He stood out in the hotel lobby like a neon sign. A light-colored cowboy hat contrasted his dark blue jeans; a leather belt with a buckle showing the scene of an eagle spreading its wings held them up on his lanky figure. His name is David Barton, and he’s more comfort­able in these cowpoke studs than the conserva­tive blue suit and the “stars and stripes” tie that has become his signature speaking attire. He’s a historian, a speaker, and an author well known for the numerous hooks and videos his ministry, WàllBuilders, has produced.

A nonchalant confidence defines David Barton. It’s his confidence that makes his cow­boy outfit seem almost “hip” in the middle of the San Francisco hotel lobby, his confidence in his country’s godly heritage and per­sonal knowledge of American history that has made him one of the most sought after speakers in the country. Speaking engage­ments reach 400 annually—more than one a day. His audiences range from Bill Go;hard’s Advance Training Institute to Amway Conventions. He speaks to audiences as large as 20,000 to as small as a few hundred. His expertise assists everyone from teachers and attorneys to home schoolers and lawmakers.

His speaking style, although no-frills and straightforward, keeps audiences on the edge of their seats. At a rapid-fire speed, he dares you to try and take notes. Quoting from our Founding Fathers’ speeches and writ­ings, he sets the record straight on the separation of church and state and the original intent of the authors of our constitution. He speaks with authority, his presentations are seamless and well-researched—confident.

New Attitude met up with Mr. Barton and picked his brain about the state of America today. With his knowledge of the past, we asked him about the present and what part a Christian young person can play in making a difference. Throughout the article his love for his country and dogged devotion to fighting for the truth is evident. As the nation goes to the voting booths this fall, his challenging call to Christian America to rouse herself from a self-induced, apathetic sleep should rally not only political involvement but a commitment to shine alight in our churches and communities.

New Attitude: in your study of the Founding Fathers of our country, is there one in particular, a favorite, that stands out to you?

David Barton: Benjamin Rush may he my number one guy. He started the first Bible society and the first abolitionist society. He started the first College of Physicians, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He started every society you can think of!

Besides Benjamin Rush, there are three that stand out: John Jay, Noah Webster… and I’d probably put John Quincy Adams in there, too. They were real evangelical, real outgoing, brilliant men, brilliant thinkers, some of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen in my life. In the case of John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Rush, they got about four hours sleep a night and felt embarrassed to go to bed because there was so much work they could be doing. Although the others are really remarkable, I think these guys really rise to the top.

Here’s a hypothetical question: If there were some way that those four men could be transported to 1994, and they just pop up, how’ do you think they would react?

They would turn around and go back! They’d say, “We landed at the wrong time. This is not America!” There’s no way that they would believe what they would see being done today...especially in their name. I’ve thought about that a lot, if you issue of the American Revolution, examine the whole it was biblically centered, but one of the issues was taxation; they said, “Wait a minute. You’re taxing us, and we don’t have any say in that. That is theft. You’re taking something from us without our permission, which constitutes theft; and we’ve got a right to stop theft.” So the resistance against taxation was based on the whole biblical concept of theft. These guys picked at over 6% tax, and now we’re looking at over 50% in some cases.

They found so many things that we’re doing today incredible. For example, they found income tax reprehensible. They were also some of the chief guys who said you never allow the Supreme Court to be the final determiner of what’s right and wrong. The whole concept of separation of powers was derived from Jeremiah 17. And so if they popped back into society now and saw the Supreme Court saying that “You do this, and you don’t do this,” they’d go through the roof!

How do you think they’d try to bring about change? Would it be through the political process?

Well, yes, it would be in the political process because at this point we’ve not lost that opportunity. In their day they used the political process for eleven years, petitioning King George III for change, and only stopped using the political process when they were invaded by the British in 1774. So they never got frustrated with hanging in there politically, which is, I think, exactly where they’d be now.

But there’s a difference in their attitude about the process. There’s a great speech by Daniel Webster that I just came across this week. He basically says, “Listen, if America’s going to last, it’s going to be because we raised generation after generation with the concept that when you vote, you’re not voting for yourself. You’re voting for several million people. The lives and the fortunes and the futures of several million rest on every vote you take. So, if you go out there and vote dumb, or if you go out there and don’t vote,” he said, “you’ll answer to God for it.” They had this huge concept of staying in there as a steward­ship; we’re stewards of this government. If it ever goes bad, it’s going to be our fault. It’s not going to be the politi­cians’ fault. It’ll be our fault for letting it go bad. And so they would jump right back in. I don’t think they could imagine the fact that we’ve now got a voter turnout of 30%. They use to have 100% voter turnouts—period.

I also think they’d jump right back in the middle of the pulpits because that’s where most of the American Revolution started. From the pulpits they would get the church marching out, and go right back into the political system. And I think that’s what we ought to do today.

Is there a particular period of history in our country that parallels what we’re going through now, one that can give us a better idea about what we should be doing?

There are some principles, but there’s not a period in history. We have never had a period of history which condoned openly immorality, immoral stands, and unbiblical stands. This is unprecedented in the 400 or so years of written history that we’ve got.

But there are principles for how to deal with this. John Quincy Adams modeled them when he was President. Like most of the founders, he was ardently anti-slavery. He gives us an example of how to fight something when you’re outnumbered and when you don’t have the power.

When he left the presidency, he entered an over­whelmingly pro-slavery House. Monday was petition day in Congress, and you brought in any petition from any citizen for any subject. They would assign it to committees to see if they should pass a law. So on one Monday, he brought in more than 900 anti-slav­ery petitions. This didn’t go well with the pro-slavery House. They got the Rules Committee together, which is exactly what they do today, and the Rules Committee, the most powerful committee in Congress, came up with a new rule that said, “All right, here’s the new rule for Congress: You can intro­duce any petition you want to as long as it’s not anti­slavery.” Which was Adams’ whole purpose for being there. So for the next 14 years he did it anyway. They called him “out of order”; they censured him; they called the Sergeant of Arms. I mean it was a real fias­co. About 13 years into this thing, he’s still banging away at it, still not getting it done. Still won’t let him talk, and when he does talk, they throw him out, and so all this is going on and somebody came to him and asked him, “Don’t you get depressed over this? Doesn’t this disturb you?” And his answer was one of the greatest of all times. He said, “Not at all. Duty is ours; results are God’s. I don’t get in this because of the results; I just get in because it’s the right thing to do. God’s going to turn it out right at the end.”

If we had that mentality and jumped back into society we’d win this thing hands down. Every poll I’ve seen in the last five years, the smallest is 82% of the nation wants prayer back in school. 85% want the Ten Commandments back in; 70% want creation science... I mean, we’re a huge number, but we act like we’re impotent and have no power. If we would just get back in there and not worry about the results, there would be enough of us to change anything we wanted to change.

John Quincy Adams shows us how to fight. In his case, he was in the minority. In our case we’re not.

So do you think Christians are too focused on winning, they’re wanting to beat the other side more than they’re wanting to do what’s right?

We’re too egocentric. We’re too focused on ourselves, and we don’t like losing. And nobody likes con­frontation, and so we stay out of anything that could be confrontational. Nobody likes being called names, and so we stay out of politics because they’re sure to call us the “religious right” names in politics. If the Apostles had this mentality, we’d never have had Christianity reach this generation. We’ve gotten a real wimpy view of things. We just have such thin skin. We’ll do it if it doesn’t offend someone. “I can’t impose my values on people.” Nobody else believes that. Everybody’s going to impose their values on whoever they can.

Bringing this to the level of a young person, how can a teenager realistically, practically, be a part of bringing about change?

Lots of ways. Number one is just jump in the middle of something, whether it be letters to the editor, writing research papers, or getting involved in speech competitions. Jump in there and reclaim some godly history. Give speeches that people have never heard before with informa­tion they’ve never heard.

Second, get involved in a campaign. Some of the best workers for political candidates, godly candidates, have been young people. They’ve got all of the zeal and enthusi­asm so that they can man phone banks and hand out litera­ture. It nearly always takes grass roots support for a godly candidate to get elected because he never gets good media. So if he doesn’t get good grass roots support, he won’t get in there.

Some of the most influential positions are volunteering to serve in congressional offices, district offices, or taking an internship in Washington, DC. They have fellowship programs where they will pay you to come to the White House, to Congress, etc., and that’s a very influential posi­tion. With 13,000 bills a year in federal Congress, I’ve never met a Congressman who reads all those bills. I’ve never met a Congressman who reads many of them at all— not even 10% of them. They give all these bills to the staff, and they say, “Read these and tell me how to vote.” And so if you’re in a Congressman’s office, he’ll give you a stack of bills, and you’ll tell him how to vote on them. And that’s a great, powerful position.

And so in a real sense, Congress is much more run by teenagers than it is by Congressmen. These guys out there

push the buttons on the vote, but they’re told how to vote by teenagers in their office that read those bills and say, “I don’t like this one; you shouldn’t vote for it.”

There are all sorts of powerful ways to get involved or make an difference, a lot of them are behind the scenes, never be noticed, but the person you’re behind will make some huge changes in society.

Is there a particular character trait that you see consistently in great men and women in history?

I would say that integrity as it was defined by Benjamin Rush is the greatest character trait. Benjamin Rush wrote, “By integrity I mean a strict coincidence between thoughts and words and actions.” It’s when what you do is not dif­ferent from what you think or from what you say. When all three line up, when there’s no difference between what you think, and what you say, and what you do, then you have integrity.

I look back, for example, at the American Revolution. You have 56 guys that pledged their life, fortune, and sacred honor, and not a one of them backed out. It cost several their lives. They lost their wives; they lost children. But they wouldn’t back out because they gave their word. And so, keeping their word was the most powerful thing they did. And that’s a Biblical principle. Psalm 15 asks “Who’s going to dwell with God? Who’s going live in His holy hill?” And the last thing it says is, “Those that swear to their hurt and change not.” Those that give their word, and they’ll keep it if it kills them.

So I believe the number one characteristic throughout history that has made great people, and thus great accom­plishments, is integrity—when they give their word, they keep it.