Guest: Philip S. Gorski. This week we listen to the moving testimony before the National Capital Memorial Advisory Committee in favor of a new monument to honor America's "forgotten founder" Thomas Paine — testimony by Rep. Jamie Raskin, Margaret Downey (president of the Thomas Paine Memorial Association), military veteran Greg Jones and Black Nonbelievers President Mandisa Thomas. Then we talk with Philip S. Gorski, co-author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy.

Threat to Democracy

A weekly show, broadcast live from Madison, Wis., on 92.1 FM, Saturdays 11 a.m. to 12 noon. Hosted by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents, Freedom From Religion Foundation. Slightly irreverent views, news, music and interviews.

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Religion

We call on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to resign, after revelations that political and Christian nationalist flags have flown outside his homes. Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell prognosticates over SCOTUS's upcoming mifepristone decision and Social Works Fellow Kat Grant discusses the religious war against the LGBTQAI-plus community from a personal and professional perspective.

Culture Wars

Today's guest, philosophy Professor Patrick J. Hurley, discusses his insightful new book, Religion, Power and Illusion: A Genealogy of Religious Belief. And FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi talks about how an FFRF complaint caused a Minnesota jail to repaint — and hopefully repent — over a massive Ten Commandments display.

Where did religion come from?

After reporting on state/church separation in Alabama, Florida and Arizona, and on blasphemy, book banning and abortion, we hear the optimistic song "Workin' on a World" by Iris DeMent. Then, we speak with NPR Correspondent Sarah McCammon about her new book The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.

Ex-vangelicals

Guest host Amitabh Pal, FFRF Communications Director, begins by talking about the various ways the Freedom From Religion Foundation is making waves: at Capitol Hill receptions, during major conferences and in the media. Then, the show has an interview with Indian activist Shabnam Hashmi discussing possibly the most important election in the history of the world's largest secular democracy. Johannes Brahms (whose birth anniversary is a few days away) and FFRF Co-President Dan Barker provide the musical interludes.

Future of the World's Largest Secular Democracy

FFRF attorney Sam Grover joins us to describe our newest amicus ("friend of the court") brief over an Arizona school board member who refuses to stop pushing her religion at board meetings. We announce FFRF's "Godless Gospel" musical show to be performed in Manhattan June 24 and 25 (and hear a sneak preview). Then, we speak with Adam Neiblum, author of the book Rise of the Nones: The Importance of Freedom from Religion.

Threat to Democracy

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