"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well:

"First, women are not called to be pastors, and since a chaplain is supposed to be a pastor in uniform--it exposes their rebellion.

"Second, the office is permitted for men only, and women are prohibited from teaching (1 Timothy 2:12).

"Third, people should be very worried when they see women pastors/chaplains teaching. Why? It could be God's judgment upon them (Isaiah 3, "...and women rule over them")!"

The above are the words of Captain Sonny Hernandez, an Air Force Reserve chaplain for the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, posted as a comment on a blog post by Air Force Lt. Col. Jonathan Dowty on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog -- a blog on which Lt. Col. Dowty has provided his readers with a steady stream of misogynistic, gay-bashing, Islamophobic, and other very "Christian" posts for over a decade.

In the post that Chaplain Hernandez was commenting on, titled "Kansas Army National Guard Commissions Female Chaplain," Lt. Col. Dowty had expressed his opinion that female chaplains are not acceptable, writing: "... there are some who advocate that chaplains should be able to meet the needs of all of their troops, and a `minority' chaplain actually undermines that cause. While every Christian denomination represented in the military accepts a male pastoral leader, a substantial percentage do not accept female pastoral leaders."

Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation, also has a habit of telling some pretty tall tales about his own life. There was his claim of being a college basketball star, his claim of having been a translator for the Russian women's national gymnastics team, and most recently his claim of having an earned doctorate. But while most of Barton's bio-embellishing claims have either been proven to be false or are so far-fetched that they are just impossible to believe, there is one that is unfortunately all too true - that he advises many members of Congress on historical subjects. This isn't just another bogus claim made up by Barton to exaggerate his achievements and impress his audience. It has been repeatedly confirmed by members of Congress who have praised Barton by proclaiming that he is their go-to guy when they need historical examples to use in their arguments on current issues and legislation.

So, who are these members of Congress who run to David Barton when they need historical "facts" to justify their political agenda and legislation? Well, they are almost exclusively members of something called the Congressional Prayer Caucus, a House caucus founded in 2005 by former congressman Randy Forbes, with the help of David Barton -- a caucus whose numbers have ranged from ninety to well over a hundred members since its founding.

In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Dowty has accused BGen (Select) Goodwin, who has been nominated to be the Air Force Academy's next commandant of cadets, of being a liar. Dowty's basis for this accusation? Goodwin graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1993, but the policy of "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) wasn't implemented until 1994. Therefore, according to LtCol Dowty, Goodwin, who is a lesbian, must have lied about her sexual orientation in order to join the Air Force, asking in his blog post: "How did Col Goodwin -- an open homosexual -- enter the Air Force without lying?"

In light of former Sen. Rick Santorum's recent silly declaration that “the words ‘separation of church and state’ is not in the U.S. Constitution, but it was in the constitution of the former Soviet Union. That’s where it very, very comfortably sat, not in ours” -- it seems like a good moment to to repost Chris Rodda's classic discussion of some of the complications and distortions of history regarding separation of church and state. -- FC

Author Chris Rodda explores historical background to church/state separation, especially in relation to the work of Christian Embassy (link to Talk To Action coverage). The original controversial Christian Embassy promotional video, along with further coverage, can be found at the Jews On First website ]

When my first article appeared last week, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself, so I'd like to do that now, and also to thank Bruce Wilson for inviting me to contribute here at Talk to Action. I am the author of a book called Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, Volume 1. This is the first of what will be a three volume series of books, two on the religious right history lies related to the founding era, and an eventual third volume on the church/state separation battles of the nineteenth century. Free sample chapter PDF

Of the three things listed in the line at the top of the page - "Reclaiming Citizenship, History and Faith" - my focus will be on the reclaiming history part, bringing attention to the historical misconceptions and revisionism that go hand in hand with many of the current issues being covered by others here. So, while Frederick Clarkson, in his recent article When Mainstream Media Miss the Point, brings up The Christmas Wars: Religion in the American Public Square, a discussion presented by the Pew Center on Religion and Public Life, to point out the evasion by the panelists of a reporter's question about the current issue of the Christian Embassy, I'm going take a look at a few of the historical inaccuracies that I noticed while reading the transcript of this event. These inaccuracies came from both panelists, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, and Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek and author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. I will address those from Novak in a separate article, but want to begin with one from Meacham regarding James Madison's opinion on tax-supported chaplains, the most relevant to the issue of the Christian Embassy.

As a former attorney, Fox News's Megyn Kelly should know full well what defamation is, and she should know full well that what she repeatedly said on last Thursday's episode of her show The Kelly File was indeed defamation.

Who is it that Ms. Kelly defamed? Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). And what did she say that was defamatory? Well, she repeatedly said that Mikey is an atheist and that MRFF is an atheist organization.

In a six-minute segment about MRFF's demand that, due to the numerous military regulations prohibiting such activities (see my previous post), the Department of Defense cancel the planned participation of uniformed military personnel in Shirley Dobson's big upcoming National Day of Prayer shindig, Ms. Kelly verbally repeated her utterly false claim no less than three times, had the same false claim appear on the screen three times, and then repeated it again in the headline for the story on her show's website.

Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch reports that "On today's radio broadcast, Glenn Beck went full David Barton, claiming that one-third of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence came straight out of the Bible; more specifically, right out of the Book of Deuteronomy." He also wrote this claim is "pure Barton bunk, as Chris Rodda explained back when Barton made this claim on Beck's program in 2010." Below is a reprise of Rodda's post of July 7, 2010. -- FC

This installment of my series debunking the American history lies told on Glenn Beck is about a study published in 1984 in The American Political Science Review, and how that study is misrepresented to make it appear that our founding documents were based on the Bible, especially the Book of Deuteronomy.

(Note: This is part four of an ongoing video series. I would normally provide links to the previous installments, but Vimeo has removed my videos, citing copyright issues, although these videos were well within the limits of "fair use.")

UPDATE: The issue with Vimeo has been resolved. They promptly reviewed my videos and have restored the ones that were removed. I will be updating everything and adding links to the previous installments as soon as possible.

This post is an updated version of my post from this same date last year, which, not surprisingly, was titled "One Year Ago Today, the 'Least Credible History Book in Print' was Published."

(I am also once again giving away a free PDF version of one of my books, just like I did last year to mark this anniversary, so be sure to scroll down to the end of this post to get this year's freebie!)

On September 6, 2013, the Family Research Council (FRC) launched a petition to "Protect Sergeant Phillip Monk from Air Force Court Martial." Incredibly, just over a month later, on October 12, the very same organization paraded Sergeant Monk out at its Values Voter Summit, a political event in which the participation of an active duty service member is strictly prohibited by military regulations, the violation of which could subject Sergeant Monk to punishment by ... um ... court-martial.

If you're not familiar with the story of Phillip Monk, he's the Air Force Senior Master Sergeant who's become the poster boy for the fundamentalist Christians who are still throwing a hissy fit over the repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell' -- a fit that has gotten even hissier since the overturning of DOMA.

In the two years since the repeal of DADT, none of the dire predictions pushed by the anti-gay fundamentalist crowd that this would be the end of civilization as we know it have come true, so they're now having to invent problems in order to be able to say "we told you so." So, what they're now claiming is that there is a "reverse don't ask, don't tell" in the military, with Christian service members having to be "in the closet." Seriously, this is what SMSgt. Monk said to Todd Starnes of Fox News: "Christians have to go into the closet. ... We are being robbed of our dignity and respect. We can't be who we are."

This is one for the 'you just can't make this crap up' file.

There is a recently-formed coalition of anti-gay Christian organizations calling itself the "Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition." The primary mission of this so-called "religious freedom" coalition is to protect the "right" of anti-gay Christians in the military to continue to discriminate against and harass LGB service members in a post-DADT and post-DOMA military.

The background for people who haven't been following this little story of right-wing Christian deceit and propaganda:

Under the guise of "religious liberty" in the military, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) introduced an amendment to the FY14 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The real purpose of Fleming's amendment, however, is not religious liberty -- unless you consider government permission to freely discriminate against and harass LGB service members to be religious liberty. As Huffington Post Deputy Politics Editor Mollie Reilly very succinctly explained, what the Fleming amendment would actually do is take away the ability of military commanders to stop anti-gay harassment and discrimination within their ranks.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've seen a number of articles about pseudo-historian David Barton's "comeback." My first thought upon seeing these articles was "what comeback?" You have to go away to have a comeback, and Barton has never gone away. His popularity and influence were not at all diminished when his book The Jefferson Lies was pulled last year by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. His recovery was almost immediate. With the help of his pal Glenn Beck, an aggrieved Barton quickly had his followers convinced that he was being silenced for telling the truth! If anything, he became even more popular.

One recent article on Politico proclaims that "to his critics' astonishment, Barton has bounced back." Well, I'm one Barton critic who isn't a bit astonished. I said on the day that his book was pulled by Thomas Nelson that he'd find a way to wiggle out of what would be a career-ender for any real historian, and he did. Only a month after his book was pulled, Barton was not only representing his state at the Republican National Convention as if nothing had happened, but was one of the key players in drafting the 2012 Republican Party platform!

The Jefferson Lies being pulled by Thomas Nelson did not make this book go away any more than it made Barton himself go away. Barton is still selling off the thousands of copies he bought back from Thomas Nelson, and, although his claim that the book has been picked up by Simon & Schuster is certainly just another one of his lies, I have no doubt it will be republished by somebody when the supply of Thomas Nelson leftovers runs out. Therefore, I've continued my debunking of Barton's little masterpiece of historical revisionism.