We already know Christian pseudo-historian David Barton‘s research skills are as strong as his math skills, which is to say they’re both awful.

In his latest math blunder (a “faux pi”?), Barton claimed on his radio show “WallBuilders Live” that more Christians were killed last year than the previous 2,000 years combined!

Barton: … There were more Christians martyred for Jesus Christ last year than in the previous two thousand years combined. Just last year. [Co-host] Rick Green: It’s hard to imagine. And it tells you how little we are, in fact, paying attention to it.

It’s hard to imagine because it’s not true.

Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla shares a study released by a Christian organization, Open Doors, that gives us actual numbers:

Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said.

Just over 2,100 Christians died because of their faith, they said. Granted, one is too many, but for Barton to be right, that would mean, as Mantyla put it, “up until 2013, there had basically been only one Christian killed per year.”

It’s far more likely that Barton is just making things up. Because he knows his gullible Christian audience will never bother to fact-check anything he says.



