Freethought Radio

This week we hear reaction to FFRF's provocative "Quit The Church: Put Women's Rights Over Bishop's Wrongs" billboard. We talk about (yet) more governmental prayer violations, then we interview Ron Williams, the Australian singer/songwriter and father of six who challenged state-paid chaplains in public schools, and this month won a victorious decision from the High Court.

We're storming the bishops' bastille. Attorney Andrew Seidel exposes the bishops' phony claim that the contraception mandate is religious persecution. We unveil FFRF's impressive TV ad campaign with Julia Sweeney.

Honoring "June-teenth" this week, we talk about FFRF's recent Nativity Scene victory in Santa Monica, California, and we listen to the new TV-Web ad that former Catholic Julia Sweeney made for FFRF fighting the Catholic Bishops' assault on birth control. Our guest for the 2nd half of the show is Eleanor Smeal, former director of NOW, and current director of the Feminist Majority.

Hear the new radio ad that Julia Sweeney recorded for FFRF. This week we talk about FFRF's retort to the Catholic Bishops' assault on women's healthcare, and about yet more illegal governmental prayer. Then we interview private detective Sam Brower, author of Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints.

Tis the season . . . for graduation prayer violations. This week we talk with Max Nielson, the South Carolina high-school senior who complained about student-led prayer at his graduation on May 30, which led to FFRF's most recent lawsuit.

It's Memorial Day weekend, and the livin' is easy. Relax with us as we listen to some freethought music, new and old. On the second half of the show, we talk with Teresa MacBain, the Methodist minister who recently made national news (with stories on CNN and NPR) when she came out publicly as an atheist. Teresa is now Acting Director of The Clergy Project.

Victory! This week we celebrate with FFRF's main litigation attorney Rich Bolton, talking about our recent victory from the Colorado appeals court declaring the governor's Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations unconstitutional. We also cover FFRF's complaint about Gideon bibles in a Texas elementary school, as well as discuss Franklin Graham and Mitt Romney's statements about gay marriage.

Jeff Shott, the 17-year-old Tennessee student who dressed up as Jesus on "Fictional Character Day" at his high school, tells us the whole story. FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott brings us up-to-date on the religious legal shenanigans with our lawsuit challenging the Ten Commandments in a Virginia High School, and we celebrate Mother's Day with a tribute to The Women's Medical Fund, founded by FFRF founder Anne Nicol Gaylor.

Is the Freedom From Religion Foundation "roaming the country" looking for state/church violations? FFRF's lead staff attorney Rebecca Markert assures us it is the other way around, as she discusses the many complaints that come into the legal office. We also hear about Freethought in Australia, Philadelphia and North Carolina, legal complaints in Rhode Island and Tennessee, listen to Annie Laurie on FOX News talking about a cross at a fire station, and give tribute to nonbelieving composers Brahms and Tchaikovsky.

Dan and Annie Laurie report on their visit to the Global Atheist Conference in Melbourne, Australia, and Dan talks about his visit to the first atheist conference in the Philippines. Lots of U.S. state/church news to report, then an interview with Saloma Furlong about her book, Why I Left The Amish, followed by Australian songwriter Shelley Segal singing "Saved," from her new CD: An Atheist Album.