Skeptical author and commentator Wendy Kaminer, with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will be named this year’s “Freethought Heroine” at the national convention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation meeting at the Radisson Inn, St. Paul, Minnesota, Sept. 15-17, 2000. Ms. Kaminer is author of the newly-released Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials: The Perils of Piety. Other confirmed speakers include: Steve Benson, Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist of the Arizona Republic, speaking on ” ‘Tooning Out Religion.” Steve is a former Mormon, grandson of Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson. Woody Kaplan, former member of ACLU’s National Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
Currently chairs the Board of Trustees of the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts, and founded the Civil Liberties List. Kaplan will speak on “Adventures in Educating Congress.” Noted clergy malpractice attorney Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, speaking about “Sexual Abuse by Clergy: Drowning in the Unholy Sea.” Popular Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, whose lighthearted topic will be “Well, At Least I Ain’t Never Made No Graven Images . . . and Other Reflections.” Newbery-award-winning author Bette Greene, of Massachusetts, will be speaking on The Drowning of Stephan Jones, her latest book, based on the true story of a religiously-inspired murder of a gay man. Foundation Life Member Clarence Reinders, plaintiff in the Foundation’s recent challenge of a statue to Jesus on public land in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Clarence will be named “Freethinker of the Year” for his pivotal role in that lawsuit. Prof. Adrian L. Melott, an astrophysicist at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, speaking on “Have Fun with Creationists (Or: Bashing the State Bored).”
The convention registration opens at 7 p.m., on Friday, Sept. 15, followed by Steve Benson’s ” ‘Tooning Out Religion,” a freethought concert at the piano by Dan Barker, and a cake and punch reception. The convention resumes at 9 a.m. Saturday with an all-day program, a “Nonprayer Luncheon” and a Saturday dinner, followed by the untraditional drawing for a “clean” (pre-“In God We Trust”) $100 bill and Eric Zorn’s after-dinner speech. The annual membership meeting begins on Sunday, Sept. 17 at 9 a.m., followed by the Board of Directors meeting, which ends by the noon checkout. Phone now to make your reservations at the Radisson Inn Saint Paul, 411 Minnesota St., at 1-800-333-3333 and mention the FFRF convention to receive the convention rate of $99 single or double plus tax. There is an additional charge for parking. To register, send the coupon [in the June/July issue of Freethought Today] to FFRF, Inc., PO Box 750, Madison WI 53701. Or call the national Foundation office at (608) 256-8900 and ask for a registration form.
