Here is the title of the post: David Barton Ruined Conservative Christianity for Me: A Call for Stories.
A sample:
By Shaney Lee, HARO Board Member
Recently, a group of homeschool alumni were sharing stories of their “lightbulb moment”: a moment when we realized that we had been taught an agenda, rather than how to think for ourselves, and when we realized that the strains of conservative Christianity we had been raised with were grossly flawed. Some of us are still Christians and some are not, but we all had that “moment” where we realized we wanted to go a different direction with our lives.
As a result of that conversation, Homeschoolers Anonymous has decided to open up a call for stories from homeschool alumni about their “lightbulb moments.” The purpose of this series is twofold: One, to shed light on the individuals and ideas that need to be weeded out from the homeschooling community; two, to allow homeschooled individuals to tell their stories. Those who don’t continue in conservative Christianity as adults are often referred to as “apostates” or assumed to be “backslidden.” We want to give alumni a chance to share their side of the story.
To start off the call for stories, I wanted to share my story. This is the story of when I realized I needed to find a different path.
*****
In October 2012 I was invited to the annual banquet for Texas Alliance for Life (TAL). Being a pro-life individual and lover of fancy events, I decided to go, despite not being thrilled with their keynote speaker: David Barton. At that point, Barton had recently been in WORLD News because his most recent book, The Jefferson Lies, had been rejected as full of inaccuracies by conservative Christian historians, and Thomas Nelson eventually decided to pull the book entirely.
Well, I certainly remember that event. Shaney then summarized the talk Barton gave and realized the audience had been hoodwinked. Go to her post to read about it.
In this room were NCFCA coaches, parents, and adult alumni. People who had taught me debate, logic, and rhetoric. Yet here they were, applauding a man who had just fed them lies, logical fallacies, and more fluff than a cotton field.
Something inside of me broke that night. I realized that I couldn’t trust these people to have given me a solid foundation of any sort. When given false assurance that their beliefs were correct and would prevail, they ate it up.
So I started questioning everything.
I have encountered quite a few students here at Grove City who were told many false things by Barton and teachers like him at youth conferences or in church and face a crisis of faith when they learn that the teachings are far away from reality. It is positive that they have this crisis here in an environment that is supportive with respect to matters of doubt and faith. Otherwise, I think they might cast it all aside.
Shaney ends with sobering words:
I tell my story today not to belittle conservative Christians. I still know many who are good, honest people. I tell my story as a wake-up call to conservatives, especially to the conservative Christian homeschool community. If you continue to teach your children based on David Barton’s “history” or Ken Ham’s “science,” continue to follow leaders who then get exposed as sexual abusers, and don’t teach your children true logic and critical thinking, I predict the homeschool movement will eventually collapse under its own weight.
Despite being warned, Missouri Baptists are sponsoring David Barton tomorrow and the next day at a conference in Springfield, MO.
