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Yesterday I continued my work on chapter one and chapter two of the American Bible Society manuscript. No additional words were added to either chapter. Instead I did some cutting. At the moment both chapters are about 7500 words in length. Still too long.
Chapter one covers Elias Boudinot (founder of the ABS), the Philadelphia Bible Society (the first such society in the United States), and the plan to develop a national Bible society despite objections from the Philadelphia society and the New York Episcopal Church.
Chapter two covers the convention of delegates that met in 1816 and established the ABS, the ABS Constitution (the auxiliary system, the British and Foreign Bible Society as a model, the ABS’s international vision, and the idea of distributing the Bible “without note or comment”), and the ABS founders’ attempt at forging a Christian republic. A word on the last point: The founders’ arguments for a Christian republic are almost identical to the arguments made today by Christian nationalists like David Barton.
I also established a new goal–to have the first two chapters in good enough shape to send off a book proposal by the end of next week.
I thought Barton's work had been widely discredited. Are you suggesting that he has just been looking at the wrong founding fathers?