Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   I suppose the fact that humans live on a mote of dust and rock in a vast galaxy would not…

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   If they headed west from the Western Isles even those Troglodytes would have a shock when they were welcomed by…

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   Going to the Western Isles where these guys hail from is like going back in time to the Dark Ages.

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   “We believe, as indicated in the book of Genesis in the Bible, that everyone is created by God in his…

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   At last, three cheers for Scotland’s decent piece of legislation; soon to be copied into England, Wales, Isle of Man,…

IN 2014, blowhard Baptist preacher Rick Scarborough, above, said God would be justified to nuke America for having gay ambassadors.

A year later the self-declared “Christocrat” vowed to set himself on fire if same-sex marriage was  legalised – and he urged like-minded pastors to shoot themselves if such a horror were ever to befall the US.

Unfortunately, when gay marriage was legalised, he reneged on his promise, and all his hot air led only to the launch of a “Help Pastor Rick Scarborough keep his Promise” Facebook page.

The ridicule that followed the nincompoop’s silly posturing —and the fact that not one preacher stepped forward to take a bullet—seemed to have silenced the imbecile … but not for long.

Right Wing Watch reported in 2021 that Scarborough had a Grand Plan to pack Texas school boards with “patriot pastors” to get “the crap” of LGBT equality teaching out of ALL public  schools in the Lone Star State.

Last week, Scarborough, who heads an extremist political organization called Vision America, again came to RWW‘s attention, this time for declaring his intention to take control of the entire public education system in Texas.

This, he believes will enable him to stop a trend that’s seeing public school students “being groomed by homosexuals and the trans perverts [and] recruited into their evil lifestyles.”

Scarborough, according to RWW, revealed another aspect of his strategy.

Speaking about his intention to take over school boards at an event organised by the Texas Tea Party Republican Women—the very name conjures up a terrifying vision of pearl-clutching, blue rinsed harridans baring their fangs— Scarborough admitted that he is trying to “take over America” for Jesus and is working to:

Expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library.

Scarborough began his remarks by recounting how, earlier in his career, he had been portrayed in the media as a right-wing theocrat intent on forcing his far-right Christian views on the nation.

Scarborough is known as “the cowboy preacher” be because he’s so full of horse shit. Image via YouTube.

That was an accurate assessment, Scarborough now admits.

They went after me as trying to take over the town, trying to take over America, And, in all honesty, I was, but I couldn’t say that. I mean, why not take it over for Jesus?.

He went on to claim that:

Sixty-eight percent of the teachers in Texas, by poll …  now believe that the LGBTQ agenda should be taught and embraced.

We’re grooming our children for pedophiles. That’s what’s happening. Now, let me tell you what I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing—and by God’s grace, if I can raise the budget and get people behind me: In four years, I want to expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library. Call me a Nazi, call me a book-burner, I’ve been called worse.

Scarborough, says RWW, has plenty of company. Right-wing politicians and political groups in many US are restricting the freedom to learn by demanding the removal of books they don’t like—often those featuring Black or LGBTQ characters—from schools and public libraries​.

Last August, Amanda Marcotte, writing for Salon, said:

When reactionaries pull their censorship pants on, the main focus is reading. Spoiler: They hate it. Authoritarians have always been suspicious of reading, because it is such a private act.

A reader, after all, is alone with the text and their thoughts. It’s very hard to control what kinds of ‘dangerous’ ideas—such as that people of color and LGBTQ people are full, complex, interesting and often contradictory human beings—might start to form in that space.

This is exactly why we so often in history see a reluctance to let oppressed groups of people, such as women or racial minorities, have access to literacy or higher education. And it’s also why Republicans have gone on an anti-reading rampage in the wake of their barely literate leader, Donald Trump, losing the 2020 election.

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If you spot any typos in this piece please alert me at freethinkered@aol.com