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...
David Barton
A David Barton disciple, Liberty University graduate, and state legislator wants to ban 800 books from Texas public schools
His name is Matt Krause. He is a Texas State Representative and a speaker for Wallbuilders, an organization founded by David Barton that uses the American past to promote right-win political agendas. Here is Talia Richman and Allie Morris at...
David and Tim Barton think Jefferson was a “real Christian.” But could he be an elder in their church?
Here is the Wallbuilders Facebook page: The strange part of this post is that the Bartons are promoting Jefferson as a real Christian, but if he applied for the elder or deacon board at their church his application would be...
David Barton spreads blatant falsehoods about the AP US History course, state history standards, and a bunch of other stuff.
David Barton, the Christian Right operative who talks about the past, recently spoke at Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park, California. GOP representative Madison Cawthorn introduced Barton. The pastor of the church is Rob McCoy. Learn more about McCoy and...
David Barton’s son talks slavery and Black history with sportswriter Jason Whitlock. It is a train wreck.
Tim Barton, the son of David Barton, appeared on sports writer Jason Whitlock‘s show “Fearless.” The show is part of Glenn Beck’s “Blaze Media.” Whitlock joined Blaze Media because he “wanted to partner with people who wouldn’t look at me...
Recovered from the archives: “An Open Letter to the Students of Charis Bible College”
Yesterday a reader told me that he was searching for this 2016 post and couldn’t find it. It seems to have disappeared from The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog. But I managed to find it at another site on...
David Barton and the American Restoration Tour is coming to a city near you. What if we put together a shadow tour?
David Barton, the Christian Right activist who uses the American past to advance his political agenda, is going on the road with Chad Connelly, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. They are calling it The American Restoration...
Anyone who wants to believe that Independence Day is a Christian holiday should read Frederick Douglass’s “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?” David Barton speaks at First Baptist-Dallas.
Yesterday was “Freedom Sunday” at First Baptist-Dallas. I have commented on this yearly service several times. Read my commentary here and here and here. My position on these patriotic services has not changed. In the past, First Baptist-Dallas pastor Robert...
How do Christian nationalists deal with the Establishment Clause?
Recently, a scholar in another discipline asked me how Christian nationalists who study the American past “ignore, navigate around, or distort the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” I address this in Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A...
Christian nationalism on display in the Tennessee General Assembly
Earlier this week I wrote a post on the Tennessee Historical Commission’s 24-1 vote to remove the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville. Some members of the Tennessee General Assembly oppose this decision....
CPAC 2021 is over. Let’s check-in with the MAGA evangelicals
On Saturday night I published a post on the Trump evangelical response to the former president’s speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. You can read it here. Let’s check-in on them today: The Liberty University Falkirk Center crowd...
Liberty University’s Falkirk Center is promoting an embarrassingly bad Eric Metaxas speech on the American Revolution
I was going to include this in my MAGA evangelicals post this morning, but I decided to save it for a separate post. The Falkirk Center at Liberty University just tweeted a video of an Eric Metaxas speech: Almost everything...
Trump’s evangelicals respond to the death of Rush Limbaugh
“There was a generation of Christians who used to listen to Moody or Family Life radio all day, and sometime around 1990 they decided to listen to Rush five times a week instead. And here we are.”–TWOILH reader. Limbaugh seldom...
It appears we have a direct connection between Seven Mountain Dominionism and the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
“I’m probably going to lose my job as a pastor after this.” Here is a guy named Tyler Ethridge at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. For those who cannot access the video, here is the transcript: I don’t...
Was there ever a “black-robed regiment”?
Recently evangelical writer and radio host Eric Metaxas interviewed Rev. Bill Cook, the “CEO” of the Virginia branch of the “black-robe regiment.” Watch: Some comments: There was no such thing as the “black robe regiment” in revolutionary America. Historian and...
David Barton: If someone calls you a homophobe, just call them “a heterophobe.” (And other news from the world of evangelical Trumpism)
Yesterday the Senate voted 55-45 to move forward with Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The vote put an end to Kentucky senator Rand Paul’s constitutional objection to the trial. Most GOP senators supported Rand’s motion to kill the trial, but...
Free speech! Free speech! The court evangelicals process the events of the last week.
It’s been a very ugly week in America. By this time next week, Donald Trump may be the only United States president to have been impeached twice. We are getting more and more disturbing images and videos from Wednesday’s invasion...
Antifa! Antifa! The court evangelicals prepare for spiritual warfare against Biden and the Democrats
We are learning more and more about the mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. They were Trump-supporters, extreme Christian nationalists, QAnon believers, militia groups, and other assorted thugs. Mo Brooks, a Republican representative from Alabama, still believes that...
The court evangelicals continue to mix biblical faith and Trumpism
So what has happened in the United States since our last court evangelical update? Donald Trump continues to claim he won the 2020 presidential election, refuses to sign Congress’s COVID-19 relief package, and pardoned two murderers and two members of...
Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk wants David Barton to direct Trump’s 1776 Commission
Some of you may recall Donald Trump’s November 2, 2020 executive order establishing the “1776 Commission.” We wrote about it here and here. Here is a taste of the order: The 1776 Commission shall: (i) produce a report for the […]