David Barton

Wow, things do not seem to be going very well for David Barton at the moment.  First he's reduced to filing lawsuits against Texas Board of Education candidates and a blogger and now comes news, via Warren Throckmorton, that Barton's radio show has been dropped due to his on-going defense of Glenn Beck:

The Moody Broadcast Network station in East Texas, KBJS-FM canceled David Barton’s Wallbuilders Live radio program during the show yesterday while Barton was discussing Glenn Beck’s religious beliefs. Randy Featherstone, KBJS manager, said the show was dropped due to Barton’s failure to distinguish between Mormon theology and Christianity.

“When David Barton said it doesn’t matter whether you are a Mormon or a Baptist or a Methodist, we felt we had to do something,” Featherstone explained.

On the Tuesday program, Barton played audio of Glenn Beck saying that “the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer.” Then Barton said he believed that Beck was a Christian based on his statement of belief and “his fruits,” meaning his good deeds. Based on Beck’s statements, Barton then asked co-host Rick Green, “Glenn says he’s Mormon. Ok, that’s fine. Based on what you heard, if you heard a Baptist say that or if you heard a Methodist say that…what would you say?” After Green answered that Beck’s testimony indicated a real conversion, Barton responded, “Why is it not a real conversion because of the label he wears?”

Throughout the program, Barton dismissed Beck’s Mormonism, saying at one point, “I don’t care what label Beck wears. I don’t care what Glenn thinks Mormon means.” Barton also asserted that Beck uses the same Bible, but added, “Now he may use the Book of Mormon, we never talked about the Book of Mormon.”

Featherstone added that the station received many calls during the broadcast with callers who objected to Barton’s views. All but two callers supported the decision of the station to drop the show.

Some callers also complained that Barton misuses history and “takes facts out of context” to create a false impression about the Constitution and founding of the nation, according to Featherstone.

Featherstone said the station did not take the action lightly, saying “I like a lot of what Barton has to say, but we don’t want to confuse listeners into thinking that Mormon doctrine and Christianity are the same.”

As Throckmorton notes, Barton dedicated most of yesterday's program to pushing back against criticism from people like Brannon Howse that Barton has been working with Beck to promote the latter's spiritual endeavors despite the fact that Beck is a Mormon. 

Barton has long insisted that even though Beck calls himself a Mormon, he is really a Christian and he even posted a long defense of this on his Facebook page yesterday asserting that regardless of what label Beck wears, he is a Christian in his heart.

But apparently the folks running KBJS aren't buying that defense and decided to stop carrying Barton's daily radio program.

Yesterday David Barton dedicated his "Wallbuilders Live" rado program yesterday to addressing various criticisms he has been received, among them allegations that he has spoken at events hosted by racist and anti-Semitic groups.

As we noted in our post, Barton stated that he had been forced to file defamation lawsuits to protect his reputation. And, according to The Weatherford Democrat, that is exactly what he has done:

David Barton of Aledo-based WallBuilders has filed a libel and defamation law suit against an Internet writer and two former Texas State Board of Education candidates.

Barton is alleging public policy opponents have falsely painted him as a white supremacist sympathizer and liar.

The suit unspecified damages from the three defendants for allegedly exposing Barton and WallBuilders to “public hatred, contempt, ridicule, financial injury and impeaching [Barton’s] honesty, integrity and virtue.”

The suit alleges Barton has been subjected to a loss of business because of the false statements.

The article reports that Barton has filed suit against two Democratic Texas State Board of Education candidates over YouTube video that asserted that Barton was "known for speaking at white supremacist rallies" and an Examiner.com writer who asserted that Barton is "an admitted liar."

One thing that has dogged David Barton for years are allegations from the Anti-Defamation League that he had spoken at events hosted by racist and anti-Semitic groups:

On at least two occasions, Barton has delivered his revisionist presentation in the meeting halls of the racist and anti-Semitic extreme right. In July 1991, Barton addressed the Colorado summer retreat of Scriptures for America, the Identity Church group headed by firebrand Pete Peters. He was advertised as "a new and special speaker" who would "bring the following messages: America's Godly Heritage -- Was it the plan of our forefathers that America be the melting pot home of various religions and philosophies? ..." Barton's fellow-speakers at the retreat included the virulently anti-Semitic Virginia stockbroker-polemicist Richard Kelly Hoskins; "Bo" Gritz, the 1992 presidential nominee of the far-right Populist Party and a self-described "white separatist"; and Canadian Holocaust-denier Malcolm Ross.

On November 24, 1991, Barton appeared at another Identity gathering, presenting the second annual Thanksgiving message to Identity preacher Mike Watson's Kingdom Covenant College in Grants Pass, Oregon. In a subsequent edition of The Centinel [sic], Watson's publication, Barton was described as a "nationally acclaimed speaker" who "has introduced many Americans to their godly Christian heritage.

On today's episode of "Wallbuilders Live," Barton and Rick Green addressed these allegations, but did so in typically Barton-esque manner in which they didn't actually address the specific claims. 

Instead, Barton and Green asserted that there may have been people in the audience who held such views, but that there was no way that Barton could be held responsible for that and saying that Barton has been forced to file defamation suits to prevent people from spreading these claims:

Green: Just because you might have a crazy sitting in the audience at one of the events you've spoke at - and you've done, I don't know, ten thousand where you've spoken over the last twenty years - somehow that makes you associated to a Nazi. I could go find a nutcase in any audience in America anywhere.

Barton: And that's assuming that I knew they were there to start with. You know, I walk up and there's a crowd already sitting there, I talk to the crowd, I walk off, leave and go to the next event. I don't know who has the time to go through and find a nut somewhere that's a racist or anti-Semitic and say "oh, Barton spoke to an anti-Semite "... well, yeah, that's real possible. I don't know who else I spoke to either because I don't have an FBI background check on every person that comes to an event.

Green: And somehow they take that and extrapolate ...

Barton: And by the way, I'm not even sure they're accurate in that anyway. That's what they claim and I don't think it makes a difference whether it's truthful or not; that's designed to scare people off from us.

Green: And the only reason I assume there is someone like that in every audience is there's probably someone like that in every church audience.

Barton: That's human nature.

Green: But to take that and then label you with it, as if you're now the anti-Semite, you're the one that's a Nazi, you're the one that's a white supremacist, it's unbelievable.

Barton: I speak at white supremacist rallies, even.

Green: But I know why they do it. They do it because they know that by throwing out that label, now all of a sudden that supposedly puts you in this box and people won't listen to what you really believe and what you really say.

Barton: And that's one of the things where you do what to try to defend your reputation some ...

Green: And, in fact, you've had to do it. You've had to file defamation suits against people who are saying this stuff because it's so blatantly false.

Barton: And, by the way, I'm considered a public figure. I mean, we do this, I speak everywhere publicly, I'm seen on national TV, etc ... So for me to even think about doing a defamation suit is really way the heck over what most people would be able to do anyway.

David Barton joined televangelist Kenneth Copeland last year for a video series called “Choose Life and The Blessing” where the two discussed how voters earn either God’s blessing or wrath depending on who they support. Barton and Copeland agreed that voting for candidates who support LGBT equality are asking for punishment from God, and also insisted that gay people simply do not exist because homosexuality is not innate.

Copeland grouped gays and lesbians with murderers and thieves, saying that God would never create people to be gay in the same way God would never create people to kill others. Barton concurred and claimed that “science just got changed this year” with the issue of so-called “ex-gays,” which he says “has changed the entire psychological, psychiatric world.” According to Barton, “science has now figured out, ‘you know God was right,’” and that people can ‘leave’ homosexuality and become heterosexual.

Barton has been known to promote ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy and has argued that gay rights are “impossible.” Despite Barton’s contention, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychiatric Association all deny the efficacy, safety and science of reparative therapy.

Watch:

Copeland: God has never, ever created anybody to be something He has already condemned.

Barton: That’s right, that’s exactly right.

Copeland: He didn’t create anybody to be a murderer, He condemned murder. He didn’t create anybody a homosexual, ’cause He condemned homosexuality. He never create anybody to be a thief because he condemned stealing.

Barton: I gotta jump on this because I want everybody to know this because it doesn’t get publicized. This thing about He didn’t create someone to be a homosexual, what about that homosexual gene? I will tell you that the science will always catch up with the Bible, it may not appear to be right it will always catch up, it always has, always will. We now have a study out in the last few months called “ex-gays,” and it is significant, it has changed the entire psychological, psychiatric world, because it documents authoritatively people who were homosexuals who no longer were. Now on the secular side they’ve been saying ‘oh there’s nothing you can do about it, you were born that way, that’s you’re nature,’ well if that’s true you can’t have ex-gays. That’s like being an ex-black or an ex-white or an ex-whatever.

So what it has done, science has now figured out, ‘you know God was right.’ So when you said that about you know God didn’t create you to be a homosexual, they’ll say, ‘well wait a minute science says,’ well science doesn’t say that anymore. Science just got changed this year to match what the Bible’s been telling us all along, and that’s why you always stick with the Bible, science will catch up with the Bible.

Christine O'Donnell was the guest on "Wallbuilders Live" today where she spent most of the program complaining about how mean everyone was.  But before getting to that, she revealed that it was a presentation that David Barton delivered to her church that inspired her to get involved in politics:

O'Donnell: Thank you for having me, Rick. And I just want to know what an influence Wallbuilders have played in my own life. In the early nineties, when I first returned to the church, returned to the Lord, David Barton came to speak at the church I was attending and ti was just such an inspirational message and it really helped me know that this political longing, these leanings, that I was beginning to experience were in the right direction. So ...

Rick Green: I love it.

O'Donnell: You guys are doing amazing work and I thank you for that.

Barton has also been a huge inspiration to Michele Bachmann as well.

Even though he’s busy suing Rachel Maddow for $50 million for slander against anti-gay extremist Bradlee Dean, Larry Klayman took time last week to attend Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem and is now the former Fox News host’s praises. Beck partnered with right-wing leaders including John Hagee, David Barton and Mat Staver for “Restoring Courage,” which Beck dubbed a “planet course-altering” event. Fewer than 5,000 people ended up attending the rally, and Beck didn’t exactly win over his host country – a few days before he was forced to backtrack from his criticism of an Israeli social justice protest movement that is supported by 88% of Israelis.

Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch, writes in Renew America that Beck’s rally was needed because “our pro-Muslim President Barack Hussein Obama” backed the Arab Spring. He goes on to attack not only President Obama but also his Jewish advisers and supporters: “Barack Hussein Obama, no matter how many apologists come to his defense, is bent on Islamic rule in the Middle East, and he and the self-hating Jews he surrounds himself with are dangerous. So, too, are many other liberal Jews who have forsaken their proud heritage and will not stand up and fight for their own people”:

So it came to pass that Glenn pulled off a magnificent spectacle, bringing Christians and Jews from all parts of the globe together to show their courage in supporting Israel.

Israel, thanks to the so-called "Arab Spring" so welcomed by our pro-Muslim President Barack Hussein Obama, is now surrounded by Arab states, like Egypt, that are even more hostile to the Jewish and Christian people. The Jewish state needs courageous "citizen soldiers" to support and fight for it. For if Israel is destroyed, the United States and the West will no longer have a vital democratic ally in the Middle East to serve as a check to radical Islam — thus also protecting our supply of oil — and our own heritage will be forever lost.

Let's be blunt. God gave this land to the Jews and by extension to all Christians. The followers of Jesus Christ were largely His fellow Jews, and we are one as a people. I am a Zionist and so, too, is anyone who takes the Bible and our God seriously. Israel is our land, and we must protect it.

This was the theme of Glenn's event, and it resonated not only around Israel but the entire world — as it was broadcast and reported in over 100 countries. Israelis especially took heart — having been chastened by what they perceive to be an American president they view overwhelmingly as not only anti-Semitic, but also hostile, in an underhanded way, to their right to exist. Barack Hussein Obama, no matter how many apologists come to his defense, is bent on Islamic rule in the Middle East, and he and the self-hating Jews he surrounds himself with are dangerous. So, too, are many other liberal Jews who have forsaken their proud heritage and will not stand up and fight for their own people. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, in praising Glenn's event — Dershowitz himself a liberal Jew — also said as much in a recent article. But that is not the case with conservative-minded Jews and especially evangelical Christians, who are the biggest supporters of the Jewish people and Israel.

Today on WallBuilders Live, David Barton and co-host Rick Green trumpeted their opposition to gay rights and reproductive rights, as Barton previously argued that God will hold you accountable if you vote for a pro-equality or pro-choice candidate. During the program, Barton tried to distinguish calls for LGBT rights from the abolitionist and civil rights movement. He contends that while the opposition to slavery and segregation was based in the Bible, simplifying a complicated history of racism in America as defenders of slavery and segregation frequently cited the Bible, advocates of LGBT equality are actually violating the laws of God. “I’m sorry, you’re sexual choice is not a God-given right,” Barton said, “You’re talking about a choice and you’re talking about elevating a choice to an inalienable right, which is impossible, you can’t, not under the definition of American documents.”

Barton goes on to say that because there is no species composed entirely of homosexuals that can survive, homosexuality is not a natural right: “When you find homosexuality in nature, it is an aberration, there is no homosexual group in nature that survives, it can’t, it simply can’t, in nature it happens but it’s always an aberration. What is normal is heterosexual, and that is a law of nature and it’s a law of nature’s God.”

Barton later asserts that poverty doesn’t contribute to a higher abortion rate, asking, “is it not the attitude that leads to poverty that also allows abortion and everything else? Is it poverty that causes abortion or is it an attitude?” He claims that there is a “spiritual solution” to poverty and abortion because people of faith do not “choose to live in poverty.” Barton contends that once poor people change their humanistic attitude that tolerates abortion, poverty will end:

If you choose not to advance your life, not to work your tail off, work three or four or five jobs or whatever it takes, if you choose to stay in that lifestyle is that not an indication of an attitude and therefore an attitude, ‘I don’t care about life I don’t care about anything but me, I’m the only thing I care about,’ and that’s why you stay in poverty. Therefore, it’s not a matter that if you eliminate poverty you’re going to eliminate abortion, you got to eliminate the attitude that keeps somebody in poverty and that goes back to a spiritual solution.

David Barton dedicated today’s program of WallBuilders Live to discuss a case in Texas where a woman was convicted of causing injury to a child. “It was her daughter's grandmother who noticed red marks on the child’s rear end, and took her to Driscoll Children's Hospital to be checked out,” reports the local NBC affiliate KZTV, saying the mother “plead guilty to the charge after reaching an agreement with prosecutors.” The office of the state’s Attorney General explains that “corporal punishment can be extremely damaging and dangerous, and this is what the law prohibits as abuse,” and local prosecutors and courts have discretion in handling such cases.

Barton argues that a judge had no right to convict her because, he explained, the Bible justifies and even encourages spanking. He claims that if anything parents should spank their children not with their hands but with “belts or hairbrushes, or they can use a paddle or whatever it is,” because “always in the Bible discipline is with a rod, it’s not with a hand.” Barton goes on to say “we do the same thing with horses,” saying spanking children is like beating horses with a rod or crop.

The right-wing pseudo-historian blames evolution as the culprit for the diminishment of spanking, maintaining that the application of evolution already ruined our understanding of the Constitution, science, and history, and is now set to destroy traditional parenting:

Barton: Always in the Bible, discipline is with a rod, it’s not with a hand. ’Cause the hand is supposed to reach out in love, you don’t want kids flinching from your hand. We do the same thing with horses. When I reach my hand to the face of a horse, I don’t want to flinch him from my hand. So if I have to beat a horse, and occasionally I do, you take something like a switch or a little crop or something else. And you can’t hurt a horse, I mean you can, but you have to convince a 1,200 lbs horse that me at 150 lbs is tougher than you and you do that by training. But when I extend my hand to my horse he doesn’t run from my hand, now he may not like that crop if he sees it, but after he’s had it a few time he’ll do exactly what I want, we have no difficulty, that’s why you also use spurs at times.

So the deal with spanking with hands, that’s why you really don’t want to do that you want to use something else so your hand is always associated with love and tenderness and reaching out to kids, there’s nothing to flinch, so people use belts or hairbrushes, or they can use a paddle or whatever it is.

…

When you say something ‘your yea’s should be yeas, your nay’s nays,’ say something, if they don’t follow through, no anger needed, there’s just a penalty to pay for it. A consequence.

So, you get this thing where we have now moved into applying evolution to parenting. Now we’ve already applied evolution to the Constitution, we’ve applied evolution to science, we’ve applied evolution to history, that’s why we don’t teach history, we teach culture. Not any of the of the fifty major universities in America, elite universities require any course in history, they all teach culture, not history. So we’ve applied evolution. Now we’re applying evolution to parenting, and ‘you don’t spank.’

Wait a minute, the Bible says I do. You mean we evolved past the Bible? That’s what you getting. As you can tell I’m exercised over this one.

Like Michele Bachmann, David Barton also sat down for an interview with George Barna to discuss "Faith In Politics" a few months back.  During the discussion, Barna asked Barton how America would be different if people actually followed the teaching of Jesus, to which Barton explained that everything from our economic to our foreign policy would be drastically different and that public schools would start the day off with prayer because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" and the government would stop helping the poor:

Barna: How do you think the political and governmental system in our country if Christians actually followed the teaching of Christ?

Barton: Everything from foreign policy to economics - I mean, if we apply biblical teachings, we would stay out of debt ... Debt is bad in the Bible ... Our economic system would be totally different. We would have a different educational system. We believe the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Just something as simple as a prayer at the beginning of the day and, as you and other document, we're looking at about 75-80% of the nation still wants prayer to start a school day. I mean, it's not that our values are weak, it's just that we don't have the opportunity to express what most of the nation wants.

So education would be different, economics would be different, social policy would be different, the role of the church in what's called "social justice." I mean there are 205 verses in the Bible that talk about helping the poor, the government is only told to do one thing and that is when the poor come into court, make sure they get justice. Every other verse tells the church and tells individuals to take care of the poor. We would have a whole different look at so many things and be so much more effective.