The Latest Insanity from the Christianist Republic of Tejasistan

[furrbear]

From the folks at CREDO action:

Should public education be guided by a "biblical litmus test"?

Times like these, we really miss Mollie Ivins.

The Houston Chronicle reports Gov. Rick Perry is seriously considering nominating Cynthia Dunbar to lead the State Board of Education.

According to the Houston Chronicle:

In a book published last year, Dunbar argued the country's founding fathers created "an emphatically Christian government" and that government should be guided by a "biblical litmus test." She endorses a belief system that requires "any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern."

Also in the book, she calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion."

The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even "tyrannical," she wrote, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.

We don't use the phrase "rightwing nut job" lightly. Gov. Perry has gone too far.

There's an online petition but if one is not already registered with the web site, it wants contact full info.

*sigh* Just more blatant pandering to the far-rightwing "base" that has made Texas' Republican party particularly onerous as he prepares to battle Sen. Kay Bailey-Hutchison in the 2010 primary. Rumors are running that the Dems will have a contested primary which should make the normally insane open primaries worth watching.

12 votes in an Irving district kept things from a 75-75 split in the Texas House, things could get interesting now that the we're safe from the Legislature being in session.

Comments

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I still have yet to see an adequate explanation of the language in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli from these folks:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion...

Its ratification was one of the few unanimous votes in the early Senate. There was not a single objection to this clause.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Don't confuse them with facts, Tony. Their minds are firmly made up.

There's another quote floating around that starts with this passage and expands it along the lines of "...nor is it in any sense a Jewish nation, nor a Islamist nation". I'm thinking it may have been Madison commenting on this passage in the treaty.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny how they (nearly) worship the Founding Fathers, but conveniently skip over points like these?

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Isn’t it funny how fundamentalists like to turn the Founding Fathers into false idols?

[b-a-n-d-i-t.livejournal.com]

absolutely insane. i'm so tired of these wingnuts trying to impose their religious beliefs on everybody else.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Me, I am a little to the right of… why is the Attila comparison used? Fifth–century Hunnish depredations on the Roman Empire were the work of an overpowerful executive pursuing a policy of economic redistribution in an atmosphere of permissive social mores. I am a little to the right of Rush Limbaugh. I’m so conservative that I approve of San Francisco City Hall marriages, adoption by same–sex couples, and New Hampshire’s recently ordained Episcopal bishop. Gays want to get married, have children, and go to church. Next they’ll be advocating school vouchers, boycotting HBO, and voting Republican.

P.J. O’Rourke, I Agree With Me

Speaking as a fellow O’Rourkian conservative, please don’t lump her in with us. I am entirely in favor of banishing all ignorant, superstitious, hateful and closedminded people from all political labels. We can throw Dunbar in the Ignorance Party along with Ward Churchill (just to cite someone from your side I think you’d rather not have on your side).

So, how does it sound. You get to ditch Ward Churchill — and even Noam Chomsky, come to think of it, if you like — and we get to throw away Dunbar, Coulter and Bill O’Reilly. Sound like a deal?

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Throw in Depak Chopra and Glenn Beck and it's a deal.

BTW, I never lumped her in with "Conservatives," if anything she's a Republican with a rabid case of FundaMENTAList Christinsanity.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Agreed on both Chopra and Beck. I must’ve misunderstood what you meant when you said Dunbar’s selection was playing to the far–right base; I apologize for my misreading. :)

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Recall this is the Christianist Republic of Tejasistan (Praise Jeebus!).

Guv GoodHair's base consists of Republicans with rabid cases of FundaMENTAList Christinsanity. By comparison, they make Kay Hutchison look liberal and John Cornyn look sane.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I have vague memories of various state constitutions having to throw out their provisions that elected officials must be Christian. I'll leave the digging to you with the warning that it may be a false memory implanted by the Bavarian Illuminati.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Oh, your memory is quite accurate. Those state constitutions were quite legal at the time they were passed, though.

Originally, the Bill of Rights only applied to the federal government. The First Amendment forbids Congress the ability to establish a religion — but it’s silent on the subject of state legislatures establishing a religion. Massachusetts, for instance, was officially a Christian commonwealth until after the Civil War.

What changed things was the Fourteenth Amendment, which the Supreme Court interpreted to mean the First Amendment was now applied against the States as well as the federal government. After the Fourteenth’s passage, all those state–established churches got junked.