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We celebrate International Blasphemy Day by highlighting challenges to Christian Nationalism and the violation of state/church separation by senators and governors. Former Mormon Ray Matthews tells us why he agreed to appear on FFRF’s “I’m an Atheist and I Vote” billboard in Salt Lake City. Then we speak with Adrienne Martin, who testified before her Texas school board in protest of religiously motivated book banning in the public school.
FFRF’s Senior Litigation Counsel Patrick Elliott describes the new lawsuit we filed this week challenging 1.5 million dollars in the South Carolina budget to start a Christian school. Then the award-winning author, photographer and lecturer Marty Essen discusses the column against censorship he wrote for Banned Books Week: “Christian Nationalism and Book Banning.”
Guests: Mandisa Thomas; Jimmy Bangash
Happy Constitution Day! After unveiling FFRF’s new national “Secular Vote” campaign, we talk with Mandisa Thomas, founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, about the upcoming Women of Color Beyond Belief conference in Chicago on September 30. Then UK psychotherapist Jimmy Bangash, an ex-Muslim gay atheist, tells us how he deals with Islamic discrimination and persecution for blasphemy, apostasy and homosexuality.
Guest: Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury. Politicking pastors and praying school districts are among the news we discuss this week. We hear a historic rendition of an irreverent 1922 song by the great American songwriter Irving Berlin called “Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil in Hades.” Then we speak with the brave freethinking Bangladeshi author and publisher of Shuddhashar (Free Voice) Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury (known as “Tutul”), who was attacked with machetes and guns by religious extremists and is now living in exile.
Guest: Adam B. Cohen. Former U.S. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann falsely claims that America was based on the bible. A California prison chaplain was convicted of sexual assault against female inmates while claiming the bible justified his actions. After hearing the irreverent Yip Harburg song “Ain’t It The Truth?”, sung by Lena Horne, we speak with Professor Adam B. Cohen about the study he co-authored for Perspectives on Psychological Science called “Is Religion Special?”
Guest: Sami Abdallah. Christian nationalism is now proudly rearing its head in the United States. FFRF Senior Litigation Counsel Patrick Elliott describes the friend-of-the-court brief we filed at the Supreme Court in the “303 Creative” case where a business owner wants to discriminate against LGBTQ customers on religious grounds. Then, we speak with Sami Abdallah, co-founder and president of Freethought Lebanon and co-organizer of the “Celebrating Dissent” conference that took place in Cologne, Germany, this month, about the challenges of being an apostate in the Muslim world.
Guest: Michael Graziano. We first talk with FFRF Associate Counsel Sam Grover about his incisive recent blog on how constitutional absolutism is literally killing us. Then, FFRF Communications Director Amit Pal interviews Professor Michael Graziano regarding his fascinating new book Errand Into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA.
Guest: Philip S. Gorski This week we listen to the moving testimony before the National Capital Memorial Advisory Committee in favor of a new monument to honor America’s “forgotten founder” Thomas Paine — testimony by Rep. Jamie Raskin, Margaret Downey (president of the Thomas Paine Memorial Association), military veteran Greg Jones and Black Nonbelievers President Mandisa Thomas. Then we talk with Philip S. Gorski, co-author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy.
Guest: Adam Laats. FFRF attorney Chris Line tells us how FFRF is combatting religious indoctrination in Alabama schools. We parse Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s disturbing remarks denigrating nonbelievers during a Notre Dame “Religious Liberty” speech he gave in Rome last week. Then we speak with professor Adam Laats about his new book Creationism USA: Bridging the Impasse on Teaching Evolution.
