Christianists and GOP Continue to Stand By David Barton's Lies

I've looked at David Barton - a faux historian if there ever was one - on this blog.  Frighteningly, the man continues to rewrite history, particularly American history, to reenforce the myth that America was founded as a "Christian nation" despite all of the evidence to the contrary.  Barton writes what the Christofascists and increasingly ignorant GOP base wants to hear.  When it comes to truth a veracity, Barton seems to have taken the work of Nazi propaganda head Joseph Goebbels as his template.  Truth, objective facts, and reason simply have no place in today's Republican Party.  A piece in Right Wing Watch looks at Barton's continued embrace by the far right.  Here are excerpts:

Over the weekend, Politico ran a profile of David Barton which pointed out that he remains extremely popular with the Religious Right and members of Congress, despite the fact that he is the author of the "least credible history book in print" and his "scholarship" is laughable.
The piece noted that even his supporters have been forced to secretly edit videos and programs posted on their websites in order to remove some of Barton's more egregious falsehoods, yet they continue to stand by him, as Barton brags that the mounting evidence of his fundamentally inaccurate history has not damaged his reputation one iota:

During their campaign to point out the errors in Barton’s work, his Christian critics asked two of the nation’s biggest evangelical advocacy groups, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, to stop promoting his faulty scholarship.
The FRC responded by quietly pulling from its website a popular video showcasing clips of Barton leading one of his Capitol tours. FRC Vice President Kenyn Cureton said the video was removed because of “a few historical inaccuracies.”
But the group continues to promote Barton elsewhere on its website as a “good friend” and “close ally.”
Focus on the Family, meanwhile, edited two videos on its website featuring a lengthy interview Barton gave to Focus radio. The editing deleted a segment in which Barton declares that Congress printed the first English-language Bible in America — and intended it to be used in schools. That’s one of Barton’s signature stories — it’s a highlight in his Capitol tour — but historians who have reviewed the documentation say it’s simply not true.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/among-religious-right-david-bartons-reputation-remains-untarnished#sthash.LAlkQiu7.dpuf

Over the weekend, Politico ran a profile of David Barton which pointed out that he remains extremely popular with the Religious Right and members of Congress, despite the fact that he is the author of the "least credible history book in print" and his "scholarship" is laughable.

The piece noted that even his supporters have been forced to secretly edit videos and programs posted on their websites in order to remove some of Barton's more egregious falsehoods, yet they continue to stand by him, as Barton brags that the mounting evidence of his fundamentally inaccurate history has not damaged his reputation one iota:

During their campaign to point out the errors in Barton’s work, his Christian critics asked two of the nation’s biggest evangelical advocacy groups, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, to stop promoting his faulty scholarship.

The FRC responded by quietly pulling from its website a popular video showcasing clips of Barton leading one of his Capitol tours. FRC Vice President Kenyn Cureton said the video was removed because of “a few historical inaccuracies.”

But the group continues to promote Barton elsewhere on its website as a “good friend” and “close ally.”

Focus on the Family, meanwhile, edited two videos on its website featuring a lengthy interview Barton gave to Focus radio. The editing deleted a segment in which Barton declares that Congress printed the first English-language Bible in America — and intended it to be used in schools. That’s one of Barton’s signature stories — it’s a highlight in his Capitol tour — but historians who have reviewed the documentation say it’s simply not true.

Barton again signifies what has become of the Republican Party where once upon a time crackpots like Barton would either not have been given the time of day or would have been dismissed as a crack pot.  That was then.  Now, Barton is main stream in a political party that is increasingly an extremist sectarian organization.