Original Intent

I read this book over 10 years ago, and here is the review I wrote then. Since then, I know that Barton ran into some trouble with his scholarship. I don't know what the outcome of that was. Either way, I think his book is worth reading. It is repetitive and tedious, but there is enough material in there to provoke serious thought. I did edit my original review from 2008 a little since I am not sure I agree with myself totally from then!

Most people understand that there has been somewhat of a shift in the mindset of the leadership of our country; however, sometimes it is hard to figure out where the shift occurred and why our country operates the way it does now (in contrast to what we have heard it has operated in the past). For example, we know that we have not always had to deal with this heavy-handed approach to any form of public religious expression by our government. But, we are not sure why, how, or if it should be this way. Perhaps you have done a little more thinking and research about this than the average person. Yet, you probably still have a sense of what has happened, but you don’t know how to present it and you still aren’t sure if you could prove it.

David Barton in Original Intent presents an argument that explains the Original Intent of the governing documents and the founding fathers convictions regarding religious expression in the United States. His support is so thorough and what he presents is so radically different from what we are hearing today, that it is alarming that our current system from the last 50 years has had the audacity to shift in such a manner. David Barton also answers how the current system has accomplished this, and why we haven’t been able to do anything about it. And finally, after all this, he presents four steps we can follow that will lead us back to the Original Intent of the Founders.