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We are happy to report two state/church victories this week, removing the Ten Commandments from a west Texas high school and curbing the “Break the Grey” evangelist from preaching in Wisconsin high schools. We report on Bangladeshi atheist bloggers, renegade Alabama judge Roy Moore, and the mixing of government and religion by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. After hearing the Joe Hill song “Preacher and the Slave,” we talk with award-winning journalist, former senior editor of National Geographic, Katherine Ozment about her new book Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age.
Listen to David Suhor’s godless invocation before the Pensacola City Council, which he sang while the public was rudely protesting and praying. We hear some music by the freethinking composer George Gershwin, whose birthday is this week. After drawing for another free copy of FFRF’s “Friendly Neighborhood Atheist” CD, we listen to the historic freethought anthem “Die Gedanken Sind Frei” (“My thoughts are free”). Then we talk with the “faithless feminist” Karen Garst, whose new book is called Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life Without Religion.
This week we complain about both major presidential candidates mixing religion and politics and pandering to faith voters. FFRF Attorney Sam Grover tells us about the firestorm that erupted in a west Texas high school after we complained about the Ten Commandments and a bible verse painted permanently on the wall, and also reports the mixed results of a federal decision in FFRF’s lawsuit challenging the Christian nativity in an Indiana high school. After hearing the Philip Appleman song “God’s Grandeur” (set to music by Dan Barker), we talk with journalist and author Lesley Hazleton about her new book Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto.
Dan talks about his participation in the “Skep Track” at this year’s Dragon Con in Atlanta. Annie Laurie provides commentary on the canonization of Mother Teresa, the death of right-wing Christian activist Phyllis Schlafly, and the National Catholic Register’s denigration of atheists in general and Annie Laurie in particular. After hearing the song “Sunday Morning Blues” from FFRF’s “Friendly Neighborhood Atheist” CD, we talk with Freethought Today editor P.J. Slinger (a Green Bay native, true Packers fan and former sports writer) about reporting national state/church and freethought news.
After Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker talk about the secular origins of Labor Day, Dan describes his first visit to speak as an atheist in a prison (Jackson Correctional Institution). We announce a new drawing for a free copy of FFRF’s music CD “Friendly Neighborhood Atheist,” a 2-CD compilation with 34 historic and contemporary freethought songs. We listen to the humorous poem “Reincarnation” by cowboy poet Wallace D. McRae set to music by Dan Barker. Then we speak with Diane Burkholder, a cisgender, queer, mixed race, Black feminist community organizer with the Kansas City Freethinkers of Color who will tell us about the intersectionality of various minority causes.
Learn about Nonbelief Relief’s help with the Louisiana flood disaster and for threatened Bangladeshi bloggers. FFRF attorney Ryan Jayne tells us about legal victories stopping a religious pre-school program at a Wisconsin public school, and booting a Christian preacher from the lunch room at an Illinois middle school. To celebrate Women’s Equality Day (August 26, 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment), we hear folksinger Malvina Reynolds’ song “The Judge Said,” about the successful recall of a sexist Wisconsin judge. Then we talk with Debbie Goddard, outreach director at the Center for Inquiry, about the upcoming “Women in Secularism” conference to be held in Arlington, Virginia, September 23-24.
FFRF attorney Maddy Ziegler tells us about the successful removal of Gideon bibles from a state-owned hotel in Arizona. FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott reports our newest lawsuit challenging the Christian cross on the official seal of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Then we speak with Rafida Bonya Ahmed, the widow of Bangladeshi atheist activist Avijit Roy, who was brutally murdered with machetes because of his outspoken criticism of religion on the Mukto-Mona blog. Bonya, who barely survived the attack, tells us about the rise of Islamism in Bangladesh and what she is doing to help others who are under similar threat.
We report an FFRF victory granting standing to our Pennsylvania plaintiff, Marie Schaub, who is challenging a high-school Ten Commandments monument. Scholar, author and activist Sikivu Hutchinson reports the winners of college scholarships for students of color given by FFRF and Black Skeptics Los Angeles. After hearing the music and reading an email from Tom Lehrer, we listen to Robert Ingersoll’s “Love” recitation set to music by Dan Barker. Then Dustin Lawson, who was the personal assistant for the Christian apologist Josh McDowell, will tell us why he is now a nonbeliever.
FFRF lead staff attorney Rebecca Market reports a victory stopping a Mississippi school district from participating in a day of prayer for students, and tells us about more unconstitutional Christian crosses on public property. We celebrate the life of Robert Green Ingersoll, the 19th-century Great Agnostic, by listening to his actual recorded voice, hearing some of his words (some set to music) and by speaking with his relative Jeff Ingersoll, chair of the Robert Ingersoll Memorial Committee, who will speak at the dedication of the refurbished Ingersoll statue in Peoria, Illinois on Ingersoll’s August 11 birthday.
