Defending Democracy

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie tells us how we can defend democracy against the threat of Christian nationalism.

After talking about warning labels on bibles and reporting on state/church news, we hear Brandi Carlile's new song "Church and State." FFRF Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover joins us to talk about our newest lawsuit with South Carolina plaintiff Jim Reel, who was denied becoming a poll worker because he could not swear "so help me God."

Harvard Professor Steven Levitsky, author of How Democracies Die, tells us about "The Great Abdication: America's Descent into Authoritarianism."

After reporting state/church victories and complaints in California, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Washington, Texas and Arkansas, we speak with Mother Jones national correspondent Kiera Butler about her article, God's "Blank Check": Christian Zionists Are Pouring Billions of Dollars Into Israeli Extremism.

Journalist William J. Kole tells us about his book, "In Guns We Trust: The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms." Then, we speak with historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of "The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives."

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., explains how California's Proposition 50 is trying to fight religious-right authoritarianism. Legal Fellow Kyle Steinberg describes FFRF's new federal lawsuit challenging a religious oath in South Carolina.

After reporting on state/church news, we hear the song "Friendly Atheist T-shirt" by the Freethought Band of Humanists of Minnesota. Then, we speak with University of Toronto Professor of Religion Kevin Lewis O'Neill about his book, Unforgivable: An Abusive Priest and the Church That Sent Him Abroad.

After covering state/church news, we report on the "war-mongering" Christian nationalist rhetoric at Charlie Kirk's memorial. Then, we hear distinguished attorney Richard Katskee speaking at the Scopes Trial Centennial conference about his role in the 2005 lawsuit in Dover, Pa., defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools.

We celebrate a court victory in Arkansas, where a federal court issued a second preliminary injunction blocking a state law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. We criticize a "faith-based disaster recovery event" at the National Mall in which Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner proclaimed that "faith is back in our government." We speak with Rep. Mark Pocan about the whitewashing of history in the wake of Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk's murder and the ever-growing importance of the separation between church and state.

Christian nationalists in government are ramping up the rhetoric. We report how FFRF is protesting the White House "America Prays" initiative and a bill to put "In God We Trust" on federal buildings. Then, we speak with journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland, author of A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children, about right-wing Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, whose government kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands of protesters and stole hundreds of their babies to be raised with "Western Christian values."