, “ye hold doctrines which I hate, repent, or else I will come unto you quickly, and will fight against you with the sword of my mouth.”
By the time that Protestant divines woke up to what was happening, it was already too late. Pastor Timothy Wright, President of Yale Seminary was one of the first to take note (1812):
“The nation has offended Providence. We formed our Constitution without any acknowledgment of God; without any recognition of His mercies to us, as a people, of His government, or even of His existence. The [Constitutional] Convention, by which it was formed, never asked even once, His direction, or His blessings, upon their labours. Thus we commenced our national existence under the present system, without God.”
Since Protestants such as these were opposed to the liberal charade of light being directed by the Framers, they too were belittled. John Adams referred to the Protestant ministers as “yahoos” the great enemies of “free inquiry” who should be endured no longer.
“And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY (Adams’ own emphasis)? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded.”
Jefferson concurred, the Christian clergy (Protestant and Catholic) are:
“… the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.”
James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”, also harbored hostility for the clergy (Catholic and Protestant), “spiritual tyrants” who “subvert the public liberty”; they had to go!
“What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not” (James Madison (1785) “A Memorial and Remonstrance“).
The Framers steeped in the Craft of esotericism might have fooled the people, but they did not fool Protestants such as Boudinot and Timothy Wright, not did they fool the sagacious Pius X:
“Society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization….It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants.” (St. Pope Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, April 15, 1910).
Since many of the Framers were in Pope Pius’ words “miscreants”, “rebels” and “insane dreamers”, it should come as no surprise that many so-called ministers, contemporary men and women who are supposed to be lovers of the truth and “ambassadors” of Jesus Christ, the way and the truth and the life”, seem to have no problem repeating the tale (about the Christian Founders) in order to improve their financial portfolios, or worse, in order to advance a nefarious hidden agenda that makes them guilty of that which they accuse others: being unchristian.
The truth is, many of the so-called conservative fundamentalists and dispensationalists ministers who claim that “liberals” are distorting the facts about the Christian roots of American government are the real ones that are doing the distorting. Perhaps you have seen their websites, or read their books and media tracts claiming that the Unites States Constitution was written by stalwart Christian men totally committed to Christ and the building of a Christian nation.
What sundry readers are unaware of is that many of the quotes they use to defend their claims are fabricated, misunderstood, or misrepresented.
David Barton “Christian” Spokesman for America’s Christian Founding: Guru of Americanism
Among the most popular spokesmen is a Pentecostal minister by the name of David Barton, a Christian fundamentalist and founding president of a popular website called “Wall Builders”, a site devoted to defending America’s Christian foundations. Barton has been interviewed several times by Glenn Beck and is noted for tours of the capitol pointing out Christian heritage of the country to new congressmen and senators.
Barton wrote a book, “The Myth of Separation”, that was so full of errors and misquotes that it caused scholars across the country to leap into action; it was too outrageous to ignore, too opposed to expected standards of research and norms of scholarly writing, which are the hallmark of men and women who love truth, men and women who consider honest scholarship a mark of honor and dishonest a mark of reprobation. Consequently, numerous savants quickly engaged in research to verify the validity of Barton’s quotes. Unfortunately for Barton, many true scholars such as, Professor Robert S. Alley (University of Richmond) the man who authored “James Madison on Religious Liberty”, got involved. Prof. Alley received assistance from the editors of “The Papers of James Madison” at the University of Virginia who helped verify all of Barton’s quotes and misquotes.
Moreover,
“Firms devoted to Madison and Jefferson became involved, universities got involved and ultimately the Library of Congress was the final resting place for these quotes[viii].
Barton’s book does not contain an occasional error, the kind that are easily forgiven and which cause honest writer’s to etch deeply in their memory so as to avoid repeating them. Barton is either a dishonest minister playing scholar or an uneducated one making so many mistakes that no one should consider him a learned man and therefore avoid him as a teacher and historical spokesman. True scholarship is time consuming and very difficult, every piece of evidence is verified, every source double checked and cross referenced. No one becomes learned or wise by simply reading; every time an in earnest student comes across information that he cannot verify or that he does not understand, he stops and does not continue again until he has mastered the content or idea. Every specious or questionable piece of information is cross-referenced and double-triple checked for accuracy and veracity. Apparently, Barton did not know that such men and women exist; there really is no such thing as a “lazy scholar”, qua scolar. Like most charlatans, Barton, although himself not necessarily a charlatan, was eventually caught for poor scholarship. When presented with the evidence, he
“…admitted to fabricating the quotes. He was (then) ordered to create a pamphlet that listed all his bogus quotes. Unfortunately that pamphlet has had almost zero impact on those who use the quotes daily in newspapers around the United States.”[ix]
Below are some of his more egregious misquotes. Fortunately, many people have become involved and this kind of scam scholarship is being exposed.
- “Whosoever shall introduce into the public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.” – Benjamin Franklin
, - “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!” – Patrick Henry
,
- “The only assurance of our nation’s safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.” – Abraham Lincoln
,
- “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” – Holy Trinity v. U. S. (Barton claimed this was a United States Supreme Court landmark case—in fact, the actual author is not the United States Supreme Court, but the Illinois Supreme Court (Richmond v. Moore, 1883). We are not concerned about state constitutions, which in many cases were influenced by Christianity, but with the secular federal Constitution. Not only is the quote misrepresented, Barton distorts the meaning of the Illinois court by omitting other text from the same decision, text such as, “…a total severance of church and State is one of the great controlling foundation principles of our system of government.”
,
- “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” – Abraham Lincoln
,
- “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or eternal invader.” – Samuel Adams
,
- “I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.” – Thomas Jefferson
,
- “There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet.” – Noah Webster
,
- “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” – George Washington
,
- “The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be assessory [sic] to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer.” – Noah Webster
,
- “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves … according to the Ten Commandments of God.”– James Madison[x]
The only problem with these quotes is that none of them have ever been found among any of Founder’s authentic writings. Barton tried to excuse himself by blaming it on “secondary sources”. Perhaps this is a good excuse; however, any cross referencing or simple attempt to confirm the quotes should have raised a flag in Barton’s mind; perhaps he was cherry picking quotes as Pentecostals cherry pick scriptures to fabricate tales about the Catholic Church.
Barton, has earned rebuke from “Church and State Magazine”, which ran an article by Robert Boston who insisted that Barton’s fabrications were so egregious that they warranted a “Consumer Alert”.[xi] Barton has also received criticism from the “right” for “shoddy workmanship”. The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJCPA) issued a critique of a Barton movie that highlighted most of the quotes. The BJCPA took Barton to task and hammered his video.[xii] They stated that his work is:
“… laced with exaggerations, half-truths and misstatements of fact.”[xiii] The Texas Freedom Network calls him “a pseudo-intellectual fraud whose twisted interpretations of history are little more than propaganda.”[xiv]
According to “people for the American Way”[xv]
“Such dim views of Barton’s work are based on repeated instances in which Barton cites quotes attributed to Founding Fathers that appear to support the right-wing view that the current model of separation of church and state was not at all what the Framers intended, only to have those quotes turn out to be unverifiable, if not utterly false.”
..
“Barton claimed that the phrase “wall of separation between church and state” originated in a speech made by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Barton also claimed that Jefferson went on to say that “That wall is a one directional wall. It keeps the government from running the church but it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.” [xvi]
,o,
“Such a claim would be powerful, provided it was true. The only problem was that Barton was wrong on all accounts: the phrase regarding church and state came out of an 1802 letter Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association and the letter says absolutely nothing about keeping “Christian principles” in the government.”
The Jefferson Lies
Barton’s book, “The Jefferson Lies” was as objectionable as his book, “The Myth of Separation”. The former was hammered so hard that it had to be withdrawn from publication. Hard as this might be to swallow, apparently, it is Barton and not the “liberals” who has been telling the lies about Jefferson (please do not say that this makes the author of this article a liberal):
“In 2012, Barton’s New York Times bestseller, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson, was voted “the least credible history book in print” by the users of the History News Network website.[xvii] A group of 10 conservative Christian professors reviewed the work and reported negatively on its claims, saying that Barton has misstated facts about Jefferson.”[xviii]
“In August 2012 Christian publisher Thomas Nelson withdrew the book from publication and stopped production, announcing that he had “lost confidence in the book’s details” and “learned that there were some historical details included in the book that were not adequately supported.”[xix]
According to Wikipedia
“In 1995, in response to criticism by historian Robert Alley, Barton conceded, in an online article titled “Unconfirmed Quotations“,[xx] that he had not located primary sources for 11 alleged quotes from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions (hence, the title of Alley’s article), but maintained that the quotes were “completely consistent” with the views of the Founders. (By 2007, the article listed 14 unconfirmed quotations.)[xxi]
According to Texas Monthly,
“Honesty has been a problem for Barton over the years and still is. After he issued his “unconfirmed quotes” retraction in 1995, for instance, a group of independent researchers went over The “Myth of Separation” with a fine-tooth comb and found more than one quote that Barton apparently fabricated through the flagrant misuse of ellipses.[xxii]
In the past, you could find Barton’s bio online (Endnote 2) where it says he’s an “author and historian.” The bio says he has a degree in Arts from Oral Roberts University and an honorary doctorate from the Pensacola Christian College. In his official bio at Ecclesia University, he refers to himself as Dr. Barton. A bachelor’s degree does not qualify a person as a “historian” (a bachelor is a certified apprentice of learning – certified to have the necessary qualifications to begin taking the next step leading to the tile of “master”), nor does an honorary degree make one a doctor. There is a reason why there are peer-reviewed journals, and why some men and women are authorized to place Dr. in front of their names. The degree signifies the highest attainable level of scholarship and academic respectability, which Mr. Barton and those who support his ideological travesty – the Christian Founder Project – have not earned.
David Barton cannot help himself – First he says that he does NOT have a Ph.D and then he says that he does???
The fact is, Dispensationalists and Pentecostals, along with their allies in the not so secret “Secret Societies”, are losing the battle to men and women who love the Truth, the truth who is a Divine Person, the truth who is also the Way and the Life. Men and women around the world are waking up and beginning to rally around His Church, the Church He established as the Light of the World and the City Set on a Hilltop; there is no other.
The Mother of God promised a victory, the “Triumph” of her “Immaculate Heart”. Those who honor Her and follow Her Son (Catholic and Protestant) are getting in cadence because the “Truth is marching on.” Adept falsifiers so dread falling behind that they are forced to misquote and offer shoddy scholarship to hold on to their false dreams of freeing the world by global diffusion of anti-Christian principles in the guise of Enlightenment (because the devil and his agents, come as “angels” and “ministers” of light -DRB-), principles that in fact are intended to make them masters of the world, which is now in the process of turning against them (Review news articles at newera.news for details). These were the type of men Pope Francis was speaking about when he recently (November 30, 2015) stated:
“Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions (even Catholic fundamentalism). Such people “believe they possess the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil.” “We have to combat it,” he said. “Religious fundamentalism is not religious, because it lacks God. It is idolatry (in his case, the idolatry of nation or of Gnostic fraternity), like the idolatry of money.”[xxiii]
The following links are provided for more information about this topic:
David Barton Falsely Claims He’s Been Labeled A Hate Group By The FBI
Does David Barton Have A Ph.D.? Even He Doesn’t Seem To Know
David Barton: The Declaration Of Independence And Bill Of Rights Came Directly Out Of The Bible
David Barton Falsely Claims He’s Been Labeled A Hate Group By The FBI
Videos a Common Sense Rebuttal
______________________________
END NOTES
1. The specious AD argument does not work. Some Christian ideologues who prefer ignorance to truth have scoured the document looking for just one reference to God. Finding none, they resort to the signature date which contains the words “In the year of Our Lord”. And then mockingly proclaim that the “secularists” are obviously wrong, as if this one miniscule thread redeems the entre document from being secular. This is a ridiculous argument, one worthy of only a footnote. By this logic, Hilary Clinton is a card carrying Christian because she heads or closes her correspondence with the Christian date. Or, conversely, the Portuguese who live before 1700 are not Christians because they did not begin using the AD style until the 18th century. Using the in conventional date is nothing but standard practice; it is not evidence from which to draw conclusions about such deep seated beliefs as faith in Jesus Christ, and all that He taught. New Agers even claim that Jesus is Lord along with a host of other gods and lords. Thomas Jefferson called himself a “Christian” because he believed in the morals taught by Jesus. But he denied His divinity, incarnation, and resurrection; most especially, he denied the Trinity, which disqualifies him from being a Christian no matter how much he might protest: “Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son.” (1 John 2:22). AD, moreover, is one of several dating mechanisms used throughout Masonry and Masons are not Christians because they deny the divinity of Christ as Jefferson did. (http://grandlodgeofiowa.org/docs/Masonic_History/AnnoLucis.pdf)
[iii] All legitimate nations do derive authority and power from God through the natural law. The Church, is the only society conferred power and authority be means of the divine law and also by means of the natural law.
[iv] John Adams, Letter to John Taylor
[v] Thomas Jefferson (1810) Letter to Samuel Kercheval
[vi] Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800
[vii] The Evangelical Founding Father: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2015/11/the-most-evangelical-founding-father/?ref_widget=related&ref_blog=anxiousbench&ref_post=what-can-we-learn-from-the-david-barton-controversy
[viii] The Barton Chronicles http://candst.tripod.com/bartchron.htm
[ix] Blair Scott Michigan Atheist http://michiganatheists.org/2015/04/27/david-barton-and-fake-quotes/
[x] ibid
[xi] http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/founding.htm
[xii] Scott
[xiii] J. Brent Walker, “A Critique of David Barton’s Views on Church and State,” Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, April 2005
[xiv] Texas Freedom Network Education Foundation, “The Anatomy of Power: Texas and the Religious Right in 2006,” p.19
[xv] http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/david-barton-propaganda-masquerading-history#_edn21
[xvi] Rob Boston, “Sects, Lies and Videotape,” Church & State, Volume 46, No. 4, April 1993, pp 8-1
[xvii] Wikipedia, Schuessler, Jennifer (2012-07-16). “And the Worst Book of History Is “. New York Times. 2012-07-19.
[xviii] Wikipedia, Kidd, Thomas (August 7, 2012). “The David Barton controversy”. World (God’s World Publications, World News Group). Retrieved April 9, 2013.
[xix] Wikipedia, Kidd, Thomas (August 7, 2012).“The David Barton controversy”. World (God’s World Publications, World News Group). Retrieved April 9, 2013.
[xx] Blakeslee, Nate (September 2006). “King Of the Christocrats”. Texas Monthly 34 (9): 1. ISSN 0148-7736. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
[xxi] Barton, David. “Unconfirmed Quotations”. WallBuilders website. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
[xxii] (On page 248, for example, Barton pulled this quote from a Supreme Court of New York case called People v. Ruggles: “This [First Amendment] declaration … never meant to withdraw religion … and with it the best sanctions of moral and social obligation from all consideration and notice of the law.” In the unedited version, however, it is abundantly clear that the “declaration” referred to is not the First Amendment, as Barton indicated in brackets, but an article of the New York state constitution.) In the vault, I finally got to take a closer look at a piece of plastic-sheathed parchment Barton had been waving around on the pastors’ tour in D.C., which he claimed was an example of Jefferson signing a document “In the Year of Our Lord Christ.” It was already pretty flimsy evidence that Jefferson was a Christian, but on closer inspection it appeared that Jefferson himself had not even written the words; the document was the nineteenth-century equivalent of a form letter. (Texas Monthly: http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/king-of-the-christocrats/).[xxiii] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/11/30/pope-francis-says-he-is-not-losing-any-sleep-over-vatican-leaks-trial/