When asked why Roe v. Wade attorney Linda Coffee was auctioning off her trove of 150 documents from the case, Rebecca Hartt, Coffee’s partner, told Dallas’s D Magazine:
“… the collection needs to go to the next generation, because you’re not going to have a case like this again. We don’t know who’s going to end up acquiring it, but hopefully it will motivate some of the people to get into law or politics or whatever, because it needs to be challenged.”
But sickeningly, the exact opposite of Coffee’s and Hartt’s hope is what’s going to happen. Why? Because, on March 3, former Fox News host and Christian nationalist history revisionist Glenn Beck won the archive with a bid of over $600,000.
Now the young people who might be motivated to get into law or politics after viewing these historical documents won’t be those who are motivated because they think the overturning of Roe needs to be challenged, as Coffee and Hartt hoped, but those being groomed as anti-abortion Christian nationalists who see the documents at Beck’s American Journey Training Center, where they will be displayed alongside Beck’s German eugenics collection, which includes such items as the last prescription Nazi doctor Josef Mengele wrote before going to work at Auschwitz concentration camp.
As Glenn Beck gloated on his radio show, “Roe v. Wade is history, and now that history is in the hands of a pro-life conservative.”
The buying up of American history in order to control that history is nothing new for Glenn Beck or his history revisionist partner David Barton. Barton has been doing it for decades, constantly touting his personal library of hundreds of thousands of historical documents, including some original documents from our country’s founders. Why does he do that? Well, because, as I explain on a page devoted to Barton’s tactics on my website:
Barton's followers … not being familiar with historical documents, actually believe that he owns the only copies of thousands of documents and therefore has access to information that no other historian or researcher has access to. They really don't understand that there are other copies of these same documents and that Barton does not possess any special secret information. Even the few original letters that he does own were, of course, recorded somewhere before they fell into private hands. For example, the original John Adams letter that he pulls out waves around at all his presentations (while quoting it out of context) was published in an 1892 book that can now even be found online from Google Books.
Barton's followers also, for some incomprehensible reason, believe that his ownership of a document is somehow proof that he's quoting it accurately, and, being under the misguided impression that he is the only person with access to that document, he is the only person who could be quoting it accurately!
Barton teamed up with Glenn Beck back in 2010 when Beck had a popular show on Fox News. The two of them did what they called “Founders Fridays” episodes on which Barton was the guest “expert” presenting thoroughly false Christian nationalist history, with Beck playing the role of getting all excited about and faux-astonished by these historical revelations that Barton was spewing.
After leaving Fox in 2011, Beck relocated to Texas, where Barton is headquartered, and started doing what Barton does — buying up history to control that history.
In 2020, Beck, partnering with Barton, opened his American Journey Experience museum, where his newly acquired trove of Roe documents will reside. But, like Barton’s library, this is not simply a museum where people will come and view the exhibits. It is an indoctrination center with training programs designed to groom right-wing students.
The director of the “Summer Institute” at Beck’s American Journey Experience museum is David Barton’s son, Tim Barton, who is following in his Christian nationalist father’s footsteps. David Barton’s Wallbuilders website describes this grooming program for 18-25 years olds:
“Join WallBuilders and our partner, Mercury One [Beck’s organization], at the American Journey Experience this summer and discover the truth about our nation, our past, and how to lead it into the future! We are opening up our library to students 18-25 years old for a hands-on experience to study original historical documents from our incredible collection. Receive specialized teaching and instruction and the opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge from our speakers and guest lecturers.”
According to Beck’s The Blaze, in a 2020 article announcing the opening of the American Journey Experience:
“For students, there will be two-week courses. On the first day of this groundbreaking course, you will be asked questions about hot-button topics such as the free market, socialism, abortion, and more.”
Yes, this training — or, rather, grooming — of young people included the topic of abortion even before Beck acquired the trove of Roe documents. Now Beck and Barton have those documents, displayed alongside Beck’s German eugenics collection, to twist as they please
Those who have followed me for a long time might remember that I went after Beck and Barton in a big way back in 2010 when they were doing their “Founders Fridays” shows on Fox. I had published the first volume of my book Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History (which I am currently working on an updated version of), in which I debunked numerous Barton lies, a few years earlier, and when Beck and Barton started spreading those same lies to a much larger audience through their “Founders Fridays” shows, I responded with a series of videos debunking them, some of which are below. (More videos can be found on my website.)
I urge anyone not familiar with David Barton and his tactics to watch these videos and see just how incredibly convincing he can be to people who don’t know that he’s lying, like those 18 to 25-year-olds who will be attending Beck’s and Barton’s training at the American Journey Experience museum and training center. Written words cannot convey just how slickly and persuasively Barton tells his lies; you need to listen to him to understand why he is such a threat and has been so successful at rewriting history. And, of course, the history in his and Beck’s possession, and at their disposal to distort, now includes the trove of documents from Roe v. Wade. This is very, very bad.
No, Mr. Beck, Congress Did Not Print a Bible for the Use of Schools
No, Mr. Beck, John Adams Did Not Think Governments Must be Administered by the Holy Ghost
No, Mr Beck, Our Constitution is Not Based on the Book of Deuteronomy
No, Mr. Beck, Jefferson Did Not Date His Documents "In the Year of Our Lord Christ"