How is it that religious people end up being so clueless and gullible about matters they claim are so important? A recent post on CNN's Belief blog went on about how Kirk Cameron has recently emerged as a Christian activist. Really?! Apparently he's been so effective that most Christians were unaware that he has been the butt of jokes, rightly so, for over a decade. He has been Ray Comfort's (AKA the Banana Man) better looking sidekick since the early 2000's. The two of them founded The Way of the Master back in 2002. If you want to laugh at some truly horrible cheesy bullshit check out their website.
Despite being around and routinely seeking to grab headlines with a variety of media aimed stunts* the Belief blog post was titled "With 'Monumental' Kirk Cameron emerges as Christian activist." Perhaps by "emerges" Marrapodi really meant "he's at it again." The only real difference between this and previous antics is that the media actually is paying a little more attention. I have no idea why, though. This project is no better than previous ones. However, about a third of the way into his fluff piece Marapodi reveals what is probably the most important detail about Cameron's Monumental film.
"The new documentary has faced criticism for its inclusion of self-taught evangelical Christian historian David Barton.
A favorite among evangelicals for his Christian-centric views of the Founding Fathers and his vast collection of historical documents, Barton is heavily featured in the film.
'The reason I went to go see David Barton is because he owns the largest collection of original source documents from the founding era that I can get my hands on and that you can go and see,' Cameron said.
'When you look at those documents it becomes incredibly clear there has been a lot of cherry picking of the evidence done to support a very particular worldview, and that’s the worldview our children are learning in school and it’s not the full and complete historical record because it doesn’t reflect the faith of our Founding Fathers,' the actor said."
If you are familiar with Cameron and Comfort it will come as no surprise that he gets things completely backwards. It is the religious right nuts who are doing the "cherry picking." The only way Barton could be seen as a "historian" is if repeatedly getting caught fabricating quotations and entire "sources" is a qualification (his most recent book is a prime example). That is the real reason Cameron went to him. There are no documents that support what he wants to claim. If he really wanted to get access to the real history of the US and a trove of documents that support that history a better place to visit would be the National Archive.
Basically, anyone who pays attention to the ongoing harmful dishonest antics of Religion would already be well aware of buffoons like Cameron. Unfortunately, idiots like him are as dangerous as they are amusing.
I always feel bad at how much I laugh whenever I watch the Comfort-Cameron Banana clip.
* He sort of attempted a debate with the Rational Response Squad in 2007 which in a heavily edited version appeared on Nightline. In 2009 he and Comfort handed out their own cut-and-paste edition of the On the Origin of the Species. They got far more laughs and jeers at the altered version of the book then they seemed to expect even in a country (sadly, I am talking about the US) that does not fully accept evolution. The pair also routinely release little videos meant to support their ministry.
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