Speaker Ryan loves pseudo-historian David Barton
Related Link HNN's Coverage of David Barton
Speaker Paul Ryan apparently has a penchant for the work of the notorious “historian” and Christian nationalist David Barton. Once again illustrating just how rotten Ryan’s judgment can be.
Barton has long been one of the gaudy grifters of the right wing. His much-debunked 2012 book on Thomas Jefferson—ironically titled The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson—was so filled with inaccuracies that its Christian publisher had to remove it from its catalog after various historians, including some Christian conservatives, picked it apart. Barton is such a liar that he claimed Simon & Schuster had selected the withdrawn book and would publish it on its own. Four years later and it has no such plans.
For the past few years, religious right leaders have gotten together in April with some members of Congress in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for "Washington: A Man of Prayer." Ryan was on hand to offer opening remarks for this year's event. Among other things, the wackos who put this annual event together say the murderous attacks of 9/11 were God’s punishment of America. Jehovah and Osama bin Laden were pals? Who knew? The group also says God is going to punish us for legalizing the marriage of partners of the same sex and because of abortion.
The group views separation of church and state with disgust and says the United States was founded by Christian men on Christian principles. One of its goals is to get the 1954 Johnson Amendment repealed. That legislation forbade tax-exempt organizations (including religious organizations) from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Founder and organizer Dan Cummins has argued that the amendment laid the groundwork for the 1963 Supreme Court ruling that he blames “for prayer and Bible reading being taken out of schools.” The ruling, in fact, didn’t do that, but rather forbade public school teachers and administrators from organizing or leading such prayers and readings. Cummins counts Ryan as one of his allies in the effort to repeal the amendment. ...