The Idiocy of Texas and the Threat of David Barton (Christian nationalist history revisionist)

[laststeamtrain]

The Idiocy of Texas and the Threat of David Barton
Posted By Chris Rodda On July 23, 2009

Ever since Governor Rick Perry’s (R-TX) appointment of the worst and most dangerous state Board of Education ever, and the almost inevitable choice of Christian nationalist history revisionist David Barton as an “expert” to review the state’s social studies curriculum, I’ve been getting a stream of emails from people who know me as the arch-rival of Barton, wondering why I haven’t written anything on the subject.

Well, I’ve desperately been trying to find the time to get something out on this, but have just been up to my eyeballs in work for my job with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a job that, ironically, I ended up in two years ago because of the discovery of a David Barton essay on the “myth” of separation between church and state in the Junior ROTC core curriculum American history textbook. Then, Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, deluged with media requests since the Ensign and Sanford sex scandals exposed the Family’s “C Street” cabal to a wider audience, asked MRFF president Mikey Weinstein if he could borrow me to help with some further research on certain members of the Family, the full results of which will be breaking soon. So, I’ve just been busy as hell, and hearing and reading about the Texas BOE lunacy and the appointment of Barton, but not being able to find any time to write about it, has put me at serious risk of my head exploding.

I still don’t have much time to spend on this, but I do want to make a few things clear about David Barton.

First of all, very little of what I’ve been reading about the Texas BOE seems to convey just how dangerous Barton really is. His agenda for the teaching of American history is not merely a somewhat more religious “interpretation” of history, as some are describing it — it’s an all out, lie packed, completely revised, Christian nationalist version of history, designed to muster support for a very clear political agenda.

Second, I’ve read much about Barton’s utter lack of credentials to be in any way involved in the development of new textbooks — textbooks that, as Barton has been gloating about on his radio show for months now, will not only be used in Texas, but, because of the economic realities of the textbook publishing business, will find their way into the public schools of all the states. (California, with the largest state population, has always been the other state, along with Texas, the second most populous state, to steer the content of new textbooks, but, because of its current economic crisis, California is out of the picture this time around, leaving the Texas board of wackaloons as the only voice in what will and won’t appear in the next wave of textbooks.)

Now, getting back to Barton’s credentials, or lack thereof, many people have been pointing out that he has no degree in history. His educational credentials consist of a B.A. in religious education from Oral Roberts University, and an honorary doctorate from Pensacola Christian College. But, what bothers me far more than his lack of a history degree is his pumped-up bio, in which he claims to have been been involved in the development of the history/social studies standards not just for Texas, but also for California and other states. Well, like most of his historical claims, this claim isn’t quite true. In reality, Barton’s “involvement” in developing curriculum standards for any other state besides Texas has consisted of nothing more than being enlisted by some conservative member of that state’s standards commission or legislature — someone who shares Barton’s agenda — as an “expert” for their side. It does not mean that he was appointed by that state, and, thankfully, he hasn’t actually been able to succeed in screwing up any textbooks — at least not yet.

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http://pubrecord.org/commentary/2686/idiocy-texas-threat-david-barton/
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The next step: after they don't know anything about their own history, we can fill their minds with a fake history.

First ignorant, then wrong. Beautiful. Excellent plan.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Choosing Fantasy over Reality often ends in Tragedy....Mongo, RockRidge

[sam sarrha]

2. i lived in texas.. they hid the 48% dropout rate in the No Child Left Behind Pilot Studies to make

the program sellable... does that take guts or stupidity.. Bu$h did it so it must be Stupidity.

disturbing but not surprising.. the GOP is a Psychotic Narcissistic Ideological Cult. it will only get worse if they are allowed to continue to breed.

[laststeamtrain]

3. ...

[starroute]

4. Barton has deep ties to the GOP and some links to racists

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/test_1016.html

October 16, 2006

Listed by Time magazine among the 25 most influential evangelicals, David Barton has also been employed by the Republican National Committee as a political consultant. A close ally of the Bush administration, he was paid $26,000 by the RNC in election-related spending during the 2004 presidential election cycle, while WallBuilders itself received more than $24,000 for Barton's travel expenses. Barton also traveled the country telling pastors that they could endorse political candidates from the pulpit, a clear violation of IRS rules.

Barton argued in his book, The Myth of Separation, that America's founding fathers never intended separation of church and state, and he has dedicated his efforts to eliminating that separation. Barton also published a 1996 handbook called Impeachment: Restraining an Overactive Judiciary, which, according to an April 2005 article in The Nation, was timed to boost Tom DeLay's legislative effort to authorize Congress to impeach judges.

Barton spoke in 2002 at a Worldview Weekend for activists seeking "Christian Dominion" in America, along with DeLay. According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious liberties watchdog group, Barton "followed DeLay" and "was responsible for bringing the majority whip to the event."

WallBuilders' founder has also been linked to groups with racist and anti-Semitic views, according to The Nation. Barton has spoken at a retreat sponsored by Scriptures for America, an organization that has been linked to neo-Nazi groups, spread anti-Semitic and racist literature, and distributed a booklet called "Death Penalty for Homosexuals." He has addressed at least two gatherings of Christian Identity, a group that maintains blacks are "mud people" and Jews are the "spawn of Satan."

[TokenQueer]

5. This fucker needs to be stopped.

:mad: