Monthly Archives

September 2016

Frank Schaeffer, Former Evangelical Christian Leader

In another life, Frank Schaeffer would probably be an evangelical leader and someone with a powerful position in conservative politics. His father was the influential Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer and Frank himself, along with his father, helped create the modern Religious Right.

Frank is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back and, more recently, Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God.

We spoke about his role in creating the Religious Right, why evangelicals are flocking to Donald Trump when he shares almost none of their values, and what he would say to anyone who might vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.

Notes:

Frank was the subject of a New York Times profile and also did a powerful interview with Rachel Maddow

You can see the documentary Let Me Be FRANK right here.

Dr. Karen Garst, Editor of Women Beyond Belief

Dr. Karen Garst is the former executive director of the Oregon Community College Association and Oregon State Bar. She writes at the website Faithless Feminist, and she’s the editor of a new book called Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life Without Religion.

We spoke about how women are uniquely affected in a negative way by religion, what’s stopping more women from leaving their faith, and why we don’t see more women celebrated as atheists.

Britt Marie Hermes, Naturopathy Apostate

Britt Marie Hermes is a former naturopathic doctor who now speaks out about the pseudoscientific ideology.

Hermes is currently obtaining her Master of Science degree at the University of Kiel. Since her departure from her previous career, she has been working to understand her former biases within naturopathic medicine. She hopes her stories will protect patients from the false beliefs and bogus treatments sold by alternative medicine practitioners.

We spoke about how she went from studying naturopathic medicine to fighting against it, what caused her to change her mind, and what she would say to patients who reject western medicine.

Notes:

Be sure to check out her petition: “Naturopaths are not doctors: stop legitimizing pseudoscience.”

Evan Clark, Consultant for Openly Atheist Politicians

Evan Clark is the founder and creative director of Spectrum Experience, the nation’s first private Humanist consulting firm that has also been behind the campaigns of several atheists running for local, state, and federal office. His candidates just had a wildly successful primary day in Arizona this past week. Evan is also chair of the Secular Student Alliance and co-host of the Humanist Experience podcast.

We spoke about how he began Spectrum Experience, the most strategic ways for atheists to run for office, and why coming out as non-religious matters in politics.

Notes:

Religion News Service just ran a great article on the work of Evan and his business partner Serah Blain.

Here’s information on 2014 congressional candidate James Woods and his clever response to a pro-life questionnaire.

You can read about Arizona State Rep. Jean Mendez‘s godless invocation right here.