Religion

Greece v. Galloway preview

November 5, 2013 Carmen Russell 0 Comments

Tomorrow the Supreme Court hears a case which can be summarized thus: Will a New York town be able to start its municipal meetings with prayers?

Host of Due Diligence and frequent SPAR partner Carmen Russell-Sluchansky joins me to argue why this case may not be as clear to decide as State/Church absolutists might believe.

The conversation invokes Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s quote that “(religious) Endorsement sends a message to non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.”

Jamila and Carmen enjoy much disagreement about how the Supreme Court will rule in the case.

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Shutdown, humanist style

October 8, 2013 Carmen Russell 0 Comments

Roy Speckhardt is Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, and he knows a thing or two about getting disparate factions to work together in common interest.

He, like many Americans, is disappointed in the federal government shutdown, and he looks to some non-religious and religious history to encourage leaders on Capitol Hill to get back to the business of governing!

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‘Deconverted’ – the thinking atheist

September 20, 2013 Carmen Russell 0 Comments

Seth Andrews, creator of the online community and podcast, “The Thinking Atheist,” joins Jamila to talk about his book, Deconverted: a Journey from Religion to Reason.

For 30 years, Andrews was a faithful Christian adherent with a loving family. And then he started asking questions. Now, he’s behind one of the internet’s largest atheist communities.

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‘Under God’ goes to State Supreme Court

September 4, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:05:33 0 Comments

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow morning in a case challenging the mandatory recitation in the state’s public schools of the Pledge of Allegiance, because it includes the phrase “under God.”

Joining Ed Brayton and Jamila to discuss the case is executive director of the American Humanist Association, Roy Speckhardt. His organization’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center is representing a Massachusetts humanist family in the case.

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An International Conference on Creationism?

August 6, 2013 Carmen Russell 0 Comments

Creationists gathered this weekend in Pittsburgh to share resources and help more people to understand that the earth is thousands of years old, that God created it, and that “Evil-outionists” are to be distrusted because they simply don’t know everything.

VOR’s Jamila Bey went into the fiery furnace of anti-Darwinist thought to converse with Kevin Anderson of the Creationist Research Society and Henry Smith, Jr. of the Associates for Biblical Research about why they’re certain that a Christian biblical scientific worldview is correct.

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Secularists defend philanthropy efforts against misreporting

July 17, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:15:35 0 Comments

Philanthropy among those who are non-religious has gotten a bit of a boon of late. Despite magazine reporting to the contrary, the Foundation Beyond Belief has just hit a million dollar fundraising mark.

Host Jamila Bey and co-host Ed Brayton spoke with Sarah Morehead, head of the Recovering from Religion Foundation, and Todd Stiefel, founder of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation, to discuss doing good for goodness’ sake.

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Secular group bends rules of religion through its philanthropic missions

July 2, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:19:51 0 Comments

A new company is on a mission that could have many Americans thinking twice about people performing deeds that have traditionally been considered the domain of the religious.

BeSecular.com is that company. Its mission is simple: raise money through t-shirt and wristband sales to help fund secular and progressive religious organizations whose missions compel them to do good.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Jerry DeWitt, a former Pentacostal minister and author of the book, “Hope After Faith,” and Mark and Shannon Nebo to discuss the company and its growth as part of the growing body of Americans who are without religious affiliation.

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Nonprofit starts hotline to answer questions about faith

June 7, 2013 Carmen Russell 0 Comments

A nonprofit organization called Recovering from Religion is starting a helpline for people who have nowhere else to turn with questions about their faith and traditions.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Sarah Morehead, the executive director of the group, to talk about the new service they’ll be providing, the 120 partner groups who are on board and why it’s a hotline for even folks who are still religious.

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From Virginia to Penn. to Arizona, secular stories traveling across US

May 24, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:15:33 0 Comments

It’s been an eventful week in secularism, and the Sex Politics And Religion Hour talks with experts about what are some of the goings on in Virginia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

In Virginia, Republican Party members nominated E.W. Jackson to run for lieutenant governor in the upcoming gubernatorial race. Jackson is a reverend and an attorney, and he’s known for opposing gay rights, marriage equality and for being quite wrong on the purpose of the 3/5th’s compromise.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with GOP strategist and political commentator Raynard Jackson (no relation) to discuss the nomination of Jackson.

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Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia-area couple who lost a second child to a curable infection when they chose faith healing over medicine for the 2-year-old boy has been convicted.

Bey spoke with activist Ernest Perce to discuss the conviction and a number of religiously motivated laws which are being proposed and even implemented in the commonwealth.

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Finally, in Arizona, a federal court overturned a 20-week ban on abortion procedures and a state lawmaker outed himself as an atheist by quoting Carl Sagan in lieu of offering a prayer before the legislature.

Bey spoke with Serah Blain, executive director of the Secular Coalition for Arizona, to discuss the stories.

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From Australia to US, musician brings atheism on the road

May 21, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:17:39 0 Comments

Australian singer, songwriter Shelley Segal joins the SPAR with Jamila to talk and sing about many of the topics that have compelled her art, including religiously-imposed sex segregation, the horror of a life lived longing for an afterlife, and the unbelievable adorableness of wallabies.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Segal to discuss all of this and more.

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From Pentecostal to Muslim to atheist, rapper breaks down religious barriers

April 30, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:19:57 0 Comments

From Zack Kopplin’s quest to improve the state of science education in the United States to the abuses of unchecked power as granted to the clergy, atheist rapper and musician Landon Tombstone Taylor has a lot to talk about—and more specifically rap about.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Landon Tombstone Taylor to talk about his art, his thoughts, and frankly, the state of the world as he sees it.

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Atheists hope to raise political profile at annual convention

March 7, 2013 Carmen Russell 00:13:31 0 Comments

Atheists from across the country will gather in San Francisco this weekend for the National Atheist Party Convention and one topic the group hopes to address will be how to raise the political profile of one of the nation’s largest growing demographics in the religion category.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Troy Boyle, president of the National Atheist Party, to discuss the weekend’s agenda.

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