Ryan Walters is Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction. He is calling for a “complete overhaul” of the Oklahoma social studies curriculum to emphasize Christianity and American exceptionalism. David Barton is a conservative activist who uses the past to promote […]
David Barton
Oklahoma announces a “complete overhaul” of its social studies curriculum. The state is relying on an “A-List Executive Review Committee” of conservative activists
Here is the Washington Examiner: Oklahoma’s top education official is overhauling the state’s social studies curriculum to emphasize American exceptionalism to combat what he says is left-wing messaging that teaches children to “hate America.” In a document obtained by the Washington Examiner, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction […]
GOP political activist David Barton responds to Trump’s Republican Party platform
If you have not been following this GOP platform debate, get up to speed here and here. David Barton, the GOP political activist who uses the American past to promote his activism, was a member of the 2024 GOP platform […]
More sloppy history from Tim Barton of Wallbuilders
In the video posted below, which appears to be a lecture at an Arkansas evangelical church called “The House,” Tim Barton of Wallbuilders claims that every founding father with an extant library had a copy of John Wise‘s sermons. And […]
Is bad history protected under the free speech clause of the First Amendment?
I mentioned this story in today’s Evangelical Roundup, but I thought it deserved its own post. In case you missed it, David Barton, the political activist who uses the American past to promote his Christian Right agenda, is suing the […]
Warren Throckmorton is now fact-checking David Barton on a podcast
The new edition of Warren Throckmorton’s Getting Jefferson Right is here! Current managing editor Jay Green offers a blurb: In Getting Jefferson Right, Throckmorton and Coulter provide a valuable public service to readers in at least two important respects. First, they expose some […]
If David Barton’s work has been widely discredited, why has he remained so popular and influential?
Journalist Jon Ward, the author of Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation, recently asked me the question in the title of this post as part of a story he is writing on David Barton for Yahoo News. […]
Mike Johnson is not the only David Barton fan to be Speaker of the House of Representatives
I was recently talking with a reporter who asked me if Mike Johnson was the first Speaker of the House to embrace the teachings of David Barton. I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head so after […]
What the Christian Right is saying about Mike Johnson
We covered a lot of the responses at today’s evangelical roundup. Here’s more: David Barton and his Wallbuilders gang are over the moon. Johnson has a long history with Wallbuilders. Tim Barton says that Wallbuilders have been praying for a […]
Trump court evangelicals, prophets, and pseudo-historians will gather with Charlie Kirk in San Diego this week to train pastors
This week over 1,000 Christian pastors will converge on San Diego for the Turning Point USA “Pastors Summit.” According to the event website, this event will highlight “the need for pastors and their congregations to stand for truth and no […]
It was only a matter of time before evangelicals turned on Vivek Ramaswamy because of his Hindu faith
I’m no Ramaswamy fan, but he is one of the most interesting candidates in the GOP primary for presidency. I was talking about him to a reporter a few months ago and said that it would only be a matter […]
Hey Josh Hawley, about that Patrick Henry quote…
In case you missed it, on July 4th Josh Hawley, the conservative populist U.S. senator from Missouri, tweeted some words on Twitter that he claimed belonged to Virginia revolutionary Patrick Henry: The problem with Hawley’s tweet is that Patrick Henry […]
“The Bartons are surrounded by tools but that fact doesn’t make them historians anymore than my tool collection makes me a mechanic.”Â
Warren Throckmorton on David Barton, Tim Barton, and Wallbuilders: I have tools and gadgets and parts that I don’t know how to use. Some of those tools are left over from my dad and some seem to have just appeared […]
The court evangelicals are getting the old band back together
Readers of this blog know what a court evangelical is. But for the uninitiated, I encourage you to read this piece or this book. After last night’s CNN town hall, it appears that Donald Trump just might be the GOP […]
How to teach the history wars
I think it’s fair to say we are in the midst of another round of history wars. Today’s so-called “activist historians” invoke a usable past to preach political and social agendas, while more traditional historians (of all political persuasions–from Trotskyite […]
Another link between 7 Mountain Dominionism and the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol
Last year I called your attention to Tyler Ethridge, a disciple of 7 Mountain Dominionists Andrew Wommack, Lance Wallnau, William G. Boykin, and David Barton, who lost his job as a pastor after he tweeted a video of himself inside […]
David Barton manipulates the past for political ends. The latest.
At a recent Family Research Council event, David Barton, the GOP political activist who uses the past to promote his politics, confused an early 19th-century Sunday School for a “public school.” For some, this might be an honest mistake. But […]
Metaxas: “God has called me to fight to the death for what is true and right”
Back in April 2021, I wrote a piece at Current titled, “The Education of an Evangelical Insurrectionist.” It told the story of Tyler Ethridge, a graduate of Charis Bible College who entered the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 […]
Episode 43: Jesus Freaks Do History
A Christian rap band, with help from a GOP political activist, published a history book. Episode 43: “Jesus Freaks Do History” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is […]
On Doug Mastriano’s 2001 paper “The Civilian Putsch of 2018”
Here is Greg Jaffee of The Washington Post with some context: Two decades before he was Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano warned in a master’s thesis that the United States was vulnerable to a left-wing “Hitlerian Putsch” that would begin […]