Talk:David Barton (author)/Archive 3

Draft of Proposed Changes
I am the subject of this page. I posted edits that were immediately rejected because of potential COI. I would like an editor to review these proposed neutralizing edits:

David Barton (born January 28, 1954 in Aledo, Texas) is an evangelical Christian political activist and author. He is the founder of WallBuilders, LLC, a Texas-based organization that promotes the religious basis of the United States. **(My work is widely-received and there is no standard for "unorthodox" except adding bias to the article)

He has been described as a Christian nationalist and "one of the foremost Christian revisionist historians"; much of his work is devoted to advancing the idea that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation and rejecting the consensus view that the United States Constitution calls for separation of church and state.[1][2][3][4] Scholars of history and law have described his research as highly flawed, "pseudoscholarship" and spreading "outright falsehoods".[5][6][7][8][9] ***Neutralize this line to counter other scholars who have praised my research, having only the attack line creates a bias Barton is the former vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas and served as director of Keep the Promise PAC, a political action committee that supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Texas senator Ted Cruz. [11]**unsuccessful is unneccesary and show bias

Early life

Barton is a lifelong resident of Aledo, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He graduated from Aledo High School in 1972.[1] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University in 1976.[12]

Career

After graduating from college, Barton served as a church youth director.[13] He taught math and science and eventually became principal at Aledo Christian School, a ministry of the Bible church started by Barton's parents.[1][14][15]**their church is a Bible church, not a charismatic church. This is a factual error In 1987 Barton formed Specialty Research Associates, Inc., a company which states that it "focuses on the historical research of issues relating to America's constitutional, moral, and religious heritage." Specialty Research Associates has submitted amicus curiae briefs in court cases.[16][17][18] Barton is the founder and president of the Aledo-based group WallBuilders.[19] WallBuilders publishes and sells most of Barton's books and videos, some of which present Barton's position that the modern view of separation of church and state is not consistent with the views of the Founders.[20] Barton has argued that the religion clauses of the First Amendment were not intended to include such faiths as Paganism and Witchcraft, but only monotheistic religions, and perhaps solely Christianity.[21] A 2005 Time magazine article entitled "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals" called Barton "a major voice in the debate over church–state separation" who, despite the fact that "many historians dismiss his thinking... [is] a hero to millions—including some powerful politicians."[22] Barton has appeared on television and radio programs, including those of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck. Beck has praised Barton as "the Library of Congress in shoes".[23] In September 2013, POLITICO reported that he has returned to the political arena and is advising state legislators on how to fight the Common Core academic standards promoted by the Obama administration.[24]

Barton is a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party under state chairman Susan Weddington. He has also acted as a political consultant to the Republican National Committee on outreach to evangelicals.[22][25][26] There was a Tea Party movement to get him to run against Senator John Cornyn in the 2014 Senate election from Texas.[27] However, Barton announced on November 6, 2013, that he would not run for the seat.[28] Barton headed the Keep the Promise PAC, a political action committee supporting Ted Cruz during his campaign for election as U.S. President in 2016.[11] Cruz failed to receive the Republican nomination.[10]

Barton's first non-self-published work was a 2003 article in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, (Volume XVII Issue No. 2, 2003, p. 399), a survey of Jefferson's writings about the First Amendment.[1]

Fringe views

Barton's official biography describes him as "an expert in historical and constitutional issues".[29] Barton holds no formal credentials in history or law, and scholars dispute the accuracy and integrity of his assertions about history, accusing him of practicing misleading historical revisionism, "pseudoscholarship" and spreading "outright falsehoods".[6][7][8][9] According to the New York Times, "Many professional historians dismiss Mr. Barton, whose academic degree is in Christian Education from Oral Roberts University, as a biased amateur who cherry-picks quotes from history and the Bible."[5] Barton's 2012 book The Jefferson Lies was voted "the least credible history book in print" by the users of the History News Network website--an award created only to discredit the book (**this fact needs to be included otherwise very misleading).[30] The book's publisher, Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson, disavowed the book and withdrew it from sale. A senior executive said that Thomas Nelson could not stand by the book because "basic truths just were not there."[24] Affiliations

Barton serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.[31] This curriculum contains direct quotations from Barton's books, recommends the resources published by WallBuilders, and advocates showing that group's video, Foundations of American Government, at the beginning of the course.[32]

Barton serves on the board of advisors of the Providence Foundation.[33] In an article discussing Barton, The Nation described the Providence Foundation as "a Christian Reconstructionist group that promotes the idea that biblical law should be instituted in America."[34] **removed line on Myth of the Separation because this book has been out of publication for a couple decades

According to Skipp Porteous of the Massachusetts-based Institute for First Amendment Studies, Barton was listed in promotional literature as a "new and special speaker" at a 1991 summer retreat in Colorado sponsored by Scriptures for America, a far-right Christian Identity ministry headed by Pastor Pete Peters, which has been linked to neo-Nazi groups.[36] Barton's assistant Kit Marshall said in 1993 that Barton was previously unaware of the anti-Semitic and racist views of these groups.[37][38] In September 2011, Barton sued two former Texas State Board of Education candidates for posting a video on YouTube that stated that he was "known for speaking at white supremacist rallies".[39]

Barton is a lecturer for Glenn Beck's online Beck University.[40]

Time included Barton in its list of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America".[41] He has been a frequent guest on Trinity Broadcasting Network, including the "American Heritage Series" in 2007 and the "Building on the American Heritage Series" in 2011.[42] Barton has also appeared on the The 700 Club,[43] and The Daily Show.[44]

Barton's 2013 appearance on Kenneth Copeland's "Believer's Voice of Victory" received wider attention when Barton made statements linking abortion and climate change.[45][46][47]

Reception of Barton's work

Barton has been praised by U.S. conservatives Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann[5] and Sam Brownback.[48]

He has received criticism from others, including J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty,[49] Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State,[50] Gordon College History professor Stephen Phillips,[51] Senator Arlen Specter,[6] The Anti-Defamation League,[52] Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation Chris Rodda,[53] Messiah College history professor John Fea[54][55] Baylor University historian Barry Hankins,[56] and Grove City College professors Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter.[57]

Jay W. Richards, senior fellow at the Christian conservative Discovery Institute, said in 2012 that Barton's books and videos are full of "embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims."[58] The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Barton's work as "anti-gay" "historical revisionism", noting that Barton has no formal training in history.[59] A number of writers have called Barton's work "pseudohistory",[60][61][62] though this designation has been disputed.[63]

"Unconfirmed Quotations"

In 1995, in response to criticism by historian Robert Alley, Barton conceded, in an online article titled "Unconfirmed Quotations",[1] that he had not located primary sources for 11 alleged quotes from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions (hence, the title of the article), but maintained that the quotes were "completely consistent" with the views of the Founders. (By 2007, the article listed 14 unconfirmed quotations.)[64] In 1996, Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Barton of "shoddy workmanship", and said that despite these and other corrections, Barton's work "remains rife with distortions of history and court rulings".[65] WallBuilders responded to its critics by saying that Barton followed "common practice in the academic community" in citing secondary sources, and that in publishing "Unconfirmed Quotations", Barton's intent was to raise the academic bar in historical debates pertinent to public policy.[64]

In 2006, Barton told the Texas Monthly, with regard to Jefferson's famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, that he had never misquoted the letter in any of his publications. The magazine noted that this denial was contradicted by a 1990 version of Barton's video America's Godly Heritage, in which Barton said:[1] On January 1, 1802, Jefferson wrote to that group of Danbury Baptists, and in this letter, he assured them—he said the First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between church and state, he said, but that wall is a one-directional wall. It keeps the government from running the church, but it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government.

The Jefferson Lies withdrawn from publication In 2012, Barton's New York Times bestseller[66] The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson (published April 10, 2012)[67] was voted "the least credible history book in print" by the users of the History News Network website.[30] A group of 10 conservative Christian professors reviewed the work and reported negatively on its claims, saying that Barton has misstated facts about Jefferson.[58][68] **not all of these individuals reviewed the book

In August 2012 Christian publisher Thomas Nelson withdrew the book from publication and stopped production, announcing that they had "lost confidence in the book's details" and "learned that there were some historical details included in the book that were not adequately supported."[69][70] Glenn Beck, who wrote the foreword, promptly announced that his Mercury Ink imprint would issue a new edition of the book[71] once the 17,000 remaining copies that Barton bought of the Thomas Nelson edition had been sold.[72]

A revised edition of The Jefferson Lies was published by World Net Daily Books in January 2016 and has since sold nearly 3 million copies.[73]***showing bok's popularity

Personal

Barton is married and has three grown children, including a daughter who performs minority outreach for the Republican Party of Texas.[1] He has lived in Aledo, Texas, since his childhood,[74] which is also the site of the WallBuilders Library.[75]

Davidbartonwallbuilders (talk) 20:11, 14 March 2017 (UTC)


 * First off, most of the changes you made on January 24 were reverted because they were not neutral. You removed essential criticism and added support from outlier scholars. Yes, you have a conflict of interest here, but if your changes had been neutral then they likely would have stayed in.
 * Your proposed text starts out deeply flawed in that it assumes there is a "religious basis" for the United States, and that you promote this religious basis. Most scholars agree there is no religious basis.
 * I don't think you should touch this article as your aim is not Wikipedia's aim. Binksternet (talk) 20:32, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Addressing the individual points:
 * I think "unorthodox" or something similar is substantial in describing what Wallbuilders supports; there is a difference between an organization that just wishes to share what is known and one that is trying to change perception, and the use of such a term is supported by all the reaction from mainstream historians described later in the article (the intro is supposed to summarize the article.)
 * That Cruz's campaign was unsuccessful may be blatant to the contemporary American reader, but we should allow for this to be seen in other contexts, and it is not an insignificant point; we would certainly note if one was on the winning team. (Note: I think I was the one who added in this word; other editors should view my argument for it with that in mind.)
 * We should not remove the line on the Myth Of Separation just because it's an older book; this is an encyclopedia article and should cover history. However, I certainly would not be adverse to rewording it to give time context; In his 1989 book The Myth of Separation, Barton argued that Christians were the ones who were intended to hold public office and that Jews and members of other sects were not. - that puts a date on it and place that particular stance in the past tense. (Not sure I got the year right; I find editions from 1989 and 1992, but also an indication that there were five editions of this book.) If anything, there should be more attention to this book, which a Philadelphia Daily News columnist describes as "widely circulated", among other desciptors.
 * I'm not sure what you mean by "not all the individuals reviewed the book"; are you indicating they did not read the book and form their own responses, or that they did not issue their own separate published reviews? Because we are certainly not making the latter claim.
 * We do not have a reliable source for the claim that three million books have been sold.
 * --Nat Gertler (talk) 14:03, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

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