(Credit: Gus 802.)At LGF we’ve been following the career of Texas Governor Rick Perry for years, often focusing on one of his “achievements” that has so far mostly eluded the mainstream media: Perry is undoubtedly the most determined, persistent, and outrageously overt creationist in the Republican Party, and arguably one of the most successful at getting creationist nonsense taught to everyone’s children in Texas public schools.

One of Perry’s most outrageous appointments in this regard was the man he personally chose — twice — to head the Texas State Board of Education: Don McLeroy, a dentist and strict Biblical creationist, who very aggressively promoted all brands of creationism. Call it “young Earth creationism,” “intelligent design,” whatever; McLeroy would mix it all up into a toxic anti-scientific stew, without regard for logic or internal consistency.

We’ve had a number of posts on McLeroy’s incredibly dishonest creationist agenda. It’s almost shocking that someone this unqualified was put in charge of the education of kids in Texas, but this is what happens when religious fanatics become Governors.

Here are some of our posts featuring Rick Perry’s chosen leader of education:

Collapse of a Texas Quote Mine

Texas Governor Perry Reappoints Creationist As Head of Education

The Creationist in Charge of Texas Education

Video: The Creationist in Charge of Education in Texas

Return of the Texas Taliban: Schoolbooks Are Anti-Christian

Once McLeroy was the head of the SBOE, of course, he made sure that other fundamentalists and creationists were also on the board, so that when it came time to vote for ignorance, ignorance would win.

And when Don McLeroy was finally voted out of office, what did Rick Perry do? You can probably already guess: he appointed another creationist.

Texas Gets Another Creationist School Board Leader

The extent of Perry’s promotion of extreme Christian theology goes far beyond his advocacy of creationism, of course. But any American citizen concerned about the state of science education should be horrified at the idea of this man becoming President.