A descendant of a feminist pioneer who is a notable activist and author in her own right is the guest on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s TV talk show this Sunday.
Coline Jenkins is the great-great-granddaughter of powerhouse 19th century feminist and freethinker Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was repudiated by the suffragist movement she ignited because she edited a book that is still radical today called The Woman’s Bible. Jenkins is co-founder and president of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust, a collection of 3,000 objects of women’s suffrage memorabilia. She has co-authored 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History and produced a TV documentary “An American Revolution — Women Take Their Place.” She’s part of Monumental Women.org, a nonprofit that broke the bronze ceiling over New York City’s Central Park this August by erecting the first statue of real women, depicting her famous ancestor Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth — fittingly dedicated on the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
If you don’t live in the 27 percent of the country’s markets where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the episode on FFRF’s YouTube channel.
Stanton “was very radical in looking at the advancement of women and the advancement of women as you get them the right to vote,” Jenkins tells “Freethought Matters” host Annie Laurie Gaylor about why her great-great-grandmother edited The Woman’s Bible, highly critical of the treatment of women by patriarchal religions such as Christianity and their so-called holy books. “But if you have biblical views or you have the bible as the ultimate answer to everything, then she perceived that as blockage for women’s advancement.”
This is the fall season’s 12th episode of “Freethought Matters,” airing in 12 cities on Sunday, Nov. 22.
Upcoming guests include movie/TV actor and singer John Davidson (a nonbeliever) and “Cosmos” series producer/writer Ann Druyan, who also co-wrote the original “Cosmos” and many best-selling books with her husband Carl Sagan.
“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, KUBE-IND (Ch. 57), Sundays at 9 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, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45), Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 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.
- Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 8 a.m.
“We want to provide sympathetic programming for the ‘unmassed masses,’ introducing the public to freethinkers, and to offer an alternative, so that religious programming does not win by default,” says Gaylor.
Previous guests this season include: pundit Eleanor Clift, which you can watch here, Professor Khyati Joshi, an expert on Christian privilege, joint interviews with possibly the foremost scholars on Christian Nationalism in the United States, actor and FFRF After-Life Member John de Lancie of “Star Trek” “Q” fame, atheists and jazz artists Addison Frei and Tahira Clayton providing a double musical treat, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Linda Greenhouse, the country’s leading analyst of the U.S. Supreme Court, and legislative stalwart and feminist and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. One of the most eminent public intellectuals in the world, Professor Steven Pinker, was interviewed a few episodes ago talking about his new course on rationality. The freethinkingly entertaining singer-songwriterRoy Zimmerman was the guest three weeks ago, and the week after the interview was with Scott Burdick, a talented artist and dedicated secularist who works in several mediums. The most recent interview was with Shelley Segal, a performer who seamlessly weaves in secular and feminist themes into her music.
Watch previous seasons here, including interviews with Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney and Ed Asner, as well as U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
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!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.
