David Barton’s Myths Strike Mike Huckabee
Jonathan Rowe on Oct 24th 2007
Huckabee claimed that the majority of the signers of the Declaration were clergymen. This site notes:
Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it’s a little unclear just how many. The conservative Heritage Foundation said two other signers were former clergymen. The religion web site Adherents.com said four signers of the declaration were current or former full-time preachers. But everyone agrees only Witherspoon was an active minister when he signed the Declaration of Independence.
The site notes the reason for the confusion:
One issue that may contribute to the confusion about which signers had a history in the clergy is that during the time the Declaration was written, people who studied at universities often received doctorates of divinity, a common degree designation, even if they were not working clergy, said Mary Jenkins of the Independence National Historical Park.
Barton is the one who most notably asserts something along the lines of 27 signers of the Declaration of Independence had “seminary” degrees. The reality is, they had degrees from places like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton which were originally founded with orthodox Christian missions.
Something the Christian Nation crowd doesn’t tell us about these “Christian” colleges is during the time the founders (and the ministers they followed) were educated, those colleges became hotbeds of “infidelity” and even the seminary schools trained their ministers in “infidel” principles. The result was Harvard trained ministers like Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel West, and Charles Chauncy embraced theological unitarianism, universalism and rationalism and, in so doing, arguably ceased being “Christian,” (or at least “Christian” as defined by its historic orthodoxy). These men also delivered the most notable and influential pro-revolutionary sermons from the pulpit. And even Witherspoon, who was an orthodox Christian, when he argued for Revolution from the pulpit, left his orthodox Christianity at the church door and instead turned to Locke, the Scottish Enlightenment and rationalism, because the Bible/orthodox Christianity could not provide a sufficient basis to justify revolt while those a-biblical sources could and did.
Filed in The Belfry, The Bureau
Signers of the Declaration of Independence
1. The signers religious work was diverse and included service in both church and para-church ministries (This is also true and reflective of the signers of the Constitution
and those at the Constitutional Convention.) While many were trained for the ministry, not all ultimately pursued the ministry as their career vocation. Nevertheless, they were
early trained in, inclined to, and studied in that profession.
2. *At the time that the signers attended these schools, all of the colleges listed below described themselves as religious seminaries of learning for the religious instruction of youth. While these schools today no longer retain that religious nature, a perusal of both the curriculum and learning objectives at that time would today characterize them as religious seminaries, colleges, or Bible schools. (For example, according to Yale in 1754: “The original end and design of colleges was to instruct, educate, and train up persons for the work of the ministry. . . . [C]olleges are societies of ministers, for training up persons for the work of the ministry.” Thomas Clap, A.M. President of Yale-College, The Religious Constitution of Colleges, Especially of Yale-College in New-Haven (New-London: T. Green, 1754), pp. 1, 4; similar declarations are also found in the writings of Harvard, Princeton, William & Mary, et. al.)
3. Founder State School Minister/Ministry
Adams, John Massachusetts Harvard* Studied for ministry; became an attorney.
Adams, Samuel Massachusetts Harvard*
Braxton, Carter Virginia William and Mary*
Carroll, Charles Maryland Personally built and endowed a house of worship in his area.
Ellery, William Harvard*
Gerry, Elbridge Rhode Island Harvard*
Hall, Lyman Georgia Yale* Clergyman; ordained in September 1749; pastored a church in Bridgeport, Connecticut until later in life when he
later in life when he decided to pursue a career in medicine.
Hancock, John Massachusetts Harvard*
Hewes, Joseph Princeton*
Hooper, William North Carolina Harvard*
Hopkinson, Francis New Jersey College of Philadelphia Helped to organize the Protestant Episcopal Church; music director; chior leader; responsible for the first purely American
first purely American hymnbook, which took the 150 Psalms and set them to music.
Jefferson, Thomas Virginia William and Mary*
Livingston, Philip New York Yale*
McKean, Thomas Delaware Became an attorney and judge but never stopped preaching the Gospel, even in the courtroom. For example, when a
example, when a defendant was sentenced to death, he would deliver a salvation sermon.
Morris, Lewis New York Yale*
Paine, Robert Treat Massachusetts Harvard* Pastor; military chaplain.
Rush, Benjamin Pennsylvania Princeton* Founder of first Bible Society in America; founder of the Sunday School movement in America;
helped found the AME denomination and helped build its first church.
Sherman, Roger Connecticut Theologian; personally wrote the doctrinal creed for his church.
Stockton, Richard New Jersey Princeton*
Thomson, Charles Pennsylvania (Secretary of Congress) Produced Thomson’s Bible - the first translation of the Greek Septuagint English.
into English
Williams, William Connecticut Harvard* Studied theology; served as lay preacher.
Witherspoon, John New Jersey University of Edinbugh Pastor; seminary president.
Wolcott, Oliver Connecticut Yale*
Wythe, George Virginia William and Mary*
Chris,
I really don’t see what the point is. Even if you can find some kernel of truth in Barton’s 27 signers of the Declaration held seminary degrees, it’s nonetheless one big nonsequitur. Meaning, so what?
Among those you listed are John Adams and Jefferson, both of whom were on the drafting board of the Declaration with Jefferson its author. And both were theological unitarians (believed Jesus wasn’t God), universalists (believed all would be saved), and rationalists (believed man’s reason superseded revelation and determined which revelations were legitimately from God), as were the ministers they followed like Mayhew, Chauncy, and West, who really did hold seminary degrees from Harvard. They certainly weren’t orthodox evangelical Christians like Huckabee or Barton. And as theological unitarians, arguably they weren’t “Christians” at all.
Gene Robinson and John Shelby Spong hold seminary degrees too.
Regarding their degress, Doctors of Divinity, it’s almost as if, today, we’d expect a Ph.D. to be a philosopher.
Even if you can find some kernel of truth in Barton’s 27 signers of the Declaration held seminary degrees, it’s nonetheless one big nonsequitur. Meaning, so what?
Well, I’m on record here as being opposed to the Christian Nation thesis, and against those who spread it. (Altho I think most of the harm David Barton has done to the truth was in his more amateur days and due to relying on biased secondary sources rather than an intention to lie. Still, his early work unfortunately has spread all over the internet, and it’s reasonable enough on its face for folks like Huckabee to ingest through no real fault of their own.)
However, away from the front lines where Barton fights, the larger battle in our republic today is about whether the public square should be “naked” of religion. Divinity degrees, regardless of whether they accompany a belief in Jesus-as-God, are relevant in the greater scheme of things, especially since there’s a pushback against the revisionism of the 20th century that made the Founders for practical purposes atheistic.
For example, it’s common knowledge that Jefferson was a deist (the Wiki says so!). Not so, as we learn upon closer inspection—Jefferson feared God’s punishment for national wickedness, in this case slavery:
“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.” [1785]
That’s strong stuff. Now, mileage can and does vary on the issues in 2007, but even the biggest theological outlier of the “key Founders” believed in “supernatural interference” in such matters, which is compatible enough with the Judeo-Christian God for rock’n'roll.