A protest took place Tuesday night outside the Tulsa County GOP headquarters in response to a constitution class that includes teachings from a controversial figure scholars consider a pseudo-historian.
The six-week "Constitution Alive!" course includes material from David Barton, a former Texas GOP vice chair whose work has been widely criticized for promoting a mythologized version of American history, particularly the claim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a myth.
Though the class was originally scheduled to take place at the Tulsa County GOP headquarters on 51st Street, it was moved to an undisclosed location only revealed to those who signed up.
Despite the change in venue, community members gathered outside the GOP building in protest.
“The United States is not a Christian nation,” said Rex Berry, a retired Tulsa police officer who joined the protest. “Anything other than that, saying it’s a Christian nation and we need to follow Christian principles and patriotic Christian values, is a lie. It’s a play for power.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Barton’s teachings as a form of religious nationalism.
His 2012 book," The Jefferson Lies," which attempted to argue that Thomas Jefferson was a devout Christian who opposed church-state separation, was pulled from shelves by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson after historians cited numerous factual inaccuracies.
Even conservative Christian scholars have spoken out. Historians Thomas Kidd and Gregg Frazer have both warned that Barton’s work distorts the intentions of the founding fathers and selectively uses sources to promote a Christian nationalist agenda.
“We have Hindus, we have Buddhists, we have Islamists,” said protester Heather Aye,“We have so many people that have a different god than what they’re trying to push—and it’s not fair.”
Gary Peluso-Verdend, president emeritus of Phillips Theological Seminary, said Barton’s teachings represent a narrow and dangerous ideology.
“What Christian nationalism tends to do... is preference one group over others and say: These people have it right. All the rest of you have it wrong,” Peluso-Verdend said. “The courts or a legislature or the president or anybody else who moves away from that kind of white Christian evangelical country founded on the Bible narrative is wrong and must be opposed.”
He added that religious diversity, not uniformity, should be a strength.
“There are many major world religions, and I look at all religion as a means toward trying to make our common habitation a better place for all of us.”
Tulsa County GOP Chair Melissa Myers declined to comment about the class that was promoted on the group’s social media.
