Old Book Blows Smoke…
Jonathan Rowe on Dec 29th 2007
About America’s “Christian” Foundations. Conservative websites such as Townhall, American Vision, and WorldNetDaily promote or sell this book, written in 1864, Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States … By Benjamin Franklin Morris, which supposedly settled the fact of American government’s Christian heritage before the secularists came along and stole that history by revising it. I’m sure many have bought the book (which, given that it’s in the public domain, they didn’t have to; they could have legally downloaded it for free); but probably few have read it.
History, like science, given both involve acquiring knowledge, tends to improve with time and experience. Seriously, this is like appealing to a science book written in 1864 to settle a factual matter. I haven’t even scratched the surface of this book and have found it riddled with factual errors. The book immediately begins citing the phony quotations most notably associated with David Barton and it sources many of the myths for which serious historians ridicule the “Christian Nation” crowd.
For instance on page 520 Morris repeats Parson Mason Weems’ fraudulent account of Washington’s “Christian” death. (For the real story see the following).
Great as he was in life, he was also great in death. He had fought the good fight, and death to him had no terrors.” His death was worthy of his Christian faith and character. ” I die hard,” said he; “but I am not afraid to die. I should have been glad, had it pleased God, to die a little easier; but I doubt not it is for my good. ‘Tis well! Father of mercies, take me to thyself.” On his dying bed lay an open Bible, the book of God, which he had read in the family circle and in his private devotions, and in the light of its heavenly truths his great soul passed, doubtless, into the light and immortality of heaven.
From what I’ve been able to garner, this book’s historiography is laughable.
Filed in The Belfry, The Bookshelf, The Bureau
I did a quick search for critical reviews of the book and didn’t find any. I found some praise for the book, some of it very recent (This month!).
Thank you for posting the name of the book. I accidentally erased the site that was selling it and had forgotten the name. My wife would like to buy it for me for Father’s Day. Have a good day.
Ray,
She can download it for free via google books linked above.
Bah. Humbug. Another wingnut tempest in a teapot based on a tired old appeal to outdated “scholarship”……….
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Jon,
Gary DeMar would like you to create a list of the substantiated errors you’ve found in Morris’s book and send those to him. He also asks that you then evaluate every other book on history that is published today against America’s Christian history and challenges you to do the same with them.
I’m a new student to history and I enjoy hearing different perspectives. I’d much rather have a more accurate portrayal of history and so I’d really appreciate your insight into what you perceive (and have found substantiated) as errors in this book.
Thanks so much!
Cheryl L. Stansberry
Cheryl,
I can do this, but realize that’s a very big book and I made my claim by doing a quick peruse — a “sample” if you will — where I found a number of errors in the brief passages I read. Trying to find all errors in the entire book by putting it through the scholarly microscope is something that will take many hours of work and I’m about to begin a summer “B” session session at my community college where my teaching load goes from 3 to 5 classes. And then during Fall ‘08 I’m slated to teach 24 credits. So, this venture, when complete would be months in the future.
Even though I’m not a professional historian, history as I understand it, is an evolving science, not unlike medicine (except medicine doesn’t have as much ideology). You don’t “judge” in a normative sense, a medical book written in the 1800s by today’s standards; yet, good MDs don’t use books from the 1800s as their final authority either.
There is much info in the BF Morris book that could indeed provide persuasive arguments for America’s Christian heritage. However, such a book needs to meet the scholarly standards of 2008 not of 1864.
Mr. Rowe,
Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body was first published in 1858. Yet, MDs still make reference to this pre-1864 book. That’s because a book’s age—even in the medical profession—does not determine whether it’s contents are accurate. Granted, Gray’s Anatomy is still referenced because it has satisfied the “scholarly standards of 2008”—but such standards demand more than “a quick peruse” or what you’ve “been able to garner.” If MDs applied your “scholarly standards” to Gray’s Anatomy, the medical profession would be lacking a critical study on human anatomy, simply because it was old.
I have to second Ms. Stansberry’s post: if you plan to attack a work, you should conduct a serious review of the text. You should not selectively “sample” parts the book and then offer a blanket condemnation. And if you beleive a busy teaching schedule is an excuse for lowering your “scholarly standards”—you shouldn’t be teaching in the first place.
Story,
What matters is from what little I looked into BF Morris’ book, I already FOUND MULTIPLE ERRORS. What, do you think, the remaining 90% of the book that I haven’t read is error free? I doubt it.
In 15 minutes of more perusing I just found 2 more errors.
On p. 248 he repeats the “unconfirmed quotation” that many secularists do that Hamilton said “we forgot,” when asked why God wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution.
And on pp. 252-53 he repeats the myth of a three day recess and adoption of Franklin’s call to prayer at the Constitution Convention. What actually happened was that they didn’t even vote on Franklin’s call to prayer, didn’t pray (at least not officially) and moved on with their secular business.