David Barton's Thomas Jefferson saw no need to separate church and state. | AP Photo Historian remains key ally of right

Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were headline attractions at a conference in Iowa this summer that brought hundreds of conservative Christian pastors together to talk faith and politics.

But they weren’t the only draw.


The trim man with silver hair who drew in close to Cruz in a prayer huddle also had considerable star power: the evangelical historian David Barton.

An informal adviser to several prominent Republican politicians, including Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann, Barton argues that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and must return to those roots.

His ideas have shaped the social studies curriculum in his home state of Texas. Now, he’s gunning for even bigger influence, advising state legislators across the country on how to fight the Common Core academic standards that the Obama administration is promoting. And that’s not all; Barton hints he’ll soon be back in the arena of presidential politics, advising candidates looking to appeal to the religious right.

“I remain available to whoever wants to move that ball down the court,” Barton told POLITICO.

Just last summer, that kind of role seemed unlikely. Barton’s reputation was in tatters. It appeared doubtful that an ambitious politician would stand next to him, much less turn to him for advice. But Barton has rebounded so completely that his appearance in the inner circle of the Cruz prayer huddle in Des Moines was deemed a smart move — for Cruz — by political analysts.

Barton has huge standing among “social conservatives that make up a significant base of a caucus electorate,” said Craig Robinson, editor of The Iowa Republican website. “You want to appeal to those people if you’re a Ted Cruz or a Rand Paul.”

Barton’s abrupt, and short-lived, fall from grace began with the publication in April 2012 of his book “The Jefferson Lies,” which portrays Thomas Jefferson as an orthodox Christian who saw no need to separate church and state.

Secular critics had long denounced Barton as a fraud who manipulates and misrepresents history to serve political goals. With the publication of “The Jefferson Lies,” several dozen academics at Christian colleges stepped forward to join the chorus.

Led by Warren Throckmorton, a professor of psychology at Grove City College, the Christian scholars tore apart the new book, pointing out a bevy of errors and distortion. Several pastors picked up the thread, organizing a boycott of Barton’s publisher, the Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson. The critiques gained so much steam that Barton’s book was voted “the least credible history book in print” in an online poll by the History News Network.

Barton rejected the barrage of criticism as mean-spirited, politically motivated and just plain wrong. But in August, his publisher withdrew “The Jefferson Lies.” A senior executive explained to NPR that Thomas Nelson couldn’t stand by the book because “basic truths just were not there.”

It was a stunning repudiation of Barton’s credibility.

But to his critics’ astonishment, Barton has bounced back. He has retained his popular following and his political appeal — in large part, analysts say, because he brings an air of sober-minded scholarship to the culture wars, framing the modern-day agenda of the religious right as a return to the Founding Fathers’ vision for America.

“It has been shocking how much resistance there is to critically examining what Barton says,” said Scott Culpepper, an associate professor of history at Dordt College who has critiqued Barton’s scholarship. “I really underestimated the power of the political element in evangelicalism.”

In March, Barton gave his presentation on America’s biblical heritage to dozens of state legislators in Kansas. In May, he spoke at the official National Day of Prayer breakfast at the Fort Leonard Wood Army base in Missouri. He rallied activists at the National Right to Life Convention in June with a rousing speech drawing on the Declaration of Independence to make the case for abortion restrictions. Cruz followed Barton in the program and echoed his analysis to thunderous applause.

“I’m not in a position to opine on academic disputes between historians, but I can tell you that David Barton is a good man, a courageous leader and a friend,” Cruz told POLITICO. “David’s historical research has helped millions rediscover the founding principles of our nation and the incredible sacrifices that men and women of faith made to bequeath to us the freest and most prosperous nation in the world.”

This fall, Barton will share that message before audiences in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas. He also continues to travel to Washington to lead his signature Capitol tours — sponsored and often attended by members of Congress — at which he expounds on America’s Christian roots.

Radio host Glenn Beck’s publishing company, Mercury Ink, has even announced plans to republish “The Jefferson Lies,” although a spokesman would give no details about timing, print run or whether the manuscript would be edited to address the criticism.

Barton’s enduring popularity “embarrasses the academic community,” Throckmorton said. But, he added, no matter how loud the scholarly chorus, Barton has a trump card: His message “is useful politically.”

Indeed, political strategists say Republican candidates are wise to consult Barton and hitch their wagon to his star.

Barton’s endorsement was widely seen as a big boost for Cruz’s upstart campaign to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. He also campaigned for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in 2010 and has long backed Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

“When it comes to evangelical outreach, there’s nobody more effective than David Barton,” said Jamie Johnson, a member of the Republican Party’s state central committee in Iowa. Johnson led Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to his upset victory in the 2012 Iowa caucus and is backing Cruz for 2016, though he does not officially work for the Texas senator.

Barton, who has a bachelor’s in Christian education from Oral Roberts University, addresses a range of topics in his speeches and in a daily radio program produced by his organization, WallBuilders, which is based in Aledo, Texas. He has dismissed global warming as implausible because of a 15-year plateau in the average temperatures on Earth. He has suggested that the federal government should regulate homosexuality as an unhealthy lifestyle, akin to eating too much trans fat.

But Barton has had the most practical impact in the field of education.

In 2010, Barton helped shape new social studies standards in Texas that emphasize America’s Christian roots and question the validity of separating church and state. (He also pushed to have textbooks describe America’s values as “republican” rather than “democratic.” As he explained at the time, “We don’t pledge allegiance to the flag and the democracy for which it stands.”) He says he has advised on mainstream history textbooks used in other states as well, though he declines to give details.

Lately, Barton has begun raising his voice against the Common Core academic standards, an attempt to raise the rigor of math and language arts instruction in public schools across the U.S. The standards have been promoted by the Obama administration and endorsed by a bipartisan list of governors, but tea party activists have blasted them as a federal power play to squash local control of education.

Last month, Barton guest-hosted Beck’s TV show and devoted the whole hour to Common Core, declaring that it poses “serious problems for the future of the republic” for many reasons. Among his objections: The standards don’t require instruction in cursive, which Barton said would leave students unable to read America’s founding documents and dependent on potentially biased teachers to interpret them.

Numerous state legislators concerned about Common Core regularly contact him for advice, Barton said. And when a tea party group in Oklahoma planned a recent public forum on the standards, organizer Ronda Vuillemont-Smith said she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather have than Barton to explain the case against Common Core.

“He’s a man of honor,” Vuillemont-Smith said. “He’s a well-known figure. If I had asked anyone else, it wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting.”

During their campaign to point out the errors in Barton’s work, his Christian critics asked two of the nation’s biggest evangelical advocacy groups, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, to stop promoting his faulty scholarship.

The FRC responded by quietly pulling from its website a popular video showcasing clips of Barton leading one of his Capitol tours. FRC Vice President Kenyn Cureton said the video was removed because of “a few historical inaccuracies.”

But the group continues to promote Barton elsewhere on its website as a “good friend” and “close ally.”

Focus on the Family, meanwhile, edited two videos on its website featuring a lengthy interview Barton gave to Focus radio. The editing deleted a segment in which Barton declares that Congress printed the first English-language Bible in America — and intended it to be used in schools. That’s one of Barton’s signature stories — it’s a highlight in his Capitol tour — but historians who have reviewed the documentation say it’s simply not true. Focus also cut an inaccurate anecdote about a contemporary legal case, which Barton cited to make the point that society today punishes people of faith.

Asked why the videos were edited, Carrie Gordon Earll, a senior director of public policy at Focus on the Family, at first said they had not been, though before-and-after footage can be publicly viewed on websites archiving Focus broadcasts. Earll then said she could not comment beyond a statement noting that Focus “has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with David Barton” and respects his “broad base of knowledge” about early American history.

In an interview with POLITICO, Barton said his remarks were sometimes taken out of context but defended his scholarship as impeccable.

And he said the controversy last summer did no damage to his standing, “not at all.”

Politicians continue to join him as guests on his daily radio broadcast. Crowds continue to pack his speeches. And Barton said his organization continues to field calls from politicians seeking his advice.

He is, he said, always happy to oblige.