As we have noted several times in recent weeks, David Barton has a problem accurately reporting on contemporary issues that are easily verifiable, which calls into question his reliability, especially when it comes to the pseudo-history he uses to promote his political agenda.
And he did the same thing again today on his “WallBuilders Live” program where he read from his recent “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President” document about President Obama, which he claimed represented a “Declaration of Independence[-like] chain of abuses,” as he asserted that the Department of Veterans Affairs under Obama had banned mentions of God and Jesus during funerals:
2011: the Department of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial [ceremonies] at Houston National Cemetery.
I’m sorry. You may be buried there as a veteran, but the government is not running your funeral. You have other people come and do your funeral but the government is saying that since you’re being buried on Veteran land, your preacher, your rabbi, your priest can’t use Jesus or God during the funeral ceremony.
Really? At your own funeral? It’s my husband, it’s my brother, it’s my uncle, somebody being buried and I can’t use Jesus or God? No, you can’t.
That is, of course, entirely false. As we pointed out last year, the Bush administration instituted a policy in 2007 that “prohibits volunteer honor guards from reading recitations — including religious ones — in their funeral rituals, unless families specifically request them.” In essence, the policy stated that volunteer groups were not allowed to attend military funerals and inject their religion in to it unless their presence is requested by the family. Conversely, if a family does want to included such prayers in the service, they have every right to so.
Nobody was being told that there could be no mention of God or Jesus during a funeral … but, as with so many other issues, Barton portrayed the issue in an utterly misleading manner in order to promote his right-wing political agenda.
