Yesterday, in an April 14, 2015 Twocare.org story, I covered Senator Marco Rubio's close ties to the Miami, FL megachurch Christ Fellowship, which boasts an anti-gay hiring policy and whose head pastor Rick Blackwood - whose sermons Rubio says he specifically goes to the church to hear, rejects Darwin's theory of evolution and promotes exorcism and Young Earth creationism. But Christ Fellowship is not overtly political. Enter David Barton.
Barton claims the Constitution is based on the Bible, maintains that the separation of church and state is a myth, says Jesus opposed the minimum wage, and has published writing that appears to endorse "biblical slavery" for non-Christians.
And in 2010 Barton helped to rally the dominionist Christian right behind Marco Rubio and to lift Rubio to the United States Senate, from which perch Rubio has now launched a presidential bid.
In 2010, A febrile, Koch brothers-financed, Christian right activist-led political spasm known as the "Tea Party" swept the land.
And, Christian right presidential hopefuls such as former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee began to maneuver in advance of the 2012 election. In March 2010 at the annual, arch-conservative CPAC convention in Washington D.C., Huckabee quipped that all Americans should be forced to listen to David Barton's version of American history - at gunpoint if necessary.
The ensuing controversy failed to deter Marco Rubio. Quite the contrary. Up onstage at a September 15, 2010 Longwood, Florida political rally, candidate Marco Rubio appeared for a heartfelt endorsement from former Vice Chair of the Texas GOP and pseudo-historian David Barton (pictured). To hammer home the point Barton then posted a special 5 minute, 52 second video endorsement of Rubio.
Barton and Rubio were the main attractions at the September 15th rally according to advance publicity, with Barton billed as a "constitutional scholar".
Little more than a month later Barton's close friend, New Apostolic Reformation prophet Cindy Jacobs, would release a prophecy forecasting the rise of a church-based third major political party led by "righteous" politicians such as Marco Rubio. Jacobs teaches that dominionist Christians have the God-given mandate to "subdue", "make subservient", and "bring into bondage" all unbelievers.
The dual September 15th appearance by Rubio and Barton was almost unnoticed* by media, except for, most prominently, coverage from Talking Points Memo reporter Brian Beutler - who noted that Barton had just helped orchestrate a wildly controversial religious right campaign to revise Texas textbook standards.
Less than a year later, Barton began publicly promoting the New Apostolic Reformation's "7 Mountains" dominionist program, which advocates that charismatic Christians should, as NAR apostle Thomas Muthee outlined shortly before blessing and anointing Sarah Palin in a 2005 ceremony, "invade... infiltrate" seven key sectors of society: government, business, media, education, arts and entertainment, religion, and the family.
read the rest of this story at Twocare.org