The Power and Importance of Truth: National Historian David Barton (Right) and Rick Green (Left), founder of Patriot Academy, discuss the importance of truth and facts throughout our nation’s history. Together they urged those that attended to defend the truth.
A large, multi-generational crowd gathered at Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park in March to watch a live presentation of “Truth” by one of America’s premier historians, David Barton of Wallbuilders Library and Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas. Wallbuilders houses more than 100,000 original founding-era documents and artifacts which Barton studies extensively to understand and explain the truth about our nation’s Christian history and heroes.
Among those in attendance were some who traveled hundreds of miles to hear Barton’s insights on the biggest issues facing America today.
“My daughter attended David Barton’s Leadership Training Program in Texas over the summer. It changed her in such a positive way that I couldn’t fathom missing this opportunity to hear him in person,” said Stephanie Aguilar of Bakersfield.
Barton asserted at the opening of his talk that “Truth is on life support.”
He backed up the claim with current statistical polling showing that three out of five Americans believe there is no absolute moral truth. Even among Christians, he said, half believe there is no absolute moral truth. Truth and facts, Barton noted, have been replaced by personal opinions.
Barton then laid out the status of truth in the areas of standardized school testing, science, economics and history.
“Standardized school tests have changed, where truth is no longer the base,” he explained, sharing that in America, we no longer use the same measurements from state to state, and therefore, there is no accurate comparison of academic achievement. In this way, each state can feel good about its outcomes whether or not its results are actually worthy.
In the field of science, Mr. Barton reminded attendees that studies now reach opposite conclusions on everything from mask-wearing to climate change because science has become subject to personal opinion and what people want to believe. Barton pointed out the obvious — that science is not based on anyone’s opinion and that rejecting the truth or believing a lie leads to actions with harmful consequences. For example, he said, if he had emulated his childhood hero, Superman, and tried to fly from the top of a tall building, he would have splatted to the ground no matter how good his intentions.
Turning to economics, Barton noted that the U.S. has had the most prosperous economic system in the world for the past several decades. He cited sobering polling, showing that 75 percent of college students, 69 percent of millennials and 41 percent of all Americans want to change to socialism. He punctuated this with the fact that in 5,800 years of recorded history, no nation has ever transitioned from a free market system to socialism and maintained freedom and prosperity. While many Americans believe that all forms of government are the same, Barton pointed out that we now see Americans with tattoos and T-shirts bearing the Communist hammer and sickle symbol. Sadly, these folks either don’t know history, or they reject the truth of communism’s deadly consequences, given that communism killed hundreds of millions of people in the last century and a half.
“Do we really think that communism is going to be a good replacement for what America has been?” Barton inquired of the audience.
Concluding with hope, Barton emphasized that we need to love the truth more than our own opinions. Loving the truth will cause us to work harder to find the truth since it is no longer readily available via the media, schools or even search engines. Instead of accepting hearsay and second-hand witnesses, he urged people to go to original sources and writings and bona fide experts.
Barton then urged those in attendance to defend the truth boldly. He cited a survey in which 77 percent of respondents with traditional values said they self-censored to avoid losing friends or to keep their positions in society. To counter this trend, Barton encouraged hearers to have the courage to speak and defend the truth. By doing this, he assured listeners, they would eventually draw others to the truth as well.
“Mr. Barton is my historian hero,” said Teresa Baker of San Diego. “Tonight’s event impressed upon me how imperative it is to defend the truth.”
