Johnson Wins Speakership, Reads Fake Prayer From Thomas Jefferson
Mike Johnson previously claimed the founders intended the U.S. to have a Christian government using spurious quotes from President John Quincy Adams and Alexis de Tocqueville.
Christian-Nation Idea Fuels US Conservative Causes, But Historians Say it Misreads Founders’ Intent
The U.S. Constitution doesn’t mention Christianity or any specific religion. Yet large numbers of Americans believe the founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation, and many believe it should be one.
Speaker Johnson Doesn’t Know How Walls Work
This issue of A Public Witness looks back at Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Baptists penned 202 years ago this week and explores why prominent figures deliberately misrepresent the metaphorical “wall of separation” between church and state.
Warren Throckmorton Takes On David Barton and ‘Christian Nationalists’ Revisionist History’
Despite past controversy, Barton’s influence has found an eager audience with the rise of Christian Nationalism in the age of Trump.
The Activist Behind Opposition to the Separation of Church and State
In 1993, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., founder of Liberty University and co-founder of the Moral Majority, promoted a book called “The Myth of Separation” by a Texan named David Barton. According to a Christian Century report, less than a month later on Falwell’s television