David Barton and the conservative rediscovery of integrity

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:30 pm by Morgan Guyton

David Barton and the conservative rediscovery of integrity 2014-07-17T14:30:32-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of the most hopeful things that I have witnessed in recent times was the decision of evangelical Christian publisher Thomas Nelson to discontinue publishing David Barton’s Jefferson Lies. For those of you who are unfamiliar, David Barton is a historical revisionist very popular in the Michelle Bachmann/Glenn Beck circles for trying to advance the claim that America’s Founding Fathers were 21st century evangelical Christians and not 18th century Deists. The reason Thomas Nelson dropped his book is because other conservative evangelical historians cried foul at the way that Barton distorted history to support his ideological propaganda. This is a very significant development because what most turns people off about today’s “conservatism” is actually not the part that is conservative, i.e. its commitment to ancient, timeless truths, but rather the hijacking of conservatism by populist demagogues who reveal their lack of conservatism with their contempt for the truth. So if American conservatism is in fact rediscovering the importance of integrity, this will be much better for its long-term health than continuing to foment short-term political power through fact-free, sensationalist rabble-rousing.

In Barton’s book, he claims that what has been taught about Jefferson is driven by a secular liberal agenda. This is the standard ruse by which Christian culture warriors excuse themselves of being obedient to the truth. Since all of the scholarship available is encased in the inherently secular liberal historical and scientific methods, the Christian has no obligation to be faithful to what really happened in history or what actually happens in a Petri dish, as long as s/he can scrape together some Bible verses for ideological support. Christians often find justification for a contempt for integrity in the distinctions that Jesus draws between the world and His kingdom. If information comes from a non-Christian “worldly” source such as the New York Times or the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, then it is guaranteed to be corrupt and false. Only people who quote scripture throughout their writings are to be trusted.

What’s fascinating is how radically postmodern evangelical culture warriors really are. Postmodernity tells us that objectivity is impossible because people always have some kind of agenda behind what they believe. Every discourse draws boundaries and privileges presumptions in a certain way which serves the interests of whatever power-brokers have established the discourse. But to hold this episteme of cynicism in absolute is recklessly dishonest. It is true that science cannot tell us anything about God, because the scientific method precludes the consideration of divine intervention in its empirical observations. But this does not mean that everything science tells us is untrustworthy. When we say that because every thought system has privileged presumptions, truth as such doesn’t exist, then we fall into the “moral relativism” that conservative evangelicals decry about postmodernity. And this is precisely the trap that they themselves fall into when they champion people like David Barton who play loose with the facts since facts themselves are a secular liberal conspiracy.

The tragedy of Barton’s historical revisionism with Thomas Jefferson is that it keeps Barton’s fan club from learning an important lesson about how to grapple with truth that comes from worldly, not-entirely-Christian sources. Just because Thomas Jefferson was a Deist doesn’t mean that the Constitution he wrote isn’t an amazing document that constitutes the perfect summary of what democracy is supposed to look like. We don’t have to discredit the Constitution if we admit that Jefferson cut all the miracles out of his Bible not just to create a summary of the philosophy of Jesus as Barton tries to argue, but because Jefferson believed that they didn’t happen. All truth belongs to God, no matter who discovers it and who shares the news of its discovery. God uses fallible people all the time to reveal His truth. It’s okay to admit that Jefferson was a Deist. It’s also okay to recognize that despite America’s separation of church and state, we have mostly been a Christian nation for most of our history. I agree with John Milbank’s thesis in Theology and Social Thought that Western secularism is in fact grounded in Christian values. Secularism as we understand it could not happen in a Muslim country; neither could separation of church and state as we understand it.

Don’t be afraid of the truth. It might seem like our arguments can be stronger if we twist and manipulate it, but as Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” If we are “obedient to the truth,” as 1 Peter 1:22 exhorts us, then God wins the argument over all our competing ideologies and we submit graciously to His truth, which is about as perfect a definition of being conservative as I can think of.

Previous Post

August 12, 2012

Ayn Rand vs. Jesus

Next Post

August 17, 2012 Tim Keller and the false binary of love and holiness

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book of the Bible contains the story of Balaam’s talking donkey?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Numbers Exodus Judges 1 Samuel