Monday, September 22, 2003
With Liars, all things are possible
J. Kenneth Blackwell, Republican from the "With God, all things are possible" state, and current Ohio Secretary of State, recently visited Ashland University's Ashbrook Center in Ashland, Ohio to speak before the gathered there upon the river. Blackwell spoke before an audience at the Ashbrook Center and the entire visitation was distributed via C-Span as "part of the American Perspectives' sequence on religion and cultural values in the U.S."
Blackwell's sermon on the brook, delivered on Wednesday September 10th, in the year of our Didelphis marsupialis the Great O'Possum 2003, concentrated upon the subject of "Religious Liberty: The Most Precious of our Liberties", issues of separation of church and state, and injecting the buzz phrase "public square" into the oratory whenever possible.
As C-Span's program description page describes the event:
C-Span's program description doesn't mention which groups constitute "groups such as his" but one would assume they may include such outfits as Youth for Christ and the Heritage Foundation. Two "groups" for which Blackwell is apparently cozy.
Blackwell ensured the faithful in Ashland that our nation's Founders were certainly walking with Him when they honed the affairs of the new nation and by no means intended to exclude Biblically mandated higher laws and numerous commandments and other Wordy dispositions from official intent and the operations of state. To further illuminate this holy conclusion with respect to the Founding Fathers' supposed "Hang 10" sympathies spellbinder Blackwell unleashed the "historical" proof of such sentiment by regaling the audience with a bit of advice from James Madison. According to Blackwell Madison instructed "each and every one of us to live in accordance with the Ten Commandments." What Blackwell told the audience is actually a variation of the following - and attributed to James Madison.
Well, that sure sounds impressive if you're listing to the theocratic starboard side of the leaky boat. The only problem with this morsel above and Blackwell's version is that James Madison never said any of it.
The quote is a fabrication. And Blackwell's interpretation is a fabrication of a fabrication. No one has ever discovered any such statement in any of James Madison's writings. The Madison misquote has been debunked over the years by historians, journalists and researchers familiar with Madison's writings. The origins of the fabrication apparently dates back to an article appearing in a 1959 issue of Progressive Calvinism. The author of the PC article cites a 1958 calendar called "the calendar of Spiritual Motivation" as the source for Madison's fictional words.
Not to be denied, the spry fabrication reappeared more recently in a book titled "The Myth of Separation" (1989) by Christian Reconstructionist, historical revisionist and "Christian Nation" propagandist David Barton of Wallbuilders Inc. For more on Barton see WallBuilders' Shoddy Workmanship by Rob Boston. Barton himself was eventually willing to concede that the quote was false and that several other quotes appearing in his book, and attributed to Founding Fathers, were also either completely false or of questionable origins. Barton's book was later purged of at least a dozen false or questionable quotations, including the Madison entry. The book was later re-titled and re-issued as Original Intent.
"Facts are stupid things" ~ Ronald Reagan
Alas, such negative nit-pickery on the part of naysayers and uppity elitist academic types and even hucksters like Barton himself hasn't stopped celebrated fellers like Ohio Secretary of State J.K Blackwell (among others) from further propagation of such phony mumbo jumbo in the "public square". Other transmitters of fabulous contrivances, including Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough who have each introduced the make believe quotation on past occasions, continue to shop it around. The phony quote remains a favorite of pundits, politicians and preachers, especially on the Christian Right, despite its fictional origin.
Former Congressman Scarborough introduced his own version of the false Madison quote before Congress (March 1997) while arguing on behalf of HR 31 permitting the display of the Ten Commandments in "government offices" and "courthouses".
Scarborough's sale of "political gimmick" doesn't surprise me. I've come to expect such stunts from the likes of Scarborough given he's little more than a flash in the pan cable-TV media grifter and slippery GOP pol-operative with a go-light from those frauds at MSNBC. But one would think that someone with Blackwell's credentials, and they're impressive, would know better than to be running around spewing fanciful historical bunk. One would think. Wouldn't they? Hah!
In any case. All of this reminded me of a couple of things James Madison actually did write.
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Govts. do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Govt." [James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822]
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure & perpetuate it, needs them not."
[James Madison, 8. A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785.]
It's a real shame J. Kenneth Blackwell has never read anything James Madison wrote. Someone should buy him a book for Christmas.
More on the Subject Here
Blackwell's sermon on the brook, delivered on Wednesday September 10th, in the year of our Didelphis marsupialis the Great O'Possum 2003, concentrated upon the subject of "Religious Liberty: The Most Precious of our Liberties", issues of separation of church and state, and injecting the buzz phrase "public square" into the oratory whenever possible.
As C-Span's program description page describes the event:
He [Blackwell] takes the opposite point of view of Barry Lynn and says groups such as his have misinterpreted the Founding Fathers' concept of separation of church & state.
C-Span's program description doesn't mention which groups constitute "groups such as his" but one would assume they may include such outfits as Youth for Christ and the Heritage Foundation. Two "groups" for which Blackwell is apparently cozy.
Blackwell ensured the faithful in Ashland that our nation's Founders were certainly walking with Him when they honed the affairs of the new nation and by no means intended to exclude Biblically mandated higher laws and numerous commandments and other Wordy dispositions from official intent and the operations of state. To further illuminate this holy conclusion with respect to the Founding Fathers' supposed "Hang 10" sympathies spellbinder Blackwell unleashed the "historical" proof of such sentiment by regaling the audience with a bit of advice from James Madison. According to Blackwell Madison instructed "each and every one of us to live in accordance with the Ten Commandments." What Blackwell told the audience is actually a variation of the following - and attributed to James Madison.
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments."
Well, that sure sounds impressive if you're listing to the theocratic starboard side of the leaky boat. The only problem with this morsel above and Blackwell's version is that James Madison never said any of it.
The quote is a fabrication. And Blackwell's interpretation is a fabrication of a fabrication. No one has ever discovered any such statement in any of James Madison's writings. The Madison misquote has been debunked over the years by historians, journalists and researchers familiar with Madison's writings. The origins of the fabrication apparently dates back to an article appearing in a 1959 issue of Progressive Calvinism. The author of the PC article cites a 1958 calendar called "the calendar of Spiritual Motivation" as the source for Madison's fictional words.
Not to be denied, the spry fabrication reappeared more recently in a book titled "The Myth of Separation" (1989) by Christian Reconstructionist, historical revisionist and "Christian Nation" propagandist David Barton of Wallbuilders Inc. For more on Barton see WallBuilders' Shoddy Workmanship by Rob Boston. Barton himself was eventually willing to concede that the quote was false and that several other quotes appearing in his book, and attributed to Founding Fathers, were also either completely false or of questionable origins. Barton's book was later purged of at least a dozen false or questionable quotations, including the Madison entry. The book was later re-titled and re-issued as Original Intent.
"Facts are stupid things" ~ Ronald Reagan
Alas, such negative nit-pickery on the part of naysayers and uppity elitist academic types and even hucksters like Barton himself hasn't stopped celebrated fellers like Ohio Secretary of State J.K Blackwell (among others) from further propagation of such phony mumbo jumbo in the "public square". Other transmitters of fabulous contrivances, including Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough who have each introduced the make believe quotation on past occasions, continue to shop it around. The phony quote remains a favorite of pundits, politicians and preachers, especially on the Christian Right, despite its fictional origin.
Former Congressman Scarborough introduced his own version of the false Madison quote before Congress (March 1997) while arguing on behalf of HR 31 permitting the display of the Ten Commandments in "government offices" and "courthouses".
Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for bringing this important issue up. I have to tell my colleagues, it is humorous watching people doing historical cartwheels, trying to rewrite history as radical revisionists have been doing for the past 30 years, trying to tell us that the Ten Commandments is some political gimmick. Well, if it is, it is a political gimmick that the Father of our Constitution also employed.
James Madison, in drafting the Constitution, which radicals now claim to be trying to protect, said, We have staked the future of the American civilization not on the power of government, but on the capacity of Americans to abide by the Ten Commandments of God.
Now, if the revisionists do not like that, that is fine, but please, do not insult Americans' intelligence, please do not try to do a verbal burning of our American history books. Let us talk about the simple facts.
Scarborough's sale of "political gimmick" doesn't surprise me. I've come to expect such stunts from the likes of Scarborough given he's little more than a flash in the pan cable-TV media grifter and slippery GOP pol-operative with a go-light from those frauds at MSNBC. But one would think that someone with Blackwell's credentials, and they're impressive, would know better than to be running around spewing fanciful historical bunk. One would think. Wouldn't they? Hah!
In any case. All of this reminded me of a couple of things James Madison actually did write.
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Govts. do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Govt." [James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822]
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure & perpetuate it, needs them not."
[James Madison, 8. A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785.]
It's a real shame J. Kenneth Blackwell has never read anything James Madison wrote. Someone should buy him a book for Christmas.
More on the Subject Here
