Browse By Date
Year:
Month:
New plaintiff Elizabeth Deal is added to FFRF’s lawsuit challenging bible classes in West Virginia schools. Denver FFRF chapter president Claudette StPierretells us about the 12 Colorado billboards that say “The Only Wall We Need is Between Church and State.” Jocelyn Williamson of FFRF’s “Central Florida Freethought Community” chapter announces a “Freethought Cruise” to the Bahamas. After hearing irreverent songwriter Yip Harburg sing his song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” Iowa atheist activist Justin Scott tells us about the historic atheist invocation he delivered before the Iowa Statehouse this week.
FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel relates his adventure filming our pro-science ad inside Ken Ham’s “Ark Park” in Kentucky and describes how fundamentalist teachings are harmful to the education of children. After celebrating the 200th birthday of freethinking feminist Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke by hearing the German freethought anthem “Die Gedanken Sind Frei,” we talk with former Tulsa Christian radio host Seth Andrews, now the host of The Thinking Atheist podcast and author of Deconverted: A journey from religion to reason.
The Ten Commandments at a Pennsylvania high school is finally moved! An Arkansas school district considers dropping prayer after FFRF complains. We celebrate Gloria Steinem’s birthday by hearing part of her speech about the “taliban” in politics and Catholic bishops’ opposition to women’s rights. Staff attorney Sam Grover tells us about FFRF’s newest lawsuit challenging a Texas judge who forces his courtroom to engage in Christian prayer. Then we speak with Iranian-born feminist, atheist, and human-rights activist Maryam Namazie, spokesperson for “One Law For All” and host of “Bread and Roses” TV show, who will tell us about the July 22-23 London conference on “Freedom of Conscience and Expression.”
Learn how you can take action to stop religion from invading our secular government: complain about the bible as the state book of Arkansas, “Choose Life” license plates in Nebraska, a Christian cross in a Florida city hall, state bills banning life-saving research, and the federal attack on women’s reproductive rights. After we play the peace/spring anthem “One Sweet Morning” by Yip Harburg and Earl Robinson, FFRF staff attorneys Sam Grover and Patrick Elliott, fresh back from lobbying in DC, tell us what it was like to “Educate Congress” about the school voucher program and the effort to repeal the Johnson Amendment.
Senator Grassley tells Justin Scott the reason he will protect the rights of nonbelievers is because he believes in Jesus Christ. FFRF legal fellow Ryan Jayne explains our recent victory stopping a live nativity scene at an Indiana high school. After hearing the “obnoxious atheist” singer/songwriter (with Magnetic Field) Stephen Merritt’s freethought song “How I Failed Ethics,” we talk with former Christian minister Bart Campolo (son of the well-known evangelical preacher Tony Campolo), now a humanist chaplain, about the book he co-wrote with his father, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son.
Evangelist Pat Robertson claims President Trump is being attacked by witches (!). Former president George W Bush acknowledges nonbelievers. We analyze Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia to discern his views on abortion and death with dignity. After celebrating International Women’s Day by hearing the song “Bread and Roses,” we talk by phone from Croatia with Lloyd Evans, whose new book is The Reluctant Apostate: Leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses Comes at a Price.
This week we celebrate victories in three federal lawsuits (Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and California), and three other state/church victories won without going to court (Wisconsin, Washington, Kentucky). After listening to former preacher Carter Warden’s new song, “Freedom From Religion,” we talk with two of the victorious litigants: Jerry Bloom, who ended censorship of freethought views in Shelton, Connecticut, and Marie Schaub, the “atheist mother” who finally got the huge Ten Commandments monument removed from her daughter’s school in New Kensington, Pennsylvania.
We report state/church victories stopping a Virginia city from sponsoring a trip to the ‘Ark Park’ and ending a Connecticut city’s censorship of FFRF’s freethought views. We endorse the Congressional “Freedom of Religion Act of 2017” that recognizes nonbelievers, and we report a new study showing how school vouchers are helping Catholic Churches to remain in business. After hearing Kristin Lems’ song “Days of the Theocracy,” we talk with author, journalist, slate.com columnist and MSNBC commentator Michelle Goldberg about how President Trump has become the religious right’s Trojan Horse.
We counter Trump’s promise to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment that prohibits churches from politicking. We offer some comic relief by hearing Mississipians complain about FFRF’s victory removing a Christian flag from a city memorial. Ricky Gervais defends atheism on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert. After hearing the wonderful “CBS This Morning” story about FFRF’s lawsuit over bible classes in public schools, we talk with FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott about that case. Then we celebrate the birthdays of Darwin and Galileo and honor Valentine’s Day by hearing Susan Hofer sing Dan Barker’s love song “It’s Only Natural.”
