SPLC's Potok Again Lies About David Barton
By Gina Miller
AmericanClarion.com
David Barton speaking in Rapid City, South Dakota in 2009
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Isaiah 5:20-21
It is difficult to behold the lunacy of the godless Left, whose members do call evil good and good evil and the truth “hate.” It gets wearisome listening to blatant lies about those of us who love the Lord and who want to preserve our freedoms and our beautiful United States of America as founded.
Historian David Barton, of the WallBuilders organization, is one of the foremost educators and defenders of America’s true history, a history that includes prolific acknowledgment of God’s providence in the birth of our nation by those men who gave their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to see America born.
Mr. Barton has been drawn in to a story out of Alabama. A couple of weeks ago, the Alabama Educational Television Commission voted to fire two executives of Alabama Public Television (APT). The reason for the firings given by the Commission was that they wanted a “general change in direction of the station and a fresh approach.”
On the surface, this looks like a case of people with differing views on how to program APT. This happens all the time in the upper management levels of broadcasting. Someone has to prevail, because a company divided in its visions of purpose and programming will be filled with strife—not good for smooth operations.
The people who were fired were Allan Pizzato, the director of APT, and Pauline Howland, his deputy director and chief financial officer. It happens that before these two were fired, one of the members of the Commission had suggested airing American history videos produced by WallBuilders. Mr. Pizzato was reportedly not in favor of doing this, because of the Christian nature of WallBuilders programs.
In the wake of the firings, the leftwing blogosphere went into fits, declaring that these people were fired because they opposed these Christian-themed history videos, and nothing more. The Commission has stated that the reasons for the dismissals had little, if anything, to do with the WallBuilders videos.
As reported at AL.com,
“Another commissioner, Rodney Herring, said disagreement over the addition of Christian-themed historical shows on the public network was ‘at best minimal’ in the dismissals, which he blamed on broader personnel issues and an overall restructuring.”
Regardless of the reasons for the firings, this story has caused David Barton to be shamelessly attacked by the vicious, lying Left. This has led to a number of opinion pieces by leftists who are foaming at the mouth in their senseless hatred of Mr. Barton. This includes a pathetic column written by the radically leftist Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Mark Potok, a bizarre, liberal hack who has never met a despicable lie he is not willing to tell about Christian conservatives. This is certainly not the first time Potok has maligned David Barton. A quick Internet search of both their names reveals that Mr. Barton is a popular target of Potok’s warped venom.
His piece, which was posted in the SPLC website’s “Hatewatch” section (where they keep “an eye on the radical right”) is titled, “Alabama Public Television Apparently Heading Far Right.” The column is also posted under the sub-section of “Extremist Propaganda.” Yeah, right. Ol’ David Barton, he is such an “extremist” with all that true American history under his belt! Better keep a very close eye on that Christian man—there’s no telling when he might pop up and pray for the salvation of your eternal soul!
Ironically, Potok begins and ends his rant with “Lord help us.” What “Lord” is Potok addressing there? It cannot be the God of all creation, since Potok spits on Christianity and followers of Christ.
Nevertheless, after beseeching help from an unknown “Lord,” Potok not only hurls poisoned darts at David Barton, but also at the members of the Alabama Educational Television Commission (by basically calling them liars) and the entire State of Alabama.
“Lord help us. Alabama Public Television (APT), a voice of reason in a state that often seems to have very little, is apparently succumbing to the crazies.
Last week, the two top executives of the network were summarily fired by the Alabama Educational Television Commission, APT’s governing body, after they resisted an effort by a new commissioner to air DVDs produced by a far-right theocrat who has been roundly condemned by historians.”
So, according to Potok, the State of Alabama seems to have very little reason; those who support airing David Barton’s work on APT are “crazies;” and Mr. Barton himself is a “far-right theocrat” who has been “roundly condemned by historians.” Really? Considering the fact that David Barton relies heavily on primary sources (original documents and writings) for his works, the “historians” who “roundly condemn” Mr. Barton’s work are clearly not on the side of truth and historical accuracy. Further, those “historians” who claim Mr. Barton is wrong would have to take their accusations straight to the very words of the Founders of our nation.
Later in the piece, Potok says that Mr. Barton’s videos,
“… strongly advocate a religious interpretation of the past that historians say is simply wrong.”
People who do not know their past are condemned to believe lies such as this. Potok’s nameless “historians” say there was no Christian element or foundation to our nation’s beginning. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Potok also calls Mr. Barton an “evangelical propagandist” who claims America was founded “as a Christian nation.” Mr. Barton does not claim that America was founded as a theocracy. Those people who despise Christianity and the undeniable reality of the part played by Christian faith and principles in our nation’s founding, are feverishly desperate to erase our nation’s Christian heritage—to the point that they make the ridiculous claim that God is nowhere to be seen in America’s governmental history.
Mr. Barton knows that many of our Founding Fathers were Christians who openly acknowledged God’s hand in our nation’s birth, as is extensively evident in their writings. Our nation and its laws are based on biblical concepts, and up until fairly recently our leaders at the federal level had no problem publicly turning to God in prayer and petition for our nation. It has only been in the past several decades that rabid, anti-Christians like Potok and his fellow travelers have waged an all-out war on Christianity in our nation.
Potok does not want America to know that David Barton is a formidable American historian. He does not want us to know that Mr. Barton relies on original texts, letters and documents for his information about America’s past. Mr. Barton owns around 100,000 works that pre-date 1812. He quotes from the original sources rather than some professor—or “historian”—who makes a claim about our history.
From the Frequently Asked Questions page at the WallBuilders site
“David Barton and WallBuilders are known for their meticulous, painstaking documentation of facts and quotes. For this reason, his works are heavily relied on and used by leaders at all levels of government, including elected officials, judges and courts, and teachers and educational institutions. In fact, many of his works are used as textbooks in universities across the nation, and some of the textbooks he has helped write have become bestsellers in public schools across the country.
Characteristic of David’s books are the numerous pages of extensive footnotes they contain – footnotes heavily documented by what are considered legal standards, the highest and most accurate standards since they rely extensively on primary source documents.”
All this does not matter to Mark Potok. He goes on in his column to breathlessly declare that—gasp!—David Barton does not believe in “global warming,” and Mr. Barton even has the nerve to say that a reduction in carbon dioxide is not a good thing! These brain-washed leftists never seem to remember that plants require carbon dioxide to live, and when plants digest carbon dioxide, they produce oxygen!
Near the end of the column, Potok again attacks the State of Alabama for daring to pass legislation to crack down on the major problem of illegal aliens. He also bemoaned the fact that Alabama lawmakers are becoming wise to the United Nations’ Agenda 21 scheme and have passed an anti-Agenda 21 law.
Potok then attempted to ridicule an Alabama congressman who said that he knew of 17 socialists in the United States Congress but would not name them. Potok, in typical leftist fashion, put the word socialists in quotes, as if the suggestion that there are socialists in our government is an alien concept worthy of ridicule. Potok apparently does not know what socialism means, or else he would see that there are much more than 17 socialists in there. You want names? How about most of the Democrat population of Congress and the Obama administration, for starters?
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a detestable organization that once, long ago, may have served a useful purpose, but has now become an un-credible, hate machine. Oh, they love to fling the word “hate” at those of us who love God, our country, our freedoms, morality, truth and the rule of law as guided by the Constitution. The fact is, these people are deranged minions of hell, and they are a clear and present danger to our nation, because they are godless termites chewing away at the moral foundation of America and attacking those of us who defend it.
David Barton is doing something exceptionally right to have weasels like Mark Potok take verbal shots at him on a regular basis.