David Barton - Faux cowboy, faux historian, faux christian

[Photo of David Barton from Time magazine]

Nearly 30 years ago, the so-called Christian Coalition, then headed by the notorious, wacky christianist, Pat Robertson, set out to infiltrate every area of American life with fundy christianists who lived and breathed a vision of the United States as a christianist country ruled by fundamentalist christianists with laws based on certain biblical legal provisions as interpreted by these same fundy christianists.

Robertson urged his minions to become involved at every political level - from school boards and city councils to state and national legislatures - and even the presidency.

They have been remarkably successful in this endeavor and thus just about every community is now engaged in continual battles between fundy theocrats and the U.S. Constitution.

Furthermore, they got Georgi Bush elected! While he's really a faux christianist, he nonetheless did the bidding of his theocratic controllers.


One of the worst of the theocratic bunch is a guy by name of David Barton from the huge city of Aledo, Texas (pop. 2000). Some years ago, when Barton decided that God created the U.S. to be a Christian nation and that the founders were chosen by God to make the U.S. a Christian nation, and that the founders were fundy christianists, he set up an outfit called WallBuilders which really has three main goals: to break down what he believes the "false" wall of separation of church and state in this country; to insinuate his beliefs into society through the public schools; and to establish a theocratic state run by fundy christianists according to what Barton believes to be god's laws.

Barton likes to pretend his is a cowboy. According to Rob Boston, Barton "is a tall man who frequently sports boots, a rodeo shirt and a cowboy hat." But Barton is not a cowboy; he's a fundy teacher from a little bitty Texas town. He's all hat, no cattle. Like Georgi Bush.

Boston notes that Barton is singularly unqualified for just about anything. He "earned a bachelor's degree in 'Christian Education' from Oral Roberts University in 1976 [tee hee - as if that's worth a nickel!] and later taught math and science at a fundamentalist Christian school founded by his father, pastor of Aledo Christian Center."


Such a lack of qualifications has not stopped him from pretending to be an historian. He's been involved in a variety of activities attempting to promote the notion that the concept of separation of church and state is a "myth," and that this nation was founded as a Christian nation. He is also tied into the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a fundy group working hard to get their fundamentalist version of the Bible taught in public schools.

He's been involved in politics for years, hanging with rightwing nutcases like Newt Gingrich, Bill Frist and Tom DeLay. These days he's working hard to elect christianist rightwing Republicans to public office. Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee are both sucking up to him because unfortunately, among the christianist freaks, Barton swings some weight.


What's really sad is that "respected" institutions seem unable to discriminate between the bad and the worst. So, Time magazine named him one as one of 25 most influential "evangelicals" in 2005. And he's "branching out into other fields - areas where, like history, he has no legitmate credentials. On June 7, 2007, Barton testified before the U.S. Senate's Environmental and Public Works Committee, criticizing global warming and posing as an expert on how evangelicals view that issue."

Today he's working with the Texas State Board of Education (boy, if there ever was an oxymoron that's it!) to insinuate his brand of christian theocracy into social studies textbooks!


It is tempting to write Barton off as just another freaky, christianist clown, but that would be a mistake. He's off and running and he's very dangerous and he does not believe in our country or the U.S. Constitution. He is, to put it mildly, a snake in the grass.

Barton may wear a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, but the only "cowboy" thing about him is that he is full of horseshit!


Please read all of Rob Boston's very important article here.