Glenn Beck has been presenting himself as a religious historian in recent months.  Lately, he has been giving a lot of airtime to David Barton, a Texas conservative with an interesting take on American history.  The Beck-Barton connection has been generating a lot of interest in progressive circles since the duo started pushing a supposely non-partisan gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in late August.  Of late, Beck, using arguments culled from Barton,  has been presenting himself as a latter day incarnation of Martin Luther King.

Over at Religion Dispatches, Julie Ingersoll emphasizes Barton and Beck’s mutual dependency on the controversial theories of Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony. 

At the Texas Freedom Network blog discusses the “uncivil union” between Barton and Beck.

No one in the academic world takes David Barton’s scholarship seriously; but if you possess the Glenn Beck seal of approval academic opinion doesn’t matter.

It has frequently been noted that the Tea Party folks are a pretty secular bunch compared to the Religious Right.  Folks like Beck and Barton are trying to change that impression.