The local conservative columnist speaks out
Published by Jeff, February 20th, 2004 in ReligionOnce again, Ms. Tamara Hall, a columnist in the local paper, has decided to say something moronic. After such gems as talk radio is filled with “straight shootin’ truth tellers” and accusing our mayor being a communist, she’s back with a take on those “activist judges.” Apparently Montana conservatives don’t get all the memos, because she breaks out this:
“We have staked the whole 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 of God.”
James Madison, fourth president known as “The Father of Our Constitution”
Which is, of course, not real. She also uses a quote from Patrick Henry:
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Patrick Henry, patriot and Founding Father of America
I’ve seen that pronounced questionable, but nothing more. If anyone knows if it’s real or not, it’d be appreciated, though I’ve already sent my letter to the Chronicle in.
The rest is blather about us being a Christian nation and judges creating an oligarchy or something. I dunno. She’s odd.
Alot of these quotes seem to have been “discovered” by a group called the WallBuilders led by David Barton. This was well discussed in an article that originally appeared in Church & State. Here’s another Church & State article for more background on Barton.
Scholars managed to embarrass Barton and the WallBuilders into at least partially retracting some of their quotes and admitting that they were “unconfirmed.”
As for the Patrick Henry quote, after much hedging on Henry’s views on religion, Barton admits:
Thanks! I knew the first one came from Barton, but I wasn’t sure about the second. Hopefully the paper will have the guts to issue a correction for her column. I doubt she would. Meh, I don’t even know if papers issue corrections for opinion columns.