Daniel Webster

WallBuilders Enlists Christopher Columbus & Reconstructionist Eidsmoe in Christian Nation Crusade

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thursday, 10/6/2011 1:03 pm

David Barton’s WallBuilders is tireless in pushing its “Christian nation” version of American history.   Today it encourages its supporters to “Celebrate Columbus Day!” and to read John Eidsmoe’s Columbus and Cortez: Conquerors for Christ.  

Eidsmoe is the Christian Reconstructionist cited by Michele Bachmann as her mentor and major influence.  He is also a colleague of Roy Moore, who lost his job as Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court when he refused to obey federal court orders to remove a Ten Commandments memorial he had installed in the state courthouse.

As we have reported, Eidsmoe believes that feminists “violate the normal order” that God put in place for husbands to head households, that “homosexuality invites the judgment of God upon all of society,” that gays will turn the military into a “cesspool of immorality,” and that public education is brainwashing students to believe in secularism and evolution.  Ryan Lizza recently reported that Eidsmoe was uninvited from a Tea Party event last year after addressing an event in Alabama commemorating Secession Day and telling an interviewer that it was the state’s “constitutional right to secede,” and that “Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun understood the Constitution better than did Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.”

Eidsmoe’s book on Columbus has an introduction by Peter Marshall, another “Christian Nation” advocate who served with Wallbuilders’ founder David Barton as an “expert” to Religious Right members of the Texas Board of Education pushing massive revisions to social science textbooks.  Marshall writes:

In his customary careful and thorough manner, John Eidsmoe has pierced through the obfuscating fog of twentieth-century humanist bias and judgments that have obscured the truth about two of the most controversial figures in American history, Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez. Using earlier sources, he has presented us with a well-researched, even-handed, and fair treatment of both their Christian motives for their incredible exploits, and the very real mistakes they made .This is a valuable contribution toward restoring a true Christian perspective on our American past.

WallBuilders’ Columbus Day email celebrates Columbus’ belief that he was being led by the Holy Spirit and complains that modern scholarship has denigrated Columbus specifically because of his religious motivation:

It is especially because of Columbus’ religious motivations and convictions that today he has become a villain for most modern educators and writers, who regularly attack and condemn him.

That echoes Eidsmoe’s book, which claims, “A scholarly desire to correct the historical record is not the primary reason [for modern criticism of Columbus]…No, the attack is directed toward values – biblical values and the Christian civilization that is based on biblical values.”

Eidsmoe writes:

The reason may of us find history boring is that we fail to see the sovereign hand of God at work as history unfolds. The way you look at history depends in large part upon your world view….For the Christian, history is, or should be, the unfolding of God’s plan for the human race. For the Christian, the discovery, exploration and settlement of the Western Hemisphere takes on a whole new dimension of meaning as God works through imperfect vessels like Columbus, Cortez….and others who bring salvation to the inhabitants of the Western world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

He decries the effort to “move this nation away from its Christian foundations” in order to “remake America into a secular or pagan society….If the Christian professions of Christopher Columbus and others can be proven insincere, if their deeds can be downplayed and their sins and shortcomings magnified, then this element of America’s Christian past can be discredited and set aside.”

Understanding Where Michele Bachmann Gets Her Extreme Views

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/8/2011 10:51 am

Ryan Lizza has a long profile in the new issue of The New Yorker in which he explains that "Bachmann's views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians" and that "her campaign is going to be a conversation about a set of beliefs more extreme than those of any American politician of her stature."

As Lizza explains, one of the people who played a key role in shaping Bachmann's views was John Eidsmoe, her professor at Oral Roberts Univeristy: 

At Oral Roberts, Bachmann worked for a professor named John Eidsmoe, who got her interested in the burgeoning homeschool movement. She helped him build a database of state homeschooling statutes, assisting his crusade to reverse laws that prevented parents from homeschooling their children. After that, Bachmann worked as Eidsmoe’s research assistant on his book “Christianity and the Constitution,” published in 1987.

Eidsmoe explained to me how the Coburn School of Law, in the years that Bachmann was there, wove Christianity into the legal curriculum. “Say we’re talking in criminal law, and we get to the subject of the insanity defense,” he said. “Well, Biblically speaking, is there such a thing as insanity and is it a defense for a crime? We might look back to King David when he’s captured by the Philistines and he starts frothing at the mouth, playing crazy and so on.” When Biblical law conflicted with American law, Eidsmoe said, O.R.U. students were generally taught that “the first thing you should try to do is work through legal means and political means to get it changed.”

“Christianity and the Constitution” is ostensibly a scholarly work about the religious beliefs of the Founders, but it is really a brief for political activism. Eidsmoe writes that America “was and to a large extent still is a Christian nation,” and that “our culture should be permeated with a distinctively Christian flavoring.” When I asked him if he believed that Bachmann’s views were fully consistent with the prevailing ideology at O.R.U. and the themes of his book, he said, “Yes.” Later, he added, “I do not know of any way in which they are not.”

Eidsmoe has stirred controversy. In 2005, he spoke at the national convention of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a defiantly pro-white, and anti-black, organization. (Eidsmoe says that he deeply despises racism, but that he will speak “to anyone.”) In Alabama last year, he addressed an event commemorating Secession Day and told an interviewer that it was the state’s “constitutional right to secede,” and that “Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun understood the Constitution better than did Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.” In April, 2010, he was disinvited from a Tea Party rally in Wausau, Wisconsin, because of these statements and appearances.

Bachmann has not, however, distanced herself, and she has long described her work for Eidsmoe as an important part of her résumé. This spring, she told a church audience in Iowa, “I went down to Oral Roberts University, and one of the professors that had a great influence on me was an Iowan named John Eidsmoe. He’s from Iowa, and he’s a wonderful man. He has theology degrees, he has law degrees, he’s absolutely brilliant. He taught me about so many aspects of our godly heritage.”

When Bachmann spoke at the Rediscover God In America conference in Iowa earlier this year, she prasied Eidsmoe for the influence he had on her:

She also pointedly praised David Barton, calling him "a gift to our nation":

So the next time Bachmann says something absurd and you wonder "where does she get these extreme ideas?" ... well, now you know.

GOP Congressmen Line-Up To Attend Ralph Reed's Conference

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 4/8/2011 5:11 pm

Leading Republicans have signed up to address the conference led by disgraced Religious Right activist Ralph Reed this summer in Washington. Following commitments by potential presidential candidates Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), numerous Republican congressmen are now confirmed to speak to Reed’s 2011 Conference and Strategy Briefing.

Reed, who also plans to speak alongside presidential candidate Herman Cain and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in Florida next week, has just announced a new list of speakers: Rep. Allen West (R-FL); Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO); Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX); Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL); Rep. Tom Price (R-GA); Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX); Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA); Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC).

The freshmen Congressmen slated to speak are strongly tied to the Religious Right: West’s anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric has made him a darling of leaders like Pat Robertson; Hartzler has consistently fought against gay rights in both Congress and Missouri, and even wrote a book about tips for Religious Right activists running for office; Webster is a Christian Reconstructionist and close to David Barton and Phyllis Schlafly, and Mulvaney was a legislative leader of the far-right Palmetto Family Council.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 10/26/2010 5:56 pm

And This Helps ... How? Schlafly Pens Statement of Support for Webster

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 9/30/2010 5:30 pm

You really have to wonder at the logic behind Daniel Webster's attempts to fight back/capitalize on Rep. Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad.

First, he goes on Bryan Fischer's radio program right after Fischer pens a long explanation about how how Christian women have an obligation to God to submit to their husbands:

Marriage is not and can never be a democracy. Somebody has to have the tie-breaking vote when the poll reveals a one-to-one tie. In a Christian marriage, the husband is the tie breaker. The way it is designed to work is that a wife willingly defers to her husband on those rare occasions when they cannot agree on a course of action, and the husband makes the decision that his conscience tells him is best, not for himself, but for her, their marriage, and their home.

If a husband believes before God that the best decision in a given situation is different than the one his wife prefers, he does not order her to follow him, he asks her. The decision is then up to her. He's not forcing her to do anything. He leaves the issue squarely where it belongs, between her and her God.

If you have a problem with a Christian view of marriage, fine. Don't become a Christian then.

And then the Webster rolls out a statement from Phyllis Schlafly of all people:

The Webster campaign released a statement from Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly praising Webster’s stances on marriage and abortion. Schlafly said that Grayson’s “outdated reference to ‘women’s issues’ insults women by assuming that women’s only political concerns are abortion and divorce.”

Schlafly just happens to believe that "by getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape":

Could you clarify some of the statements that you made in Maine last year about martial rape?

I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That's what marriage is all about, I don't know if maybe these girls missed sex ed. That doesn't mean the husband can beat you up, we have plenty of laws against assault and battery. If there is any violence or mistreatment that can be dealt with by criminal prosecution, by divorce or in various ways. When it gets down to calling it rape though, it isn't rape, it's a he said-she said where it's just too easy to lie about it.

Was the way in which your statement was portrayed correct?

Yes. Feminists, if they get tired of a husband or if they want to fight over child custody, they can make an accusation of marital rape and they want that to be there, available to them.

So you see this as more of a tool used by people to get out of marriages than as legitimate-

Yes, I certainly do.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 9/29/2010 5:32 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 4/7/2010 5:48 pm
  • Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann paired up for a campaign event today in Minnesota.  Somehow the universe did not implode.

  • The AFA's Don Wildmon will be a featured guest at the Florida Family Policy Council's 5th Annual Policy Awards Dinner where he will receive the FFPC's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Daniel Webster Award for Principled Service to Public Policy.

  • For some reason, Phyllis Schlafly is really focused on preventing a second Constitutional Convention. Is anybody calling for a second Constitutional Convention?

  • Peter LaBarber hops aboard Matt Barber's "the Left is just like Fred Phelps" bandwagon.

  • Thomas Sowell accuses President Obama of exploiting polarization, just like what happened in Rwanda.

  • Finally, it seems appropriate that Alan Keyes will be speaking at Tea Party rally that will be held at the Nutter Center.

When Immigration Law and Christian Victimization Collide

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 3/17/2009 4:30 pm

One of the things that has fascinated me most about the Religious Right's crusade to convince themselves that Christians are under relentless attack is how seemingly random things, when they happen to Christians, become evidence of the overall conspiracy.

Last week I noted this tendency in relation to the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission's response to the recent murder of a pastor in Illinois, when it claimed that the act was proof that "anti-Christian hostility is reaching a new, more violent level" despite the fact that there appears to be absolutely no evidence that the gunman was motivated by "anti-Christian hostility."

On a related, but less violent, note comes this article explaining that the United Kingdom changed its immigration laws last year and the new changes are causing some confusion for travelers:

"All migrants, not just charity workers, coming to the U.K. to work or study require a Certificate of Sponsorship," said a U.K. Border Agency spokesman. "Anyone without this certificate and the right visa will be refused entry."

Daniel Webster, parliamentary officer for the London-based Evangelical Alliance, said the regulations were introduced in response to illegal immigration and the increased threat of terrorism. But the complicated rules have left many ministers confused.

Inevitably, some Christians were among those confused about the new rules and found themselves denied entry which, in turn, leads to article like this where people voice disbelief that anyone would dare to deny entry to Christians and see it as evidence that "Christians have to operate under the radar all over the world":

A prominent Christian musician and a team of college-age missionaries were recently deported from the United Kingdom under new immigration rules that require religious workers to be sponsored by a licensed organization and obtain visas to enter the country.

In early March, Colorado-based singer Don Francisco was denied entrance into London and a Master's Commission team from Arkansas was deported from Scotland because immigration officials said they needed work visas under new regulations introduced in November.

"One of the things that has been said to me over the last few days is that Christians have to operate under the radar all over the world," said Judy Littler Manners, a Christian leader based London. "But this is the first time they may be forced to do it in this country."

Francisco was scheduled to participate in the Christian musical Why Good Friday, which includes 10 of his songs. But when he arrived at Heathrow Airport on March 2, he was detained, fingerprinted and escorted onto a flight back to the U.S., because immigration officials said he lacked the proper paperwork.

"I felt like they were looking for reason to keep me out," said Francisco, who has traveled throughout the U.K. for 30 years without incident.

The UK has regulations covering all sorts of visitors, students, and workers and explanations of what must be done in order to gain entry and obviously these travelers did not comply and were, for that reason, sent back home.

That may be unfortunate, but it is not evidence of anti-Christian bias or some nefarious agenda to inconvenience Christians.

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Daniel Webster Posts Archive

WallBuilders Enlists Christopher Columbus & Reconstructionist Eidsmoe in Christian Nation Crusade
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Thursday 10/06/2011, 1:03pm
David Barton’s WallBuilders is tireless in pushing its “Christian nation” version of American history.   Today it encourages its supporters to “Celebrate Columbus Day!” and to read John Eidsmoe’s Columbus and Cortez: Conquerors for Christ.   Eidsmoe is the Christian Reconstructionist cited by Michele Bachmann as her mentor and major influence.  He is also a colleague of Roy Moore, who lost his job as Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court when he refused to obey federal court orders to remove a Ten Commandments memorial he had... MORE >
Understanding Where Michele Bachmann Gets Her Extreme Views
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 08/08/2011, 10:51am
Ryan Lizza has a long profile in the new issue of The New Yorker in which he explains that "Bachmann's views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians" and that "her campaign is going to be a conversation about a set of beliefs more extreme than those of any American politician of her stature." As Lizza explains, one of the people who played a key role in shaping Bachmann's views was John Eidsmoe, her professor at Oral Roberts Univeristy:  At Oral Roberts, Bachmann worked for a professor... MORE >
GOP Congressmen Line-Up To Attend Ralph Reed's Conference
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 04/08/2011, 5:11pm
Leading Republicans have signed up to address the conference led by disgraced Religious Right activist Ralph Reed this summer in Washington. Following commitments by potential presidential candidates Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), numerous Republican congressmen are now confirmed to speak to Reed’s 2011 Conference and Strategy Briefing. Reed, who also plans to speak alongside presidential candidate Herman Cain and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in Florida next week, has just announced a new list of speakers: Rep. Allen West (R-FL); Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO); Rep.... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 10/26/2010, 5:56pm
Brady Swenson @ RH Reality Check: The Assassination of Dr. Tiller. Alvin McEwen: Why can't the religious right stop denigrating gay suicide victims? Bruce Wilson @ Talk To Action: Grayson Foe Daniel Webster Credits Success To "Hedge of Thorns" Prayer. Nick Baumann @ Mother Jones: The Ken Buck Rape Case. George Zornick @ Think Progress: GOP Senate Candidate Ken Buck: ‘I Disagree Strongly With The Concept Of Separation Of Church And State.’ PFAW: New TV Ad Asks: “Who’s Controlling Ken Buck?” MORE >
And This Helps ... How? Schlafly Pens Statement of Support for Webster
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 09/30/2010, 5:30pm
You really have to wonder at the logic behind Daniel Webster's attempts to fight back/capitalize on Rep. Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad. First, he goes on Bryan Fischer's radio program right after Fischer pens a long explanation about how how Christian women have an obligation to God to submit to their husbands: Marriage is not and can never be a democracy. Somebody has to have the tie-breaking vote when the poll reveals a one-to-one tie. In a Christian marriage, the husband is the tie breaker. The way it is designed to work is that a wife willingly defers to her husband on those... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 09/29/2010, 5:32pm
It looks like Meg Whitman may have something of a nanny problem. David Vitter's opponent wants to remind everyone that the Senator had a thing for prostitutes. CNS apparently thought Matt Barber's latest gay-bashing column was so good that it should be re-run by them. Oh no, the Media Research Center has declared war on the media. Christine O'Donnell will not quit her Senate race because God won't let her. What on earth is going on with this assistant attorney general in Michigan? James O'Keefe sinks even lower, if that is even possible. Finally, be... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 04/07/2010, 5:48pm
Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann paired up for a campaign event today in Minnesota.  Somehow the universe did not implode. The AFA's Don Wildmon will be a featured guest at the Florida Family Policy Council's 5th Annual Policy Awards Dinner where he will receive the FFPC's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Daniel Webster Award for Principled Service to Public Policy. For some reason, Phyllis Schlafly is really focused on preventing a second Constitutional Convention. Is anybody calling for a second Constitutional Convention? Peter LaBarber hops aboard Matt Barber's... MORE >
When Immigration Law and Christian Victimization Collide
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 03/17/2009, 4:30pm
One of the things that has fascinated me most about the Religious Right's crusade to convince themselves that Christians are under relentless attack is how seemingly random things, when they happen to Christians, become evidence of the overall conspiracy.Last week I noted this tendency in relation to the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission's response to the recent murder of a pastor in Illinois, when it claimed that the act was proof that "anti-Christian hostility is reaching a new, more violent level" despite the fact that there appears to be absolutely no evidence that the... MORE >