The Privateers

Besides covering state/church issues in Kentucky, Wisconsin and Arizona, most of the news is out of Oklahoma, including the fact that Oklahoma's Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is suing FFRF for allegedly interfering in the right of his office to promote religion in the public schools. FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott joins us to talk about that case, Walters v. FFRF. Three smart young people read their winning entries in FFRF's freethinking student essay contests. Then, we hear an excerpt of a speech by former New York Times columnist and MSNBC political analyst Charles Blow decrying the dangers of Christian nationalism.

After a roundup of state/church news around the country, we celebrate the birthday of Eric Idle, 82, (who calls himself an "old agnostic") by listening to his irreverent song, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," from the movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian." Then, professor and author Josh Cowen tells us about his book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.

After reporting state-church news at the federal level, as well as in Massachusetts, Texas and Missouri, we hear riveting testimony from Georgia state Rep. Karen Lupton opposing a hateful Christian-nationalist anti-trans bill in that state. Then, former evangelical preacher Rob Haskell, author of God of the Mind: An eXvangelical Journey, tells us why he left the ministry and became an atheist.

We report on the threats and actual harm of Christian nationalism to the country, to the Department of Education and to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico and Wisconsin. After hearing the Yip Harburg song "One Sweet Morning," yearning for the end of winter and the end of war, we speak with attorney Kat Grant, a contributing FFRF writer and host of the "Transing Boundaries" blog, about the sharp increase in religiously motivated attacks on transgender rights.

This week, we track a tsunami of (mostly bad) bills in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, West Virginia and North Dakota. After hearing sneak previews of some of FFRF's other shows — "Ask an Atheist," "Freethought Matters" and "We Dissent" — we talk with Brian Ruder, president of the board of the Final Exit Network, which offers people who are unbearably suffering an intractable medical condition the option to die legally and peacefully.

We celebrate the fact that Pew reports 43 percent of young adults are nonreligious, and that overall the "Nones" (nonreligious) are larger than any religious denomination. Mandisa Thomas, founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, tells us about the upcoming Revival of Reason conference in Atlanta. Then, we speak with public-health expert Professor Patrick L. Remington, who is on the board of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly," about the dangers that religion and the right-wing administration pose to the work of the CDC.

After discussing some of Trump's religiously motivated executive orders and appointments, we focus on some of the bad bills in the states, including Oklahoma, Idaho, Alabama, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. Then we speak with David Clohessy, a survivor of childhood sexual molestation by clergy, who is the former director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He outlines the severity of the problem and offers hope for dealing with the dangers of pedophilic priests and ministers.

We announce the first atheist billboard in Africa! We report on a tsunami of Christian nationalist bills and executive orders at the federal and state levels, including Texas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Iowa and Tennessee. In honor of Valentine's Day, we hear Dan Barker's secular love song "It's Only Natural." Then sociology Professor Ryan T. Cragun, author of Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization, shows us, with data, that religious people are not happier, healthier or more moral than nonreligious people.

The first half of our show this week deals with the many Christian nationalist executive orders and actions of the Trump administration. We hear part of the "Stop Project 2025" rally in Madison, Wis. Then, we listen to Black/Latino atheist actor Jon Huertas, best known for playing Miguel Rivas in NBC's "This is Us," as he spoke to FFRF's Denver convention about “True Freedom: Breaking The Shackles Of Religious Indoctrination.”

We cover a range of state/church news on the federal and state levels. We announce FFRF's Scopes Trial Centennial celebration to be held in Tennessee in July. After hearing the irreverent Monty Python song, "Every Sperm is Sacred," we memorialize the life of former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, an ardent proponent of feminism and democracy and author of the book Make Trouble, by replaying our 2018 interview with her on Freethought Radio.