
Pat Robertson's Regent University Flunks American History
Read Pat Robertson's Own Words
National Magazine Ad For TV Preacher's Graduate School Recruits Donations With Bogus James Madison Quote.
TV preacher Pat Robertson's Regent University is soliciting support with a full-page ad in U.S. News & World Report that features a bogus quotation about the Ten Commandments supposedly uttered by James Madison.
The ad, which appears in the April 9 edition of the magazine, is centered around a large-type assertion at the top of the page attributed to Madison. "We have staked the whole of our political institutions," Madison is quoted as saying, "upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
The ad gives no source for the statement, and with good reason: It appears nowhere in the writings of Madison. It was debunked years ago by Madison scholars and even many Religious Right leaders have admitted that the quote can't be substantiated.
"Robertson and Regent are advertising their ignorance," said
Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State. "I feel sorry for the students
who pay thousands of dollars to go there if they're learning
Religious Right mythology instead of real history."
The inaccurate Madison Ten Commandments quote was circulated
among the Religious Right chiefly by David Barton, a Texas man
who peddles a revisionist history arguing that the United
States was founded as a "Christian nation." In 1996, Barton
admitted that the quote is bogus and recommended that people
stop using it.
In 1993, the curators of the Madison Papers at the University
of Virginia were asked if they could verify the quote. They
replied that they could not. Wrote Curators John Stagg and
David Mattern, "We did not find anything in our files remotely
like the sentiment expressed in the extract you sent us.
In addition, the idea is inconsistent with everything we know
about Madison's views on religion and government, views which
he expressed time and time again in public and in private."
Robertson founded Regent in 1977 as CBN University, named for
his Christian Broadcasting Network.
Today he serves as its
chancellor and president. The school is headquartered in
Virginia Beach but recently opened a satellite campus in the
Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., because
Robertson wanted a presence near the nation's capital.
Lynn noted that it's ironic that Robertson would try to draft
Madison as an ally to prop up his university. Our fourth
president, Lynn pointed out, was a strong advocate of
separation of church and state.
He opposed tax funding of
religion, publicly funded chaplains in the Congress and the
military and even expressed regret for issuing proclamations
declaring official days of prayer during his presidency.
Lynn noted that in an 1819 letter to a friend, Madison wrote,
"[T]he number, the industry and the morality of the Priesthood
& the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by
the total separation of the Church from the State."
Observed Lynn, "Unlike Robertson's phony Madison quote, you
can look that one up."
(James Madison wrote frequently about religious freedom and its corollary, the separation of church and state. AU has compiled some of Madison’s best quotations on the subject.) Americans United is a church-state watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000 members and allied houses of worship in all 50 states.
April 4, 2001
www.au.org Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 2001.
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