Show Notes:: History, it is important

The original post this is taken from.

But why is this important,,,

The notion that America was founded as a Christian nation is a central animating element of the ideology of the Christian Right. It touches every aspect of life and culture in this, one of the most successful and powerful political movements in American history. The idea that America's supposed Christian identity has somehow been wrongly taken, and must somehow be restored, permeates the psychology and vision of the entire movement. No understanding of the Christian Right is remotely adequate without this foundational concept.

But the Christian nationalist narrative has a fatal flaw: it is based on revisionist history that does not stand up under scrutiny. The bad news is that to true believers, it does not have to stand up to the facts of history to be a powerful and animating part of the once and future Christian nation. Indeed, through a growing cottage industry of Christian revisionist books and lectures now dominating the curricula of home schools and many private Christian academies, Christian nationalism becomes a central feature of the political identity of children growing up in the movement. The contest for control of the narrative of American history is well underway.

Other stuff to explore,,,

• Writings of William Bradford Guests examined the history of the early Colonial period through the life and writings of William Bradford. Bradford was governor of the Massachusetts Colony and the author of the Mayflower Compact and Of Plymouth Plantation. The guests and “Governor Bradford” responded to audience comments and questions. 
• Deconstructing History: Mayflower
• On This Day: Mayflower Compact

One final thought,,,

It is important, no critical, that every American understands that a theocracy is the greatest form of tyranny founded on destroying liberty, and for Americans it begins by suspending the Constitution and replacing it with religious edicts. One of the beautiful features of our Constitution was that it used to guarantee freedoms that all Americans were required to comply with, but over the years politicians granted religious groups power to  dictate to the nation which aspects of the Constitution they will comply with, and which parts of the Christian bible they will impose on the population. It is a harsh enough reality to learn the Constitution does not protect all Americans’ freedoms, and supremely disheartening that despite the Founding Fathers’ intent to protect the people from theocratic tyranny, evangelical Christians are imposing theocratic fascism on the people while “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

Why Does David Barton's History Of The Fight For Racial Equality Always End In The Mid-1960s? | Right Wing Watch

As we have noted before, David Barton's telling of the history of the fight for racial equality in America always mysteriously seems to stop right around the mid-1960s, right before the rise of the GOP's "Southern Strategy." Barton has written books and produced DVDs that claim to "set the record straight" on the role that both major political parties played in ending slavery, passing civil rights laws, and pushing for equality but his materials always portray Democrats are the enemies of black equality and conveniently never seem to make it beyond 1964.

On his radio program today, Barton sought to answer a question for a listener who wondered why, today, the Democrats are believed to be the party that fought to end slavery and for civil rights while the Republicans are believed to be the party that opposed such things.

The simple answer is "the Southern Strategy" and the fundamental shift that took place politically in the wake of civil rights gains when Democrats lost the support of white Southern voters as the party began to support civil rights in the 1960s and the GOP sought to win the support of those disaffected voters by appealing to them on contentious racial issues:


Why Does David Barton's History Of The Fight For Racial Equality Always End In The Mid-1960s? | Right Wing Watch

'New Avenues Of Misrepresentation And Overstatement': A Devastating Review Of David Barton's Pseudo-History​ | Right Wing Watch

Back in 2012, Religious Right pseudo-historian David Barton published his book "The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson," through which he sought to portray Jefferson as someone who would make today's Religious Right seem moderate by comparison.

In response to Barton's book, Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Grove City College, began to expose Barton's long track record of producing shoddy works of "history" and, with a fellow Grove City professor, co-authored a response to Barton's book called "Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President."

As a result, Barton's work came under increasing scrutiny and Thomas Nelson Publishing pulled his book from publication. Jay Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Creationist think tank, emerged as a top critic of Barton's disreputable scholarship within the Religious Right and was so alarmed by it that he asked Gregg Frazer, a history professor at Master's College, a Christian university in California, to review some of Barton's work, most notably his popular DVD "America’s Godly Heritage."

After viewing it, Frazer wrote an utterly scathing review of Barton's work for Richards, which Richards then reportedly used in making the case to others in the Religious Right movement that Barton's historical scholarship cannot and should not be trusted.

Today, with Frazer's permission, Throckmorton posted a copy of his review of Barton's DVD on his website and it is absolutely devastating.


'New Avenues Of Misrepresentation And Overstatement': A Devastating Review Of David Barton's Pseudo-History​ | Right Wing Watch

Lawmaker to Push Bill Requiring Dinesh D'Souza's 'America' Be Shown in Schools

To call this movie a conservative point of view on American history is just wrong. It is an example of revisionist history and has been thoroughly panned by numerous critics. It is propaganda per and simple. That aside, it is not the movie per se that concerns me, as kids are not nearly as dumb as the Reich thinks they are, but the waste of time and money that will be spent in pushing this legislation forward.

A Florida state senator plans to introduce a bill that would make Dinesh D'Souza's docudrama, America, required viewing for most teenagers in the state, The Hollywood Reporter learned on Friday.

Republican Alan Hays said he’ll introduce in November his one-page bill that simply states that students in the 1,700 Florida public high schools and middle schools are to be shown the film unless their parents object.

[,,,]
America, the movie, espouses a conservative point of view toward telling history. D'Souza takes on leftist arguments that portray the U.S. in a negative light, and he specifically attacks Howard Zinn, author of the book A People’s History of the United States, often considered the most widely used history book in U.S. academia. The movie shows actors Matt Damon and Woody Harrelson praising the book.

Hays said the purpose of his proposal is to introduce more balance into Florida schools.

“I saw the movie and walked out of the theater and said, ‘Wow, our students need to see this.’ And it’s my plan to show it to my colleagues in the legislature, too, before they’re asked to vote on the bill,” Hays said.

[,,,]
“I’ve looked at history books and talked to history teachers and the message the students are getting is very different from what is in the movie,” Hays said. “It’s dishonest and insulting. The students need to see the truth without political favoritism.”

[,,,]
“The most dreaded disease in America today is political correctness. We need to inform our students of our whole history, and teach them how to think, not what to think,” Hays said. “Let them talk with their teachers, their peers and their parents, then draw their own conclusions. But they need both sides, and this movie shows a side they just aren’t seeing.”

Lawmaker to Push Bill Requiring Dinesh D'Souza's 'America' Be Shown in Schools

See also: 
Dinesh D'Souza Explains How Costco, Google And The New York Times Are Conspiring Against Him

Right-wing activist and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza is convinced that Costco, Google and the New York Times are working together to suppress his new book, “America: Imagine the World Without Her” and its companion movie of the same name, which liberals hate because they hate America .

D’Souza sat down with One American News Network’s Rick Amato on Wednesday to explain how liberal executives at the three companies are working to suppress his book: Costco by pulling his book from its shelves citing low ratings on the New York Times bestseller list, the New York Times by somehow doctoring its bestseller list to keep him off it, and Google for sending people who search for his movie “America” to listings for his previous movie “2016: Obama’s America” (obviously a liberal plot).

Congressman Vows to Investigate Google Searches of 'America' Movie (Exclusive)
(Bare in mind all this is being said whilst the title of the movie was "America")

Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a frequent foe of Google, is demanding to know why the giant Internet company was fumbling the search results for Dinesh D'Souza's movie America for nearly three weeks.

Shortly after the movie opened wide on July 2, the filmmakers complained to Google that Internet users looking for showtimes and locations were sometimes misdirected to the wrong movie. On other occasions, an image of the film's poster was incorrect or a description of the movie was wrong.

Rohrabacher tells The Hollywood Reporter that he's so disturbed by Google's behavior he intends on discussing it Wednesday during the House Republican Conference, which is the party caucus for Republicans in the House of Representatives.

"This doesn't deserve to be ignored. We need to verify the statistics in some way, and I will be suggesting the appropriate committee or subcommittee have some kind of hearing on this," Rohrbacher said. "We know there were significant incidences, and that would suggest there was intent behind Google's nonperformance."

Obama Derangement Syndrome: How D'Souza thinks
For some very interesting background/insight on D'Souza's:

And if I were to try to understand his thinking using the same methods he uses to interpret Mr Obama, I might look to his Indian background, which is where he says he gained his insight into anti-colonialism. Mr D'Souza notes simply that he grew up in Mumbai, but a more complete accounting is that his parents were members of the Christian community in the state of Goa, which was colonised by Portugal. The last name "D'Souza" is a common family name in West Africa, where it indicates that the family is descended from the slave-trading coastal mixed-race elite. In India, however, it indicates that the family likely belongs to the Roman Catholic Brahmins, Hindu Brahmins who were converted by missionaries beginning in the 17th century. Interestingly, the Christian community in Goa retained a Hindu-style caste system, with Catholic Brahmins continuing to discriminate against Catholic dalit or "untouchables", whom they refer to as mahara or chamaar. Elite Catholic Brahmin households in Goa sent their children to Jesuit schools (like the one Mr D'Souza attended) and often spoke Portuguese at home, referring to the main local native language, Konkani, as the lingua des criados ("language of servants").

Anti-gay US activist tells his radio listeners the Nazi Party began in a gay bar in Munich | Gay Star News

Fischer needs to get his head out of revisionist heaven and read something other than Scott Lively's book The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, a book which has been thoroughly debunked and refuted by historian's. All one needs to do is read Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals to understand the homophobia within the Nazi Party and the victimization of homosexuals as a whole.

What is astounding, he is repeating the same bullshit rhetoric he did back in 2011:

But none of these GOP hopefuls have challenged Fischer, who insists that Adolf Hitler and many of his storm troopers were gay. "So it was homosexual thugs that helped Hitler to form the Nazi Party," Fischer told a radio audience in June, adding that the party began "in a gay bar in Munich."

The truth is precisely the opposite, as historians such as Geoffrey Giles and William Spurlin have shown. Rather than coddling or encouraging gays, the Nazis banned homosexual activity as early as 1935. The following year, they established a "Central Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality."

Like the termination of pregnancies, the Nazis maintained, homosexuality would harm the health of the "Volk" -- that is, of the German people. Gays "undermine the natural will to life by propagating an aversion to marriage and the family," one Nazi author wrote in 1938.

Other Nazis worried that gays lacked the masculine virtues to defend the nation during wartime. "The new Germany has no use for criminals and weaklings, perverts and inverts, but requires instead straightforward and sincere manly souls," one propagandist wrote, "and so we must combat homosexuality with the means available to us -- education, observation, the law, the police, and the courts."

And so they did. Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis arrested roughly 100,000 men as homosexuals. Most convicted gays were sent to prison; between 5,000 and 15,000 were interned in concentration camps, where they wore pink triangles to signify their supposed crime.

Zimmerman goes on to say:

"One should not tolerate homosexuality," Hitler told his aide, Joseph Goebbels. "The National Socialist state must be a manly state."

Before Hitler came to power, ironically, German socialists and communists tried to demean the Nazis by suggesting they were gay. The idea was picked up by the U.S. military during World War II, when American propaganda posters showed blond Nazi soldiers winking at each other.

And today, it's mouthed by the likes of Bryan Fischer. Seventy years ago we used anti-gay prejudice to discredit Nazism. Now Fischer is trying to use our hatred of Nazism to discredit gays.

Anti-gay US activist tells his radio listeners the Nazi Party began in a gay bar in Munich | Gay Star News

Barton Backs Down: ‘Christian Nation’ Advocate Corrects Some Of His Bogus Statements About U.S. History | Americans United

It's a start, but a long way to go. Think every time his mouth opens and a lie comes out he should be fined for disinformation. Also it should be noted that the work of Chris Rodda, Liars for Jesus, IMHO has been just as important.

Barton posted the updated video on his WallBuilders website this week, and because Throckmorton has made it something of a mission to debunk Barton, he compared Barton’s 2007 statements with his newer ones. He concluded that the pseudo scholar has made progress toward the truth, but quite a bit of distortion still remains in Barton’s version of history.

Barton Backs Down: ‘Christian Nation’ Advocate Corrects Some Of His Bogus Statements About U.S. History | Americans United

New Orleans schools ban creationism and ‘revisionist’ history in rebuke of Texas | The Raw Story

 Was very pleased to read this,,,

The first policy change pertains to the selection of textbooks. “No history textbook shall be approved which has been adjusted in accordance with the State of Texas revisionist guidelines nor shall any science textbook be approved which presents creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories,” it reads.

The second policy change prohibits teachers from taking the matter into their own hands. “No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach any aspect of religious faith as science or in a science class,” it reads. “No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach creationism or intelligent design in classes designated as science classes.”

New Orleans schools ban creationism and ‘revisionist’ history in rebuke of Texas | The Raw Story