Tim Barton: A New Dad Just Needs a “Couple Days” Off After Mom Gives Birth

There’s been a lot of right-wing pearl-clutching lately over the idea of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg taking a (still-working) paternity leave after the adoption of twins with his partner.

But this conversation between pseudo-historians Tim Barton and his father David Barton, along with preacher Andrew Wommack is incredible. Not because they spend time trashing gay parents — what else do you expect from Christian bigots? — but because they inadvertently admit they’re horrible fathers themselves.

Listen as Tim talks about how paternity leave itself is a joke.

… Now, paternity leave — it’s one thing to be on a maternity leave, right? When a mom has a baby, and her body has to physically recover, and then she’s taking care of the baby, and there’s nurturing involved in the baby, and, right? Maybe dad needs to be home for a couple days to help take care of mom…

…

… Two men, neither of whom physically birthed the child, have been on paid leave…

In short, Tim Barton thinks the only person who should be taking time off to care for a baby is the person who gave birth to it and literally no one else. There’s no reason, in his mind, that a dad might want to form any sort of bond with a baby. It’s beyond his comprehension to think fathers might take more than a passing interest in their kids. This is a guy who has two daughters of his own, by the way. And yet he’s freely admitting he didn’t consider it his responsibility to care for those newborns. Maybe he took a “couple days” to help mom out after birth, but she’s back to normal by then, right?

These guys keep telling on themselves and they have no clue.

Even more bizarre is how David Barton just sits there and doesn’t correct a thing! He’s right on board with the Let-Moms-Do-Everything school of thought, fixating instead on homophobic jokes like “Pete might have been nursing this baby.” (Hilarious. Truly. Dave Chappelle-level humor right there.)

It’s just an entire group of negligent Jesus followers complaining about a gay man who worked from home for a couple of months while caring for his newborn kids. This is where Christianity led them.