Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Right Wing Watch reports on a video series being promoted by the American Family Association that -- yet again -- uses a fake quote from John Quincy Adams that has been debunked for a long time.
The American Family Association is promoting the lecture series "Biblical Foundations of Government with Erich Pratt," a graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University and a conservative activist. The group advertises that "the Bible tells us that all governing authorities are instituted by God and are responsible for the reward of good behavior and the punishment of evil," and by watching the series "you'll gain a strong, scriptural understanding of the basis of American civil government and your role as a citizen."But the one minute trailer prominently features an uncorroborated quote attributed to John Quincy Adams, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: 'It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.'"
They then cite my debunking of those "quote" from one of the very first posts I wrote on this blog more than 7 years ago:
This is another textbook example of what happens when quotes are simply passed along and repeated without anyone bothering to check the original source to see if it's accurate. This is why, in scholarly documents, footnotes are used to provide specific documentation of the source of a quote. Let's follow the trail backwards and see where it leads. The quote is used by David Barton, who is nearly always the modern source of false quotations from the founding fathers. We'll see an example of another one below. Barton did not get it from the original documents, he got it from another book of quotations by William Federer called America's God and Country: An Encyclopedia of Quotations. So Federer got it from the original, right? Wrong. Federer's footnote is to a book by John Wingate Thornton from 1860. The Thornton book is full of quotations and footnotes locating the source of those quotes. But these words, attributed to John Quincy Adams, are not in fact a quote at all. The words belonged to Thornton. The words are not in quotation marks and there is no footnote giving a source. And no one has ever located an original source from Adams that contain those words, of even a similar sentiment to it. The quote, to be blunt, is a fake. Adams never said it. But this is an excellent example of what passes for historical scholarship among the Christian Nation proponents - the truth doesn't matter so long as something can be made to appear as supporting their position.
And like nearly all such false quotes, it's David Barton's fault for their popularity.
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Many years ago when I first became aware of Barton and the fake quotes he was spreading, before he got caught, I emailed a guy who had a web page repeating the fake "ten commandments" quote attributed to Madison.
Now here and I have to add the obligatory "and I am not making this up"... when I pointed out to the guy the quote could not be found in any of Madison's writing and even Barton finally fessed up he emailed me back and said, "Even if he didn't say those exact words it sounds like something Madison would say so I'm leaving it on my site."
That pretty much sums up the level of accuracy these people will commit to. The quotes may be totally bogus and they know they probably are, but it sounds good to them so they just keep using them.
Posted by: Skip | April 27, 2011 10:09 AM
This is becoming almost a daily occurence now.
Posted by: Brett McCoy | April 27, 2011 10:18 AM
Skip@1
That pretty much sounds like what Barton says. To paraphrase, "He may not have said those words, but that's what he was probably thinking." I'd have to go to Wallbuilders to find the exact quote, and it's a place I do not like to visit.
Posted by: Ellie | April 27, 2011 10:21 AM
@Skip -
That is both hilarious and incredibly depressing, particularly since it involves a quote about the ten commandments. Maybe the 9th Commandment actually reads: Thou shalt not bear false witness, unless of course it sounds like something the guy would've said.
Posted by: Imrryr | April 27, 2011 10:25 AM
That's the clincher right there.
Posted by: John Hinkle | April 27, 2011 10:25 AM
Is it sad that I can't get worked up about this? No surprise, no anger, just ... ayup. This again.
Posted by: andrew | April 27, 2011 10:27 AM
John Wingate Thornton may have had this passage from JQA's Newburyport Oration of 4 July 1837 in mind:
Whether this is the case I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. I believe Barton is making that claim, anyway.
The words in question, however, are Thornton's, not JQA's.
Posted by: sbh | April 27, 2011 10:37 AM
"I eat my own farts." --David Barton
Well, he may not have said those words, but that's what he was probably thinking.
Posted by: James Sweet | April 27, 2011 11:23 AM
It is true that the Bible says all governments are instituted by God.
But fundie patriots seem to miss the logical conclusion that the American Revolution was, therefore, a fight against a government that was instituted by God.
I'm sure King George never tired of pointing this out.
Posted by: Ick of the East | April 27, 2011 12:01 PM
Is sbh's quote representative of Adams, or even true?
Wikipedia says: "Adams served as the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825, to March 4, 1829. He took the oath of office on a book of laws, instead of the more traditional Bible, to preserve the separation of church and state."
Given his intellectual background, I'm inclined to think one of these quotes is entirely misleading.
Posted by: Greg | April 27, 2011 12:31 PM
John Quincy Adams was a child when the Revolution was fought and the Constitution written. Why would originalists and constructionists even care what he thought?
Posted by: Ryan | April 27, 2011 12:39 PM
http://books.google.com/books?id=5h1CAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+oration+delivered+before+the+inhabitants+of+the+town+of+Newburyport,+at+their+request+:+on+the+sixty-first+anniversary+of+the+Declaration+of+Indepe&source=bl&ots=8d5GZj7iue&sig=QX7sXdFLK4OI-mTWHNg6-K9ULsE&hl=en&ei=90m4TdGnBqnk0QHZkbnYDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
SBH's quote may be accurate; regardless JQA wasn't a founding father and this speech isn't law, unlike say the treaty of tripoli.
Posted by: GBM | April 27, 2011 12:57 PM
Just remember, when a Republican (and especially an overtly Christian one) opens their mouth, it's usually going to be "not a factual statement."
James, I think we both own the same book of Barton quotes! How neat!
"Michelle Bachmann may be crazy as a shithouse rat, but if you want a good Republican woman to peg you with a crucifix, she's the one to call. Although it kinda hurt till I told her to put Him in feet first." -David Barton
Posted by: Rob Monkey | April 27, 2011 12:59 PM
Ihave also argued with a "friend" about the Madison quote. He used it on his Facebook status, so I informed him that it was not by madison, and even those responsible for maintaining Madison's writings said it didn't exist.
His reply, "It is in a textbook I have right here." A home school textbook. The argument continued for a while, even joined by one his flock (he is a minister). All he kept throwing at me was that in is in a text book, the marketplace of ideas is a good (I replied not when the idea can be show to be wrong), and then out of nowhere his flockee throws in Al Gore.
Posted by: Clark | April 27, 2011 2:48 PM
Clark "...and then out of nowhere his flockee throws in Al Gore."
Well, to be fair, he did make that movie that one time.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | April 27, 2011 5:23 PM
"Even if he didn't say those exact words it sounds like something Madison would say so I'm leaving it on my site."
and, is that an accurate quotation (excerpt) from his email? ;-)
whatever. i think Adsense best explains that attitude.
Posted by: - | April 27, 2011 7:20 PM
"I eat my own farts." --David Barton
paraphrased... the sentiment seems more like one of Adam sandler's than of either pres. Adams.
Posted by: - | April 27, 2011 7:25 PM