Conversation

David Barton isn’t just a primary pitchman for the Ten Commandments law in Texas

His fingerprints appear on 28 bills that have cropped up before the legislatures in 18 states this year.

A data analysis of the bills exposes how their language, structure and requirements are inherently identical.

In dozens of instances, they match model legislation pitched by Barton verbatim.

At the Texas hearing, Barton’s eyes fixated on the cover of the rare 1782 Aitken Bible.
“It also says it’s ‘a neat Edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools,’” he continued. “It has the Ten Commandments.”

In actuality, Barton lifted language from Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken
calling on Congress to sanction a Bible that could also be for
“the use of schools.”

Christian nationalists have for years falsely claimed the Revolutionary-era printing includes a government promotion of Christianity.

Barton has long been accused of taking historical quotes out of context,
and in 2012, the Christian publisher of his bestselling book on Thomas Jefferson ceased its production because “basic truths just were not there.”

Texas is one of three states in the last two years to pass a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in public schools.

The mandates are part of a coordinated nationwide effort to overturn a 1980 Supreme Court ruling forbidding Kentucky from requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.

https://www.the74million.org/article/state-laws-requiring-ten-commandments-in-schools-are-the-product-of-a-far-right-bill-mill/