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FFRF legal fellow Chris Line tells us about religious intrusion in Mississippi public schools. FFRF co-president Dan Barker makes the connection between his American Indian tribe (Delaware, Lenape) and the Christian cross on the county seal in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. After hearing the Rupert Brooke poem set to music, “Heaven” (envisioning the afterlife from the point of view of a fish), we talk with Amber Scorah, author of the fascinating new book Leaving The Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life.
“Thoughts and prayers” do not stop bullets. However, Fox News and the Catholic League are blaming the recent mass shootings on godlessness. We report on our loss in federal court that allows a Christian cross to remain on a county seal. Then we speak with author/journalist Jeff Sharlet, about the new Netflix mini-series “The Family,” debuting August 9, based on Jeff’s book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
“In God We Trust” has been mandated to be displayed prominently in South Dakota public schools, and FFRF is complaining about it. We talk with Jacob McGee, a winner in FFRF’s High-School student essay contest. Then we interview former evangelical pastor of 37 years, Dave Warnock — who is now an atheist who has worked with The Clergy Project, and who has just been diagnosed with ALS — about his “Dying Out Loud” campaign regarding how a nonbeliever deals with a terminal illness.
We take a lighthearted look at the freethinking credentials of actress/comedian Maya Rudolph, whose birthday is next week. Co-host Annie Laurie Gaylor provides a first-hand account of attending the State Department’s Ministerial on Religious Liberty last week, where seculars were an endangered species. FFRF Director of Communications Amit Pal, who co-hosts in Dan Barker’s absence, fills us in on FFRF’s latest breaking news. Then we interview the remarkable Aline Pham, 17, winner of FFRF’s annual essay competition for high school seniors, who tells us why she relies on herself, not a god. After that, Andrew L. Seidel, Director of Strategic Response, explores the sinister nature of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights.
We mourn the death of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, and celebrate the anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention which led to woman’s suffrage. Freethinkers of color are encouraged to “come out of the closet.” After hearing some of Dan Barker’s early Christian songs that he wrote for children, we talk with Marian Wiggins, former senior editor for Gospel Light, a publisher of Christian Sunday School and Vacation Bible School curricula, who used to work with Dan and who has also left the faith and is now a freethinker.
The Texas “JESUS” sign finally comes down. Coach-led prayer is stopped in Pennsylvania and Georgia. We talk with Shiv Shah, one of the winners of FFRF’s high-school essay contest. Then we are joined by FFRF Legal Director Rebecca Markert as we interview David Williamson, the lead plaintiff in the victorious federal appeals court decision handed down this week declaring that the Brevard County, Fla., Commissioners violated the U.S. Constitution by barring nontheistic invocations.
We celebrate the 4th of July by honoring the radical Declaration, our secular Constitution, the freethinking founders such as Thomas Paine, and the feminist Frances Wright. We hear the Stephen Foster (born July 4, 1826) song “Some Folks Do.” Then we speak with the award-winning jazz pianist Addison Frei about his life as a freethinking composer and performer, and his albums (such as Future Speak) that not only entertain but advocate for reason, science, and equality.
FFRF attorneys sent more than a thousand letters to public school districts warning of the dangers of bible classes. We complained about an Appleton, Wis., school board member who is a pastor flagrantly mixing religion and government. We talk with FFRF lead attorney Rebecca Markert about the disappointing decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing a large Christian cross to remain on public land. Then we interview, by phone from London, journalist and author Catherine Nixey, about her book The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.
Bad news for state/church separation: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Bladensburg cross to be constitutional, and intolerant right-wing ideologue Tony Perkins (president of the Christian Family Research Council) has ironically been made the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. FFRF’s full-page ad in the New York Times challenges the Christian-nationalist attack on reproductive rights. After hearing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ reasoned plea for reparations, we talk with author and screenwriter (Bill & Ted movies) Chris Matheson about his video “God’s Art Museum” and about his upcoming book, The Buddha’s Story.
