Author debunks Beck and Barton's Jefferson “in the year of our Lord Christ” revisionism

Earlier this month, we highlighted how Chris Rodda, senior research director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and author of Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, debunked the claim historian David Barton made on Glenn Beck's TV show -- and fawned over by Beck -- that the first Bible printed in America was printed by Congress.

Rodda is back with another Barton/Beck debunking, this time of the claim that Thomas Jefferson dated his presidential documents with the phrase “in the year of our Lord Christ,” which went beyond the commonly used “in the year of our Lord.” “That's the way Jefferson signed his documents,” Barton declared on Beck's show, with both he and Beck portraying it as something runs counter to Jefferson's reputation as someone who believed in the separation of church and state. Beck added, “I love this.”

But according to Rodda, the truth is quite different: Jefferson took pains to omit “in the year of our Lord” in his documents, instead using phrases like “in the Christian computation,” and “of the Christian epoch.” Further, according to Rodda, the evidence Barton provided of Jefferson purportedly using the phrase is, in fact, a preprinted form that Jefferson had no input into creating.

Read the whole thing, or watch the video below.