Here’s David Barton, blatantly lying about the founding fathers and Thomas Jefferson again. Barton is not a historian — he’s a religious propagandist who engages in wholesale historical distortion. This kind of stuff sells big to the religious right.

For a thorough debunking of Barton’s lies, here’s a lengthy video by Chris Rodda, Senior Research Director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. There are so many falsehoods in Barton’s absurd book, it takes hours to list them all.

Also see:
Chris Rodda: Pseudo-Historian David Barton’s New Jefferson Book Is a Load of Crap — and a Bestseller

As a Mormon, it’s an uphill climb for Mitt Romney to get the religious right on his side; many of the most influential right wing religious leaders are not shy at all about calling Mormonism a “cult.”

One tactic Romney is using to get over this problem: promising to appoint far right theocratic judges to the Supreme Court.

This is not just idle talk; as we noted last year, one of Romney’s chief judicial advisers is none other than extreme right wing ideologue Robert Bork.

And today Right Wing Watch shines some light on the religious fanatics who are apparently deeply involved with picking Romney’s judges: Romney Successfully Wooing the Religious Right With Promises of Right Wing Judges.

On today’s episode of “WallBuilders Live,” David Barton and Rick Green invited Jordan Sekulow, who worked for Romney back in 2008, to make the case as to why the Religious Right can and should support Romney.  While Green was skeptical at first, Barton needed no convincing because Jay Sekulow (Jordan’s father) was going to be involved in picking Romney’s judges and that was all he needed to hear:

This has not been a hard thing for evangelicals to get over and support Romney and it shouldn’t be a hard thing. When Romney ran four years ago, he wasn’t my first choice but the reason I never got really worried about Romney was Jay Sekulow. And I tell you he has been very intimately involved in helping get folks like Alito and Roberts on the court. And four years ago, I heard that Sekulow is the guy that Romney has tapped to choose his judges and I said “that’s it.” I don’t have any trouble with Romney because Isaiah 1:26 tells me the righteousness of nation is determined, not by the legislature, but by its judges. And if Romney’s got folks like Sekulow picking his judges, I can live with that in a heartbeat.

What in the ever-lovin’ heck is Rick Perry talking about here? American colonists in the 1770s had to “disguise themselves so they could walk around and meet each other?”

Another bizarre mischaracterization of American history, brought to you by a Republican presidential candidate. That’s what happens when you get your history lessons from people like David Barton.

Better keep an eye on the Boston Tea Party page at Wikipedia.

Religious right pseudo-historian David Barton is connected to at least four of the current GOP presidential candidates; Michele Bachmann has brought him to Washington DC to hold seminars for conservative politicians, and Barton was one of the sponsors of Rick Perry’s “The Response” prayer rally.

Here’s David Barton last year in an interview, explaining why politicians often seem to change when they move to Washington; it’s because there are demons controlling parts of the US government, preventing prayers from getting through to God.

I’ll tell you one of the things too we’ll never get right until we understand this, it is a spiritual battle. We’re told in Ephesians, it’s not flesh in blood, we’re dealing with spirits. And I’ll tell you out of Daniel, praying, why did that answer get delayed for twenty-one days? Because the Prince of Persia fought against it. There are principalities that sit over certain areas.

And I can tell this in the U.S. Capitol. When I walk from the House side to the Senate side, I cross the middle line of the Capitol, I can feel a different principality because they have jurisdictions over different things. And there are principalities that sit over different government entities that cause them to think really goofy and you can’t get prayers through, they get delayed twenty-one days because the principalities are up there fighting in the Heavenlies.

Because we’re not fighting flesh and blood. And if you don’t understand this is a spiritual battle, and if you don’t understand there are really big principalities and powers sitting over places of power, whether it be banking, or education. There’s principalities that sit over schools to keep those kids from getting knowledge, there’s principalities that sit over financial institutions. They sit over households. That’s why you have principalities in powers, that gradation, you have the corporals, and you have the sergeants, and you have the lieutenants, the captains and the generals, and the generals have a bigger principality and those little corporals may have control over the house but it’s a spiritual battle.

It’s a spiritual battle and we’ll never win until we understand that.

Right Wing Watch has a post about the source of Michele Bachmann’s odd views of American history: religious right theocrat and pseudo-historian David Barton. For decades the religious right has been indoctrinating an entire generation with a fantasy version of US history, and Barton is one of the main proponents of this fundamentalist revisionism. Michele Bachmann is a big fan, and even invited Barton to address members of Congress.

Here’s Barton explaining that the War of Independence was actually fought to end slavery. Yes, that’s really what he says. There are so many distortions in this minute-long clip you may develop a headache.

Related:
Glenn Beck Promotes Theocracy and Interviews David Barton - Speaker at Neo-Nazi Rallies
American Taliban Leader David Barton: The Bible Should Rule the World
Religious Right Pseudo-Historian Barton: The Founding Fathers Wanted Schools to Teach Creationism

Good grief. Sometimes the right wing gets so crazed it seems they’re about to warp themselves into another universe, where they win every argument and history means only what they want it to mean.

Here’s Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann’s (R-Mars) favorite religious fanatic fake historian, David Barton, explaining that the founding fathers were against teaching evolution, and in favor of creationism.

Charles Darwin wasn’t even born until 1809, and didn’t publish On the Origin of Species until 1859, but that doesn’t stop Barton, of course.

Here’s American Taliban leader David Barton, a man who is very influential with top Republican politicians and the Tea Party base (thanks to Glenn Beck’s relentless promotion), explaining that everything should operate according to Biblical principles, because America’s founding fathers wanted it that way. This bizarre revisionist view of America’s founding is completely false, but it has become accepted dogma in the religious right echo chamber.

And he does mean everything. Barton wants to see a Christian theocracy covering the entire world. “Insane” doesn’t even begin to describe people like Barton — and his is the dominant religious ideology in today’s GOP.

Related:
Glenn Beck Promotes Theocracy and Interviews David Barton - Speaker at Neo-Nazi Rallies

(h/t: Right Wing Watch, via iceweasel.)

Here’s an astonishing statement by GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who told the “Rediscover God in America” conference last weekend that “All Americans Should Be Forced at Gunpoint to Listen to David Barton.”

David Barton is the religious right pseudo-historian who specializes in trying to prove that the founding fathers intended to create a Christian theocracy, and who gave speeches to neo-Nazi groups in the 1990s.

And the story gets even sleazier, because when the conference webcast of Huckabee’s speech was posted, they had edited out his statement about Barton. Here’s the edited version, sans “forced at gunpoint.”

But the Internet cannot forget.

Now under way in Iowa: the “Rediscovering God in America” conference, attended by most of the current top contenders for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, including Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Haley Barbour, and featuring the religious right’s crackpot pseudo-historian David Barton. Here’s video from the event from Right Wing Watch, showing Barton explaining that all of our economic policies should be dictated by the Bible, because it’s all in there, every bit of it. Why, did you know that Jesus actually opposed the minimum wage?

(h/t: iceweasel.)

Related:
Glenn Beck Promotes Theocracy and Interviews David Barton - Speaker at Neo-Nazi Rallies