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Monthly Archives: August 2010

Barton and Civil Rights

By TFN | Published August 27, 2010
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In TFN’s 2006 report The Anatomy of Power: The Religious Right and Political Power, we took a hard look at the career of pseudo-scholar David Barton and his efforts to provide a historical justification for making religion the basis for government policy.  Our conclusion: His main accomplishment (has been) to provide a bridge between the [...]

Posted in civil and equal rights, David Barton, Glenn Beck | 6 Comments |


LWV Sets Texas SBOE Candidate Debate

By TFN | Published August 27, 2010
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With the general election campaign moving into high gear after Labor Day, voters will have more opportunities to meet and hear from candidates. League of Women Voters of the Austin Area Education Fund and public television station KLRU in Austin already have one such event scheduled: a debate featuring candidates for the Texas State Board [...]

Posted in elections, State Board of Education | 4 Comments |


Promoting Political Theology

By Dan | Published August 25, 2010
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It’s educational when religious-right leaders reveal — inadvertently or not — the crass ideological calculations that motivate their agendas. A press release yesterday from Terry McIntosh, a Christian minister who evangelizes Muslims in the Middle East, offers a good example. The press release, headlined “America First,” warns Christians “against the dangers of socialism in the [...]

Posted in Don McLeroy, Terry McIntosh | 77 Comments |


Barton and Beck: An Uncivil Union

By TFN | Published August 24, 2010
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In the latest step cementing (sanctifying?) his relationship with Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, pseudo-religious scholar/phony historian David Barton has declared in prayer that Beck’s August 28 “Restore Honor Rally” at the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capital is divinely inspired. (Civil rights leaders don’t see it that way — they are particularly upset that [...]

Posted in David Barton, Glenn Beck | 9 Comments |


Barton: Beck a Good Christian, But Not Dems

By Dan | Published August 22, 2010
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When it comes to examples of extremists using faith as a political weapon to divide Americans, one can hardly beat David Barton. The right-wing phony historian who calls separation of church and state a “myth” decided this week to explain why fundamentalist Christians shouldn’t be upset that he has been collaborating with his Fox News [...]

Posted in David Barton, Glenn Beck | 13 Comments |


Faith, Politics and Muslim-Baiting

By Dan | Published August 20, 2010
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A piece in the Washington Post today reveals insights into President Obama’s Christian faith — and gives readers some perspective into how easily the right uses faith as a weapon to divide Americans for political gain. The story notes a circle of Christian spiritual advisers who privately counsel and pray with the president and begins [...]

Posted in Barack Obama, Faith as a weapon, Islam | 26 Comments |


Talking Points

By TFN | Published August 20, 2010
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From today’s TFN News Clips: “I do not wear high heels.” – Ken Buck, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Colorado, telling voters why he should win his primary election. The opponent in his primary (which he won) was a woman. Buck’s quote was included in a New York Times editorial noting that the GOP “has [...]

Posted in elections | 2 Comments |


Texas Preps for Next Science Battle

By Dan | Published August 19, 2010
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The process will be different than originally expected, but next year the battle over what Texas students learn about evolution in their science classrooms returns to the State Board of Education. With legislators tasked with closing a huge state budget gap next year, the state board voted in July to postpone indefinitely the adoption of [...]

Posted in evolution, science | 7 Comments |


Freedom for Some, But Not All?

By Dan | Published August 17, 2010
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In the growing category of religious-right hypocrisy, read this recent statement from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land regarding the proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York: “I take a back seat to no one when it comes to religious freedom and religious belief and the right to express that belief, even [...]

Posted in Islam, religious freedom, religious right | 9 Comments |


Wait, Wait…

By Dan | Published August 17, 2010
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The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has another story about the perils of educational publishing in Texas. It seems that a play by Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s popular news quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, was being considered for inclusion in an end-of-course exam under development for high school English students in Texas. Then, [...]

Posted in censorship, State Board of Education, Texas Education Agency | 7 Comments |