More Creationist Crazy on the Horizon in Texas?

The issue of government-sponsored creationism may be rearing its ugly head once again in Texas.  As I outlined earlier, in Good News from Texas: McLeroy Gets the Boot!, the chairman of the Texas State BoEd, Don McLeroy, was denied another term by the Texas Legislature due to his crazy, ideologically-driven antics.

Well, now the other shoe may soon drop – Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also a noted right-wing ideologue & creationist, seems to be considering someone who is even more extreme than Don McLeroy as the next chair of the State BoEd!

Conservative eyed for State Board of Education

Critics who engineered the recent ouster of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, in part because of his strong religious beliefs, could end up with someone even more outspoken in her faith.

Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richardson, who advocated more Christianity in the public square last year with the publication of her book, “One Nation Under God,” is among those that Gov. Rick Perry is considering to lead the State Board of Education, some of her colleagues say. …

In addition to likely sharing the same extremist creationist views as Perry & McLeroy, it’s interesting to see that Dunbar also doesn’t seem to have a grasp of the United States Constitution, which specifically forbids religious tests for public office in Article 6.

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.”

And if that isn’t enough, Dunbar is actually openly hostile to the entire idea of public education in the first place.  Yeah, it makes a whole lot of sense to put someone like her in charge of the State BoEd…

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.

Okay, so let me get this straight… after forcing the good citizens of Texas to go through what amounted to an ideologically & religiously driven circus over the last few years, Gov. Perry could decide that once wasn’t enough – let’s make things even worse by possibly nominating someone who is even more extreme!

The good news is that thanks to the skeptically-minded folks over at the Texas Freedom Network and the Texas Citizens for Science, there are a lot more people paying attention to any potential shenanigans on the part of the creationist whackjobs.  If Gov. Perry were to go on and nominate Dunbar given the public revelation of her extremist positions, it would likely ignite another public & political firestorm – hopefully the legislature would stand up to the governor and deny him yet another opportunity to embarass Texas while screwing the education of its children.