October | 2010 | TFN Insider

Monthly Archives: October 2010

Mercer Backer Attacks Fulbright, Peace Corps

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, a supporter of Texas State Board of Education incumbent Ken Mercer is attacking his election opponent for having been a Fulbright scholar and a Peace Corps volunteer. Writing on the Republican website Texas GOP Vote, Sonja Harris has this to say in criticizing Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a professor [...]

Posted in Ken Mercer, State Board of Education | 5 Comments |


More Separation Denial

Christine O’Donnell might be running for a U.S. Senate seat from Delaware, but she would probably feel at home sitting on the Texas State Board of Education. We told you last month that the Republican Senate nominee believes evolution is a “myth.” Now she’s denying — like a number of State Board of Education members [...]

Posted in church and state | 18 Comments |


Dave Welch Calls Judge a ‘Domestic Enemy’

Dave Welch, the extremist who runs an outfit called the Houston Area Pastor Council, is now claiming that a federal judge who recently ruled against the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gay military servicemembers is a “domestic enemy” guilty of treason. From his screed at the right-wing, conspiracy-peddling website World Net Daily: “U.S. [...]

Posted in Dave Welch, Houston Area Pastor Council, LGBT issues | 3 Comments |


An Appeal for Hope

The research compiled by the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University in San Marcos is heartbreaking: since 2004, at least six Texas teens have been so tormented by bullying and  abuse at school that they have taken their own lives. Another attempted suicide by jumping from a  two-and-a-half-story balcony. Some of the students [...]

Posted in Barbara Cargill, bullying, LGBT issues, State Board of Education, Terri Leo | 6 Comments |


David Barton Puts Churches at Risk

David Barton, head of the Texas-based organization WallBuilders, argues that the Constitution doesn’t protect separation of church and state. That constitutional principle is just a myth, Barton says. And now he’s suggesting that pastors can promote partisan candidates in their churches. Quoted by OneNewNow, a website (“Your Latest News from a Christian perspective”) operated by [...]

Posted in David Barton, elections | 7 Comments |


AU’s Barry Lynn Comes to Austin

The Texas Freedom Network is joining with our friends from the Austin chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to co-sponsor a speech on Monday (October 18) by AU’s national executive director, Rev. Barry Lynn. Rev. Lynn’s speech, “Church and State Under Obama… and Beyond,” begins at 7 p.m. at First Unitarian [...]

Posted in Barry Lynn | 1 Comment |


More Bad History from Don McLeroy

Right-wing websites are still hailing the Texas State Board of Education‘s passage of a resolution that attacks Islam and falsely claims that social studies textbooks are anti-Christian and pro-Muslim. And state board member Don McLeroy, the dentist from Bryan/College Station, is still pretending to be an expert in history (in addition to science, economics, political [...]

Posted in Don McLeroy, Islam, Just Educate, State Board of Education | 7 Comments |


American Hate Association?

Sarah Posner writes about the American Family Association, one of the oldest, most influential and most radical of the nation’s religious-right organizations. Founded in 1977 in Mississippi by Don Wildmon, over the years the organization has become increasingly hateful and intolerant — toward non-Christians, political opponents, minorities and even AFA’s own employees, apparently. Excerpt: “(W)hile [...]

Posted in American Family Association, religious right | 3 Comments |


‘Black Storm’: FDR, Obama = Hitler, Stalin

It’s getting harder and harder to feel shocked at the extremism emanating from right-wing groups in American politics. But a bizarre, ham-handed and paranoid press release today from a Houston-based group called Patriot PAC should be shocking. The press release touts “Operation Black Storm,” which supports the candidacy of 15 African-American Republicans for Congress. (Seriously? [...]

Posted in Patriot PAC, political extremism | 11 Comments |


Manipulating the Faithful

You have to wonder how religious-right activists justify breaking the biblical commandment against lying so often. Dave Welch of the Houston Area Pastor Council seems to play fast and loose with the truth almost routinely. The latest example: Welch’s group is disingenuously warning Houston voters that a streets and drainage measure on the city ballot [...]

Posted in Dave Welch, religious right | 6 Comments |