My first reaction was disappointment that George Barna would team up with document collector Barton. It is hard to imagine a more unified reaction from scholars, Christian and not, against Barton’s approach to history than occurred in 2012-2013. In August 2012, Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies was pulled from publication by Thomas Nelson due to lost confidence in the books facts. The book was voted least credible history book in print by readers of the History News Network. Academic reviewers were uniform in their criticism of the book. In 2013, the Family Research Council removed from view a video of Barton’s Capitol tour, and Focus on the Family had to admit that they edited radio presentations to remove errors. The actions taken by FRC and Focus on the Family followed complaints to the organizations by over three dozen Christian historians.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Thockmorton: "Reactions to the New Book by George Barna and David Barton, Part One"
Read it here. A taste:
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3 comments:
Pure ad hom.
Tom Van Dyke defames Warren Throckmorton, Pure ad hom.
Besides misrepresenting Mr. Throckmorton's argument, Mr. Van Dyke misconstrues the definition of an ad hominem.
Warren Throckmorton reports that the book's authors are making the case "we" should go back to beliefs "we" once held; as if there was one "we" and they believed what Mr. Barton believes. This where people literate in history already know that Mr. Barton makes a living misrepresenting prior generations' beliefs regarding the relationship between church and state.
We also observe Mr. Throckmorton citing new false assertions by the fraud David Barton and thereby re-validating his objection to anyone taking Barton seriously. Here's one example in the post Jon Rowe links to of a false claim by Barton that Throckmorton cites in his blog post:Early Americans believed that God’s Word applied to every aspect of daily life—a fact documented by any perusal of early sermons.[1]
I presume this blog's readers, with the possible exception of a mere delusional handful, realize the absurdity of this claim. Therefore I won't take the time to validate that what some preachers claimed in published sermons is not necessarily representative of what Americans of that time or the framers concluded or advocated when these sermons were published.
So with this quote alone we can demonstrably falsify that Mr. Throckmorton's blog post is "pure ad hom" as Tom Van Dyke falsely claims. Mr. Thorkmorton points out that Barton's history is that of a fraud where he then validates that Barton's new publication is also simply not true by citing evidence of such.
What we do observe here is Mr. Van Dyke's serial effort to avoid or deny what's actually happening when someone on the right's behavior is being accurately reported.
The remedial quality of Mr. Van Dyke's transparent diversions has me wondering if this is some sort of attempt at performance art given they're at the standard of Victoria Jackson's rhetoric. So one can't be sure if such blatant absurdities and remedial fallacies are to entertain us; I don't find them entertaining - just hateful, divisive, and stupid. That's given how difficult it is to believe that any human being could seriously promote such ludicrous arguments, e.g., "pure ad hom" when Mr. Throckmorton instead cited convincing evidence for his conclusion that David Barton remains a fraud.
I think this blog's readers would be better served if the bloggers had zero tolerance for its own bloggers defaming others and lying. We know Mr. Van Dyke's position on standards based on recent comment posts he's made in response to my comment posts. He alone wants to play by a set of dishonest standards where those who call him out on his lies and logical fallacies "go away".
It is of course a privilege to post comments here where being allowed to is up to the administrators of the blog. So I make my case here knowing this fact in hopes of seeing higher standards practiced by those who blog here given the importance I hold on our mutually being literate in American history when it comes to church-state issues.
1] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/30/reactions-to-the-new-book-by-george-barna-and-david-barton-part-one/#ixzz3HvJKWiNW
Tom Van Dyke defames Warren Throckmorton, Pure ad hom.
I was referring to the excerpt.
As for Throckmorton's "rebuttal," it's pure opinion for which he offers no affirmative argument.
As for your attack on me, all of the above. Please go back to that other blog.
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