One of the common gripes raised by many new atheists in critiquing American Christianity is that American Christians tend to overstate the significance of Christianity in the founding of the United States. From their historically aberrant claims, they construct equally questionable political proposals. This is a critique I hear raised quite routinely and so I want to take a moment to point out that Rod Dreher, an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and Greg Forster, a First Things writer, both have taken the time to write lengthy critiques and rebuttals to the latest nonsense pushed by pseudo-historian David Barton.
What’s more, Justin Taylor of The Gospel Coalition has also joined them. As have two professors from a conservative Christian college. Most notably, Thomas Nelson has pulled the book.
I point this out because it’s an encouraging development within the church to see a reduced tolerance for nonsense like Barton’s and to point out that Christians are calling out their fellow Christian when he is in error in a public forum. Also, I want it to be noted that his books have been uniformly condemned by evangelicals, catholics and orthodox Christians next time some antagonist of the faith tries to portray Barton as a mainstream Christian. More to come.
Beware of educated intellectuals, journalists, and historians who criticize not from study of truth but from teachings of academia.