Despite past controversy, influential author David Barton has found an eager audience with the rise of Christian nationalism in the Trump era.
Warren Throckmorton Takes on David Barton & ‘Christian Nationalists’ Revisionist History’ Skip to content JOIN US MAY 20-21 FOR RESTORE CONFERENCE Learn More RESTORE CONFERENCE June 9-10, 2023 | Elgin, IL Learn More MaryDeMuth ScotMcKnight NaghmehPanahi Reporting the Truth. Restoring the Church. Donate Facebook-f Twitter Search Search Close this search box. Podcast Investigations About Contact Donate Menu Podcast Investigations About Contact Donate Warren Throckmorton Takes on David Barton & ‘Christian Nationalists’ Revisionist History’ By Bob Smietana December 2, 2023 8:10 am CST 38 Comments David Barton speaks at a Nevada Courageous Conservatives rally at the Henderson Convention Center in Henderson, Nevada, on Feb. 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr/Creative Commons) In the early 2000s, psychology professor Warren Throckmorton spent much of his spare time blogging about his academic work — especially his move in 2005 from supporting so-called reparative therapy and the ex-gay movement to believing attempts to change people’s sexuality were wrong. Then David Barton changed his life. Beginning in 2011, Throckmorton began critiquing Barton’s work — especially the popular writer, speaker and political operative’s attempts to turn Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson into modern-day evangelicals. Throckmorton — who taught for years at Grove City College — would become one of Barton’s most influential conservative critics and played a key role in the downfall of “The Jefferson Lies,” Barton’s bestselling reimagining of Thomas Jefferson as a man on fire for Jesus. The book was filled with so many mistakes — many of them detailed in “Getting Jefferson Right,” a booklong critique published by Throckmorton and fellow Grove City College professor Michael Coulter in 2012 — that Barton’s publisher, Thomas Nelson, retracted the book, despite its appearance on the New York Times bestseller list.Give a gift of $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism” by Tim Alberta. To donate, click here. Covers of the “The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson” by David Barton; and “Getting Jefferson Right” by Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter. (Courtesy images) Casey Francis Harrell, a spokesman for Thomas Nelson, told the Tennessean and other media outlets in 2012 that conservative historians and critics had pointed out errors in the book. “Because of these deficiencies, we decided that it was in the best interest of our readers to cease its publication and distribution,” Harrell said. Had Barton — the founder of Wallbuilders, an Aledo, Texas-based nonprofit that promotes “education regarding the Christian history of our nation” — been an academic or trained historian, his career would likely have been over, said Throckmorton. But Barton, a longtime GOP activist, is more political operative than historian, argues Throckmorton, and is more concerned with telling stories about America’s past than in recounting the truth. “Political operatives take a licking and keep on ticking,” said Throckmorton, who recently retired from Grove City, where he taught psychology for decades. Despite the controversy of “The Jefferson Lies,” Barton’s influence has endured, finding an eager audience with the rise of Christian nationalism in the age of Trump. Most recently he has made national headlines because of his ties to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who shares many of his views about America as a Christian nation. The rise of Christian nationalism — the idea that America belongs to Christians and that Christians have a God-given right to rule — prompted Throckmorton and his co-author to go ahead with an updated version of “Getting Jefferson Right,” which takes on Barton as well as other conservative authors like Eric Metaxas and Stephen Wolfe — all of whom promote what Throckmorton calls “Christian nationalists’ revisionist history.” Warren Throckmorton Had Barton — the founder of Wallbuilders, an Aledo, Texas-based nonprofit that promotes “education regarding the Christian history of our nation” — been an academic or trained historian, his career would likely have been over, said Throckmorton. But Barton, a longtime GOP activist, is more political operative than historian, argues Throckmorton, and is more concerned with telling stories about America’s past than in recounting the truth. “Political operatives take a licking and keep on ticking,” said Throckmorton, who recently retired from Grove City, where he taught psychology for decades. “It’s the attempt to create a usable past — a past that fits your ideology in the present,” said Throckmorton. He and his co-author argue in the second edition of their book, published last month, that Christian nationalists want to reinterpret Jefferson to suit their own goals. The book is needed, he said, because of Barton’s ongoing influence, built on what Throckmorton called bad facts and a faulty narrative. Barton did not respond to a request for comment. Robert Tracy McKenzie, professor of history at Wheaton College and author of “We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy,” said Barton has used the criticism against him to his advantage. McKenzie said Barton is telling two stories at once — one about America’s past, the other about America in the present. In that second story, Barton accuses academics of distorting the religious nature of America’s past and paints himself as a hero for rediscovering it. “For at least some evangelicals, then, the more the Academy challenges Barton, the more they rally around him,” McKenzie said in an email. “It strengthens rather than weakens his brand.” Messiah College historian John Fea, who endorsed the new edition of “Getting Jefferson Right,” said Throckmorton has done important work in pointing out Barton’s factual errors. He also said that along with getting facts wrong, Barton lacks a historian’s perspective when interpreting America’s founding — acting as if nothing has changed between 1776 and 2023. “He has no ability to think about the relationship between the past and the present in responsible ways,” said Fea. Fea also said that Barton is a marketing genius — using the criticism against him to build his brand and using his connections to corner the home-schooling market, where his ideas are often embraced by parents. The fight over Jefferson also reflects the larger culture war that has raged in the United States for decades — a war in which retelling America’s founding plays a key role. “The entire culture war in the United States is based upon getting the Founders on your side, and Barton is able to do that,” he said. Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1821. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia/Creative Commons) Along with the new book, Throckmorton is working on a podcast recounting the downfall of “The Jefferson Lies.” Both projects were driven in part by his concerns about the rise of Christian nationalism. Throckmorton — whose blog also played a key role in the fall of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church by publicizing Driscoll’s plagiarism and the church’s toxic culture — first began investigating Christian nationalism long before the rise of MAGA. He’d been blogging for years when he began to read about a proposed 2009 law in Uganda that would have outlawed homosexuality and jailed LGBTQ people. The law was backed by Christian groups in Uganda, many of whom had ties to American evangelicals. Throckmorton began to work with other American bloggers and journalists to oppose the law and investigate the Christians working in Uganda — whom he described as Christian nationalists. If Christian nationalist ideas — like imposing biblical laws on secular society — were growing in places like Uganda, he wondered where else they might be taking root. That led him to investigate groups in the United States with Christian nationalist leanings. “All roads led to David Barton,” he said. Bob Smietana is a national reporter for Religion News Service. SHARE THIS: GET EMAIL UPDATES! Keep in touch with Julie and get updates in your inbox! Name Email Subscribe Don’t worry we won’t spam you. More to explore How A Bucolic Tennessee Suburb Became A Hotbed of ‘Christian Nashville-ism’ November 8, 2023 11 Comments Williamson County is Tennessee’s wealthiest community and has the best schools in the state, some of the biggest churches, a host of SHARE THIS: Read More » Evangelical Rep. Mike Johnson Suggests Election As House Speaker Ordained By God October 26, 2023 32 Comments After weeks of turmoil, House Republicans elected Rep. Mike Johnson on Wednesday as the new speaker of the House, an act the SHARE THIS: Read More » Interview: How the Bible Has Been Used and Abused in U.S. Politics September 5, 2023 8 Comments The Bible plays an iconic role in American political discourse. For example, Roman 13 was cited by people wanting to enforce immigration SHARE THIS: Read More » discussion 38 Responses Chris Coleman says: December 2, 2023 at 11:37 am Interested in reading the second edition of Getting Jefferson Right. It looks like a few paragraphs we repeated, by mistake, in this article: “Had Barton — the founder of Wallbuilders, an Aledo, Texas-based nonprofit that promotes ‘education regarding the Christian history of our nation’ — been an academic or trained historian, his career would likely have been over, said Throckmorton. But Barton, a longtime GOP activist, is more political operative than historian, argues Throckmorton, and is more concerned with telling stories about America’s past than in recounting the truth. ‘Political operatives take a licking and keep on ticking,’ said Throckmorton, who recently retired from Grove City, where he taught psychology for decades.” Reply Jane King says: December 2, 2023 at 1:20 pm The second paragraph seems to build on the first but, not copy each other. Reply Brian Roden says: December 4, 2023 at 2:08 pm These are repeated, before and beside the photo of Throckmartin: Had Barton — the founder of Wallbuilders, an Aledo, Texas-based nonprofit that promotes “education regarding the Christian history of our nation” — been an academic or trained historian, his career would likely have been over, said Throckmorton. But Barton, a longtime GOP activist, is more political operative than historian, argues Throckmorton, and is more concerned with telling stories about America’s past than in recounting the truth. “Political operatives take a licking and keep on ticking,” said Throckmorton, who recently retired from Grove City, where he taught psychology for decades. Reply Eric Drexil Holland says: December 2, 2023 at 11:45 am Jeremiah 44:18 is a prime example of interpreting history falsely. Jeremiah was right. The people were wrong. The two views represented here however, have the common distinction of BOTH being wrong. One side wants political power through revision. The other side wants immorality to be considered godly. Both of these views will lose in the end. Reply Loren Hass says: December 2, 2023 at 1:45 pm I call a foul! This is just a strawman argument. Reply Tom Parker says: December 2, 2023 at 6:50 pm Loren: I second your call of a foul. I think Eric knew exactly what he was doing with his comment. Reply Tom Parker says: December 2, 2023 at 6:49 pm Eric: I missed the part about immorality in this article unless you were referencing Barton. I see what you did with your comment. Reply George Arthiur says: December 2, 2023 at 3:32 pm One should assume that if just about everything in America has its variants the same must go for Christian Nationalism. I have too wonder if different groups argue with each other about how far they should go in their ideology and if those who differ from each other are considered heretics. Regardless of this observation I still consider the movent to be dangerous and apportions too much power to the wrong types of people who have bad motives. Reply Daniel Busetti says: December 2, 2023 at 9:59 pm The Christian home-schooling movement has many things that concern me. Near the top of the list is the connection to White Christian Nationalism via extremist ideology disguised as curriculum. The perpetual cry from the home-schoolers and their advocates is that public schools indoctrinate innocent children. People like Barton do the same thing. Reply Dr. Cynthia Norbeck says: December 3, 2023 at 11:04 am Public education in the United States has many things that concern me. Near the top of the list is its connection to powerful teachers’ unions that closed schools down during the inundation of COVID despite evidence children were the least likely to become infected. Instead of teaching, some “educators” went on vacation and enjoyed “working” from home for many months. Children suffered emotionally and in countless other ways as a result. Many are still far behind academically. Many graduating seniors cannot read and young children had to learn how to interpret social cues while wearing masks, a very difficult feat. Many young children also lost out on early vocabulary development due to imposed mask wearing. In my opinion, anyone who supports American public education in its current form is either woefully ignorant or incredibly blind. Home-schooling will continue to be the go-to alternative for parents who can juggle work with teaching their children. Except in very wealthy school districts, public school is no longer a viable option for parents who care about their kids and want them to succeed in the world. Reply Mike Walker says: December 3, 2023 at 4:08 pm Talk about revisionist history. Teachers suffered more than most professions during the pandemic, and many died as the result of exposure from the disease. Children might not have been as susceptible to severe Covid infections but before the vaccines were available, teachers — many of them with co-morbidities and/or over 50 — were literally putting their lives on the line by staying in the classroom. And far from teachers “enjoying” their time out of the classroom, many ended up quitting or retiring from the profession rather than put up with the additional stresses of teaching kids during the pandemic. Your accusations and total lack of empathy for teachers are an absolute disgrace, and have no basis in fact. Reply Daniel Busetti says: December 3, 2023 at 4:15 pm DR: None of your criticisms about public education are new. I could add several myself. What about the myth of local control? Or having textbooks controlled by a select few? However, you failed to address the home-schooling concern I raised which suggests you’re ok with indoctrinating their children in the ways of White Christian Nationalism. No need to deflect the valid criticism I raised. Reply Marin Heiskell says: December 3, 2023 at 4:15 pm Or perhaps those who support public education don’t have the money or resources for the alternative. Or perhaps they want to see their tax dollars actually work. 53% of my last property tax bill went to Chicago Public Schools (less than 25% went to the city), and I don’t even have kids in CPS. But I believe in the value of a quality foundational education for ALL regardless of income (the alternative is woeful), so I’m going to STAY updated, involved and supportive of CPS to do better by the kids and parents of my community. I have family members who homeschool their kids (and have made significant sacrifices to do so), and I do believe there needs to be a review of the curriculum. But like it or not, with so few classrooms AND home rooms teaching kids to critically think (because God forbid our kids develop informed opinions we disagree with), it’s safe to say most are being indoctrinated one way or the other. Reply Darren Jones says: December 4, 2023 at 9:23 am Mr. Busetti, as a homeschooling father myself who chooses the curriculum for my children, I would like more information about the books that you describe as “extremist ideology disguised as curriculum.” Could you please be more specific? Are there certain publishers or specific books that you would recommend I avoid? If you want to respond to me personally, you’re welcome to do so – deacon.darren.jones -at- gmail Reply Bonnie Becker says: December 4, 2023 at 4:58 pm I can help answer your question, Mr. Jones. I am a retired teacher (25+ years). Children’s books published by David Barton’s Wall Builders are ones I would avoid. I home-schooled my children for several years. I did use those books as supplemental material b/c I wanted my children to know that God is at work in all of history. I also pointed out things in them that I knew were incorrect or exaggerated. I haven’t seen material published by Bob Jones in a long time, but at the time I found those texts didn’t really present an accurate picture of US history either. Studies Weekly is another curriculum I would avoid b/c of its seeming support for slavery. Reply Daniel Busetti says: December 4, 2023 at 9:33 pm For example, Abeka: The History of the United States in Christian Perspective. The other popular homeschooling curriculum providers Accelerated Christian Education and Bob Jones University Press take a similar tack. I’m not a fan of The Guardian or The Washington Post because they are decidedly Progressive Left. However, these articles point out what I’m talking about by quoting textbooks. Would have been much better had they cited more specific textbooks by name. A little time spent using search engines will get you the information. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/12/right-wing-textbooks-teach-slavery-black-immigration and https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/12/23/how-christian-nationalism-seeped-into-home-schooling/ Reply Ralph Jesperson says: December 3, 2023 at 7:12 pm You got to love Throckmorton for fact checking a number of things we call Christian. The article forgot to mention his role in the exposing of Gospel for Asia as a scam. That ended up costing them over $100 million when they settled out of court which is no small accomplishment. Reply Gordon Jansma says: December 3, 2023 at 9:54 pm So let me get this straight ….we have the following: David Barton – Good marketer , poor historian College Professors – Good Historians, poor marketers…. So naturally, U.S. evangelicals go for the guy with the good marketing skills…. reminds me of mega churches and how they operate… Jefferson was a product of the Enlightenment… so of course he removed the virgin birth, miracles, atoning work of Christ, resurrection, etc. …from the Jefferson bible…that is expected… What is not expected, is all these white U.S. evangelicals who claim this country was founded on “Christian” values… You mean Jefferson’s values and …. How about these Christian values…. – The scores of enslaved black people in the various colonies… – The massive amount of smuggling in the Dutch Trade… – The terrorizing of people by “Patriots” who did not support the Cause… – The unwillingness of “Patriots” to pay even the smallest amount of taxes to the Crown…. I guess it is the same majority of U.S. White Evangelicals who love the current guy who goes around saying he is going to destroy his opposition like vermin… I guess not much has changed in 250 years…. Reply Brian Roden says: December 4, 2023 at 2:10 pm <> Same thing happens with pop theology books (Jonathan Cahn and the like). The really solid theological books are too often above the level of the average churchgoer, and the junk stuff gets marketed out the wazoo by Charisma and the like. Reply Dr. Cynth… truncated (16,332 more characters in archive)