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This week we celebrate the April 13 birthdays of two great freethinkers: Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Jefferson. Listen to a hilarious excerpt of Hitchens’ 2007 talk to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Then hear Dawn Brittain talk about her efforts to defend Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state, by trying to remove a cross from a war memorial in Coos Bay, Oregon. Bonus music: “Thank You, God,” by Tim Minchin.
This week we celebrate FFRF’s victory in Jackson, Ohio. The Jesus painting in the high school was taken down! We also celebrate the April 8 birthday of Yip Harburg, the famous nonbelieving lyricist (“Over the Rainbow,” “April in Paris,” “Paper Moon”), by catching up with his son Ernie, who tells us that his Dad’s socially minded legacy continues through the activities of the Yip Harburg Foundation.
“Leave No Stone Unturned.” This Easter weekend, we deconstruct the biblical resurrection stories, uncovering many contradictions, asking listeners to take FFRF’s “Easter Challenge.” We also discuss gay marriage, religious abortion laws, an FFRF complaint over a Christian cross on a war memorial in Coos Bay, Oregon, and hear FFRF dissed on the O’Reilley Show.
It’s bad news for the Good News Club. Listen to excerpts of the speech given before FFRF’s October 2012 convention in Portland, Oregon, by Katherine Stewart, journalist and author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. Also hear “One Sweet Morning,” a peace anthem heralding the spring, lyrics by nontheistic songwriter Yip Harburg.
In honor of the 65th anniversary of the historic McCollum v. Board of Education victory before the Supreme Court (March 8, 1948), we interview Jim McCollum, who was the young boy in that case challenging religious instruction in the public schools. We also listen to Dan Barker’s rousing freethought song, “The Battle of Church and State.”
Bible verses on middle-school baseball caps, now removed; action alert to protest federal money for churches to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. Our guest on this week’s show is Jenna Miscavige Hill, author of Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape. Ms. Hill, the niece of Scientology’s leader David Miscavige, tells her heartbreaking story of child labor, split families, mind control, and how she found the courage to run away from it all.
Hasa Diga Eebowai! An atheist songwriter tells us why we should “Not Be Mad At God.” FFRF attorney Patrick updates us on government prayer controversies, as well as a victory stopping church discounts at Milwaukee’s Mexican Fiesta. Then we speak with Gretta Vosper, a pastor in the United Church of Canada who is now a nonbeliever and author of the bestselling book, With Or Without God: Why the way we live is more important than what we believe.
“We are all star stuff.” After discussing FFRF legal complaints in South Dakota and Arkansas, we take up on Carl Sagan’s famous words by talking with paleontologist Neil Shubin, discoverer of Tiktaalik and author of the bestselling Your Inner Fish, whose newest book is The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People.
We’ve got to fight the battle of church and state. This week we have FFRF attorneys Rebecca Markert and Patrick Elliott in studio to discuss current legal complaints–city prayers in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Onalaska, Wisconsin (a victory), pastors roaming the schools in Conway, Arkansas, proselytizing football coaches in North Carolina–and our newest lawsuit over a Jesus painting on the walls of an Ohio Middle School.
