David Barton Historical Accuracy

If you Google "David Barton author" you'll see many results are "flame" sites (self-published Web sites that generally express a very negative opinion, or even cutting attacks on something). The gist of most is along the lines of "this man is rewriting history, is supporting a myth that the founding fathers were nearly all Christians, etc." Most of these flames sites come from people in the secularist movement. By secularist, we mean certain people who want to totally divorce any influence of religion, particularly Christianity, from public life and policy. Some have called these "radical secularists" in that they represent the extreme along the spectrum of positions. However, all secularists believe that what is in the "here and now" of this world should be the driving influence on public policy on issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, and so on. Extremism on either side can lead to ignorance. It's amazing to read in some blogs unfounded statements such as, "not a single Founding Father was a Christian," or that God had nothing to do with our founding as a nation. One need go no further than our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, to see that our nation was birthed ultimately on an appeal to our "Creator" and what Jefferson called "nature's God." While Jefferson and the signers also gave "reasons" for the rebellion, their foundation was that the Creator granted certain unalienable rights that cannot be usurped by any human government or even majority rule. They were absolute.

But the real issue is whether David Barton's quotes and his conclusions are accurate. We have published below excerpts and links from published writings of leading historians from institutions such as Yale University, the University of California, and the Library of Congress, and others which in large part concur with David Barton. Clearly they establish a strong Christian world view among the entire generation of the founders and among most of the founding fathers themselves. And they document how this influenced both the rebellion against the British and the drafting of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, as well as our Constitution some 13 years later.

From the New York Times, Feb. 11, 2010

"How Christian Were the Founders?"

Regarding the Texas School Text Book Controversy and culture wars:

"Christian activists argue that American-history textbooks basically ignore religion — to the point that they distort history outright — and mainline religious historians tend to agree with them on this. “In American history, religion is all over the place, and wherever it appears, you should tell the story and do it appropriately,” says Martin Marty, emeritus professor at the University of Chicago, past president of the American Academy of Religion and the American Society of Church History and perhaps the unofficial dean of American religious historians."

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEB DISPLAY:

"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic"

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html

From the Library of Congress web page:

"The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, non-polemical Christianity."

Also from the LOC Web page:

"On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams "to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." Franklin's proposal adapted the biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea (left). Jefferson first recommended the "Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by night. . . ." He then embraced Franklin's proposal and rewrote it (right). Jefferson's revision of Franklin's proposal was presented by the committee to Congress on August 20. Although not accepted these drafts reveal the religious temper of the Revolutionary period. Franklin and Jefferson were among the most theologically liberal of the Founders, yet they used biblical imagery for this important task."

And also from LOC:

"The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept. 11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from "Scotland, Holland or elsewhere." On January 21, 1781, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (1734-1802) petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testament which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress "highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion . . . in this country, and . . . they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States." This resolution was a result of Aitken's successful accomplishment of his project."

And also from the LOC Web page:

"Northwest Ordinance
In the summer of 1787 Congress revisited the issue of religion in the new western territories and passed, July 13, 1787, the famous Northwest Ordinance. Article 3 of the Ordinance contained the following language: "Religion, Morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." Scholars have been puzzled that, having declared religion and morality indispensable to good government, Congress did not, like some of the state governments that had written similar declarations into their constitutions, give financial assistance to the churches in the West."

And from another LOC Web page on the Faith of the Founding Fathers:

At the Constitutional Convention, where our US Constitution was drafted, "Benjamin Franklin delivered this famous speech, asking that the Convention begin each day's session with prayers, at a particularly contentious period, when it appeared that the Convention might break up over its failure to resolve the dispute between the large and small states over representation in the new government. The eighty one year old Franklin asserted that "the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth--that God governs in the Affairs of Men." "I also believe," Franklin continued, that "without his concurring Aid, we shall succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of Babel."
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html

LEADING HISTORIANS ON the ROLE of CHRISTIANITY IN OUR FOUNDING

Sydney Ahlstrom is without a doubt one of the leading American historians:

"The years of mounting crisis found the churches implicated on both sides of every issue under debate, but in general they became increasingly identified with the Patriot tide of opinion and contributed powerfully to its rise." (p. 361).

A Religious History of the American People, Sydney E Ahlstrom, David D. Hall, Yale University Press, 1992.

Speaking of the Calvinistic mind set of John Adams and others leading up to the Constitution:

"Enlightenment motifs continued to prevail [after the military phase of the Revolution] but more than ever these motifs were modified by a realistic hardheartedness and absence of illusion about the sinfulness of men. The Federalist Papers, published in 1787-88, as well as John Adam's defenses of the American constitutions, can be read as Puritan contributions to Enlightenment political theory" (Ahlstrom, p. 363).

An example of how Christianity influenced John Adams and guided those Enlightenment theories, according to Ahlstrom and Hall (p. 366), can be found in John Adam's Diary, 14 August, 1796:

"One great Advantage of the Christian Religion is that it brings the great Principle of the Law of Nature and Nations, Love you Neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you,--to the Knowledge, Belief and Veneration of the whole People. Children, Servants, Women and Men are all Professors in the science of public as well as private Morality. No other Institution for Education, no kind of political Discipline, could diffuse this kind of necessary Information, so universally among all Ranks and Descriptions of Citizens."

Critical Issues in American Religious History, Robert R. Mathisen

Mathisen, another leading American historian, cites one of the most prominent American historians ever, Henry F. May (professor emeritus of history, UC Berkley):

"'For the study and understanding of American culture, the recover of the American religious history may well be the most important achievement of the last thirty years.' Writing these words in 1964, the eminent historian Henry F. May recognized that 'even for those students of American culture who do not find religious thought and practice intrinsically interesting, knowledge of religious history has become a necessity.' May asserted that 'the recovery of American religious history has restored a knowledge of the mode, even the language, in which most Americans, during most of American history, did their thinking about human nature and destiny.'" (Mathisen, p. 1)

Wilderness Lost: The Religious Origins of the American Mind, David Ross Williams, 1987, Associated University Press, Inc., Cranbury, NJ.

"American hostility towards Great Britain had existed long before the imperial administrators began to tighten their control over their colonial subjects. The roots of that hostility were cultural, and because the roots of American culture were religious, this cultural animosity was at heart religious" (Ross, p. 128).

"The populace of New England was not about to allow an unconverted ministry and a mercantile elite to lead them away from the "popular culture" of "Puritanism." Instead, they struggled in the face of vast historical changes to preserve the vision that had first inspired the saints. They fought invisible forces...but they believed that one central sinister force was responsible for all the changes that threatened them. They believed that theirs was a struggle between Satan and Christ" (Ross, p. 128).

"The enlightened John Adams may have articulated the grievances of the lawyers and merchants, but it was the Calvinist Samuel Adams, converted in the Great Awakening in 1741, who stirred the people to rebellion" (Ross, p. 129).

"In the woodcuts of the period, the figure of Satan whispering in the ears of the British and their allies was more than just a symbol of evil" (Ross, p. 129).

"Evidence of motivations is difficult to obtain," Williams explains. "It is far easier to figure the cash value of a trading route than the psychological value of a beleaguered identity. But evidence does exist that Americans at the time of the Revolution did view their struggle as a defense of Canaan against the encroachments of Egypt. Both Evangelicals and rationalists carried in their heads images of themselves as warriors defending Israel from the Satan hordes" (Ross, p. 129).

Ross cites a quote of historian, Joel T. Headly (writing in 1861) , that religion was 'the deep, solid substratum that underlaid the Revolution...Popular participation in the Revolution owed more to the example of the Old Testament that to John Locke"'" (p. 130).

Ross cites Williams on the popular use of the Exodus imagery during the Revolution:

"Such references to America as Israel abound in the literature of the Revolution. To try to dismiss them as 'mere rhetoric' is to overlook the importance of 'mere rhetoric' as a historical force. It is by just such rhetoric, repeated until it becomes an unquestionable part of consciousness, that collective identity is created and reinforced....the people by their language revealed just how important their religious identity was" (Ross, p. 130).

The Literary History of the American Revolution 1763-1783, Moses Coit Tyler (professor of American History, Cornell University), Vol. II, 1776-1783, New York, GP Putnam's Sons, copyright 1897.

Coit was professor of American History at Cornell and his assessment of the role of the pulpit (chapter XXXV and on of his work) opens with this telling summation:

"'In America, as in the Grand Rebellion in England,' said a Loyalist writer of our Revolutionary time, 'much execution was done by sermons'" Had it been otherwise, there would now be cause for wonder. Indeed, the preachers were then in full possession of that immense leadership, intellectual and moral, which had belonged to their order in America ever since its settlement, in England ever since the middle of the sixteenth century" (Coit, p. 278).

Coit also notes that the first unifying act involving the entire incipient Nation was in fact the first ever call from Congress for a national day of prayer, fasting, and humiliation, July 20, 1775--during the tense time after the battles of Lexington and Concord-- "for all the English colonies on this continent as a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer' and that it was observed in at least thirteen of those colonies, it was both the first general fast ever kept since the day of settlement of the country and also a "notable proof that these same American colonies had finally passed from the stage of local separatism into the stage of incipient national unity" (Coit, p. 284).

Coit goes on to say, "On that day, therefore, from new Hampshire to Georgia, the pulpit became the organ of this new national consciousness--of this universal alarm and pain and hate and aspiration; it then spoke out in every tone natural to Englishmen, to freemen, and to Christians" (p. 284).