Browse by Year:
Browse by Month:
The first Thursday of May, the National Day of Prayer, is actually the National Day of Reason. Today we announce FFRF’s newest lawsuit challenging President Trump’s Executive Order (signed on the National Day of Prayer in the Rose Garden) attempting to curtail the Johnson Amendment that limits politicking by churches. After hearing Dan Barker’s song “Reason,” we talk with a brave West Virginia mom who has joined FFRF’s lawsuit challenging bible classes in her daughter’s public school.
Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” on HULU is the freethought cultural event this week. We complain about the San Antonio mayor’s remark that poverty stems from a broken “relationship with their Creator.” After Michael Newdow’s hilarious song “My God Is In My Soul,” incorporating hate messages on his answering machine, we analyze what is wrong with the upcoming National Day of Prayer. Then we hear the “Spotlight on Freethought” segment that explains why the Constitution protects nonbelievers from the tyranny of the religious majority.
President Trump says “we are a nation of believers,” creationist Ken Ham calls FFRF “liars,” and Bill O’Reilly (who has bashed FFRF) gets dumped from FOX News, oh my! FFRF staff attorney Andrew Seidel describes the escalating “war of words” between Ken Ham and FFRF over the Kentucky Ark Encounter. Then we talk with an authentic American hero, Ishmael Jaffree, FFRF’s first “Freethinker of the Year” awardee, who won the 1985 Supreme Court Wallace v. Jaffree case stopping so-called “silent prayer” in public schools.
Response to FFRF’s national Ron Reagan ad has been great! We talk about born-again Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s scandalous resignation, FFRF’s Times Square billboard, incredible contributions “in the name of Pence” to FFRF’s legal efforts, and Nonbelief Relief’s donation to the Somalia famine. After hearing Shelley Segal’s “Apocalyptic Love Song” homage to Hitchens, we listen to part of our 2007 interview of Christopher Hitchens on Freethought Radio, the year his book God Is Not Great was released.
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.
