The Myth of the Christian Nation

[Res Ipsa]

I’ve spent a few hours listening to a podcast series called “Telling Jefferson Lies.” It’s the fascinating story of the man who almost single-handedly resurrected the current incarnation of the myth of the U.S. being founded as a Christian Nation — David Barton.

In its most narrow focus, it shows the breathtaking lengths to which Barton, who is promoted by evangelical organizations as Americas Most Respected Historian, to misinform millions of unsuspecting Christians, including thousands of pastors, about the actual role of the Christian religion in the founding of the United States. Barton, master of the ellipses, expertly uses all the tools of an effective liar (my word — the podcast is far too kind to Barton): fake quotes, incomplete quotes, out of context quotes, third hand accounts passed off as original sources, inauthentic documents taken at face value and leading out the voluminous evidence that contradicts his narrative.

His books are bad enough, but he also gives Capitol tours and speeches in which he embellishes what’s in his books into pure fantasy. And he sell it all with his collection of old books, using them as props to give him gravitas.

Ok, he’s the Ken Hamm of U.S. history. But that’s not the most interesting part of the story. Zoom out a little and it’s the story of how two Christian professors at a Christian University wrote a book that debunked Barton’s Jefferson Lies. In doing so, they precipitated a kind of revolt by Christian historians and other Christian academics against the reliance of Christian organizations on false history to promote a false narrative. The Christian publisher pulled the book. There was an intervention in which the academic and evangelical leaders confronted Barton. This was an all-Christian fight.

(Heck, there’s even a Mormon piece to the story in Barton’s champion — Glen Beck.)

And then, crickets. Barton’s fake history is still the foundation of the current wave of Christian Nationalism. As a representative of the Family Research Council said: Barton’s materials are beneficial to the organization. Just as some truths aren’t useful, some lies are.

And that’s the larger story, a peek into the Christian Nationalist movement — what its leaders are saying to the faithful. It’s a movement that is neither Christian nor American.

Beyond that, it’s a look at how amazing fact-based history of the founding of the U.S. is. Is it influenced by Christianity and its values. Of course. It was also influenced by ancient pagan Greece and Rome and by the enlightenment. It was influenced by British and European law and culture.

It was a rejection of the marriage of church and state that had existed since Constantine. Every person born was entitled to the same rights, which came from neither the government nor the church. Whoever the “Creator” is, the rights come as a birthright. No privilege for Christians — we all get them.

Yet that radical notion — that amazing promise — was broken from day one: slavery and natives. That’s the contradiction at the heart of America that reveals it as a wholly human project — noble in aspiration and flawed in execution.m

That’s what utterly fascinates me about Jefferson. He epitomizes both America’s promise and its failings. The whitewashed orthodox Christian cartoon of Jefferson that Barton portrays misses the complex and contradictory human being who articulated the promise of America. We don’t need to worship him as a hero or condemn him as a villain. E can see him as a flawed human being like all the rest of us — one who had a vision of a better world than the one he was born in. He didn’t bring it about — but bringing it about is the challenge that faces anyone who considers themselves an American.

[Physics Guy]

The culture in which the American founders lived was overtly religious, with respectable people all going to church and so on. The founders themselves were mostly far on the secularist end of their era's spectrum, however. So, depending on which of their surviving statements you take to represent their heartfelt principles, and which you discard as mere concessions to the social conventions of their time, you can probably make them out to be just about anything.

I expect careful historians can do enough sifting to get a reasonably objective picture of what the founders' views would have been in today's terms. If instead of being careful like that, though, you just want to grind a big axe, then I expect you can find plenty of material to let you do that.

[Res Ipsa]

The culture in which the American founders lived was overtly religious, with respectable people all going to church and so on. The founders themselves were mostly far on the secularist end of their era's spectrum, however. So, depending on which of their surviving statements you take to represent their heartfelt principles, and which you discard as mere concessions to the social conventions of their time, you can probably make them out to be just about anything.

I expect careful historians can do enough sifting to get a reasonably objective picture of what the founders' views would have been in today's terms. If instead of being careful like that, though, you just want to grind a big axe, then I expect you can find plenty of material to let you do that.

David Barton is the latter, but is treated by many evangelical leaders and organizations as the former. Our current Speaker of the House is a big, big fan.