An ardent longtime secular activist looks back at his eventful life on “Freethought Matters,” the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Sunday television show.
Barry W. Lynn was the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State for 25 years. For decades, he was on the front lines of litigation and all over the national media as an eloquent, staunch advocate for religious freedom. Ordained as a United Church of Christ minister, he’s a prominent leader of the religious left in the United States. Lynn has won the Roosevelt Medal of Freedom. He’s the author of the books Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom and God and Government: 25 Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism and Freedom of Conscience. Lynn’s new book is a memoir — a trilogy, actually. It’s titled Paid to Piss People Off and traces the major periods of his life in three alliterative volumes: “Peace,” “Porn” and “Prayer.”
“There are so many profoundly silly ideas about what a divine presence ought to mean,” Lynn tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “And, unfortunately, when you take those views, add them to the cultural views of the religious right as so-called Christian nationalists, you have a recipe for complete and utter disaster — complete culture shock.”
Alas, the number of stations broadcasting “Freethought Matters” has reduced this year due to budgetary constraints. If you don’t live in any of the marquee towns where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
“Freethought Matters” now airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
- Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- San Francisco, KTVU/KICU-IND (on broadcast Ch. 36 and Cable 6), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
(To view details on channel variations depending on your provider, click here.)
Upcoming shows include a new interview with “Liberal Redneck” Trae Crowder and an episode that spotlights a recent debate Dan Barker and Phil Zuckerman had with religionists at Oxford. You can catch interviews from previous seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt. Past interviews also include Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson and Eleanor Holmes Norton, among many other notable authors, activists, musicians, actors and freethinkers.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!
