The Freedom From Religion Foundation features a person who doesn’t have a very high opinion of the U.S. Constitution on its TV show this Sunday.
The ebullient, witty and humorous Elie Mystal says the Constitution was written by a bunch of rich, white, Christian, racist males making deals with each other. Mystal, who graduated from Harvard Law School, often appears on MSNBC and is the justice correspondent for The Nation magazine. He’s an Alfred Nobel Fellow at the Type Media Center and legal editor of the “More Perfect” podcast on the Supreme Court. He’s on the board of Demand Justice and the author of a New York Times bestseller, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution. Mystal received the Clarence Darrow Award at FFRF’s recently held national convention.
“On paper, we have two kinds of competing ideas right in the heart of the First Amendment,” Mystal explains to “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “One is the idea that the government should not establish religion: the Establishment Clause. The other is the idea that people should be free to practice whatever religion they want: the Free Exercise Clause. Those two clauses have actually always been in tension in American history. One of our great failings is that, for the most part, the Establishment Clause gets the short shrift.”
If you don’t live in the quarter-plus viewership of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
“Freethought Matters” airs in:
Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
Houston, KIAH-CW (Ch. 39), Sundays at 11 a.m.
Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
Minneapolis, WFTC-29, Sundays at 7:30 a.m.
New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 10 a.m.
Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sunday at 10 a.m.
Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
Upcoming guests include Public Religion Research Institute founder and author Robert P. Jones and primatologist Richard Sapolsky. Also airing soon will be a pair of shows featuring a concert of freethought songs by show co-host Dan Barker, who is a songwriter and piano player.
You can catch interviews from past seasons here, including recent ones with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt. Past interviews include Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson and Eleanor Holmes Norton, among many other notable authors, activists, musicians, actors and freethinkers.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!
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