Taking Back "Religion" from the Far Right

            David Barton, a self-styled historian lauded by the far right, recently made the media rounds for the promotion of his new book The Jefferson Lies.  Barton purports to rehabilitate Thomas Jefferson from his reputation as a Godless secular atheist and claim him for the Christian right.

            Barton is on a mission to convince the nation that far right Christian ideology should dominate American law, politics, and culture.  And diversity-minded Americans, who welcome all Christians and non-Christians into the Great Conversation the Constitution set in motion, are unknowingly giving aid to his cause.  As a result, they are contributing to Barton’s undermining of the legacy of religious pluralism that the founders bequeathed to America.