Barton's Phony Quotations, the Rot Runs Deep:

Just when I think I'm beating a dead horse, I find something new that makes me realize I have to continue to expose corrupt history by pseudohistorians like David Barton and William Federer. I went to google books and searched for the most notable false quotation past peddled by Barton and Federer:

It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

-- supposedly said by Patrick Henry in 1765 eleven years before the Declaration of Independence.

Barton himself years ago noted that this and a number of other quotations have no basis in the primary sources; but he tried to whitewash the situation by euphemistically terming the quotations "unconfirmed." The problem is folks haven't stopped passing them.

I did a search on Googlebooks testing that Patrick Henry quotation. Expectedly, many self-published books, with titles such as Why Homosexual Marriage Is Wrong, and The Spiritual, Moral, & Civil Decay of America, use it. But I was surprised by how many recent books by real publishers passed it along.

For instance, the one by former federal judge Charles "Chip" Pickering, written in 2006 or one by Paul Kengor published in 2004 by Harper Collins. Even the notorious William Federer who, with Barton, is the one most responsible for disseminating these phony quotations, unlike Barton refuses to distance himself from it. He passed along the quotation in his recent 2005 publication.

Unfortunately my work debunking this nonsense is not yet over.