Glenn Beck, 4.8.2010: The Truth About The Founders’ Faith

(H/T to The DailyBeck for the entire show in one clip.)

Glenn’s guest is David Barton of WallBuilders.com who has done the research on the Founding Fathers’ faiths and points out that these men were outspoken Christians. Mr. Barton has the largest collection of original letters and documents from the founding fathers (prior to 1812), and is able to detail the left’s revisionist history meant to change how we think and feel about the founding of our country and the men behind it. David also explains the division of church and state is only applicable to the federal government; nine of the thirteen original states had state religions.

A bit from David’s About Page:

Overview:

WallBuilders is an organization dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built – a foundation which, in recent years, has been seriously attacked and undermined. In accord with what was so accurately stated by George Washington, we believe that “the propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation which disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained.”

Why The Name “Wallbuilders”?
In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, the nation of Israel rallied together in a grassroots movement to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and thus restore stability, safety, and a promising future to that great city. We have chosen this historical concept of “rebuilding the walls” to represent allegorically the call for citizen involvement in rebuilding our nation’s foundations. As Psalm 11:3 reminds us, “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?”

Our Goal:
WallBuilders’ goal is to exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by (1) educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values; and (3) encouraging Christians to be involved in the civic arena.
Educating the Nation

In the first part of this goal, we develop materials to educate the public concerning the periods in our country’s history when its laws and policies were firmly rooted in Biblical principles. As George Washington indicated in his famous “Farewell Address,” previous generations believed such elements were inseparable from America:

Of all the habits and dispositions which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.

For over three centuries, historians presented American history from a broad perspective, but in the 1960s historical writers widely embraced what today is called the “economic view of American history” whereby economic causes are the primary and almost singular emphasis of study. Consequently, students study only “taxation without representation” when they examine the Declaration of Independence rather than important civil, governmental, and moral principles addressed in that document.

WallBuilders returns to the historical approach long utilized by the nation’s pre-eminent historians. As Charles Coffin (a best-selling author of school history texts in the nineteenth century) reminded teachers in his text, The Story of Liberty:

You will notice that while the oppressors have carried out their plans and had things their own way, there were other forces silently at work which in time undermined their plans – as if a Divine hand were directing the counter-plan. Whoever peruses the story of liberty without recognizing this feature will fail of fully comprehending the meaning of history. There must be a meaning to history or else existence is an incomprehensible enigma.

This broad and thus much more inclusive approach to American history characterized the work of influential historians and educators from George Bancroft (“The Father of American History”) to Noah Webster (“The Schoolmaster to America”) to Emma Willard (“The Pioneer of Women’s Education in America”), John Fiske, and countless others. In fact, to exclude non-economic events and motivations is to present a biased view of history. As explained by U. S. Department of Education history researcher Dr. Paul Vitz:

Bias is primarily accomplished by exclusion. . . . Such a bias is much harder to observe than a positive vilification or direct criticism, but it is the essence of censorship.

WallBuilders presents an uncensored view of American history, thus not only giving meaning to history but also keeping it from becoming what Charles Coffin termed “an incomprehensible enigma.”