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.

In the latest issue of Church & State, the magazine of Americans United (AU), Rob Boston explained Barton's California claim:

"In 1998, a conservative member of the California Academic Standards Commission appointed Barton to an advisory position, asking the Texan to critique proposed social studies/history standards. From that perch, Barton attacked the portion of the standards that discussed the development of religious freedom, trying to remove every reference to separation of church and state.

"He almost pulled it off. Commission members, unfamiliar with Barton's agenda, seemed open to adopting his suggestions. They changed course only after intervention by Americans United's Sacramento Chapter, AU's national office and others."

Another example of Barton's grossly exaggerated role in a state's curriculum development involves everyone's favorite nut of a congresswoman, Michele Bachmann. Back in September, when Barton had Bachmann on his radio show -- introducing her as "a rock solid lady," and a "real class act" -- he brought up his previous encounters with her, including this:

"As a matter of fact, I worked with her