What the hell is Barack Obama thinking? Rick “The Purpose-Driven Hammerhead” Warren is going to deliver Obama’s inauguration invocation? (We could talk about why there’s an invocation to start with, but that’s another matter…)
Interview with singer/songwriter and sociopolitical satirist Roy Zimmerman. Find out whether or not Roy succeeded in playing gigs in all 50 States before Election Day 2008! Roy follows in the long tradition of socially progressive troubadour activists like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Here’s a great clip from The Daily Show, with host Jon Stewart discussion the issue of gay marriage with former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee:
In this crazy win-some-lose-some political season, no other issue has had a more mixed result than gay rights. Now a Florida judge has ruled the statewide ban on adoption by gay couples is unconstitutional. Wrap your head around this one: it’s now unconstitutional to gay-marry in Florida but constitutional to gay-adopt.
Interview with Mel Lipman (approx. 42 minutes into the show), president of the American Humanist Association (and, incidentally, the father of Lori Lipman Brown, lobbyist for the Secular Coalition for American, whom we talked to in podcast #23). We talk to Mel about the AHA’s holiday ad campaign, which puts the message “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake!” on buses in Washington, DC.
When it comes to weeknight news commentary, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann is my pick. Olbermann is well-dressed, well-spoken, well-informed, smart, funny and passionate about his work. Plus he’s up against Bill O’Reilly so he needs all the viewers he can get. Anyway, check out his impassioned response to California voters who passed Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage via amendment to the state constitution):
Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama! The possible ramifications of an Obama presidency will be shaking out for weeks and months to come, but freethinkers are particularly interested in the effect it will have on separation of church and state, the integrity of government-funded science, gay rights, women’s rights, etc. We’ll also take a look at various election results from across the country.
Check out this documentary film from director Markie Hancock, which details her struggle to leave evangelical Christianity behind. Let me know what you think about it.
Yet another reason to wonder about Sarah Palin. Wasilla Bible Church, Palin’s home church, has a program designed to “pray away the gay.” I mean, it’s one thing for an informed, consenting adult to submit himself to some church’s de-gay-ifying protocols (which won’t work, I suspect, any more than abstinence-only sex ed worked for Palin’s daughter). But it’s another thing entirely when you’ve got a high public official sitting in the pews and apparently giving her tacit approval. I’m willing to bet there’s no way Palin backs off her church’s stance if she’s ever called on it. (Unlike Obama, who after some wringing of hands eventually bailed on Jeremiah Wright, to his credit.)
Real Stories of American Muslims
by John C. Snider © 2008
If there’s one point author Melody Moezzi drives home in her new book War on Error, it’s that American Muslims have their work cut out for them these days. They are, to coin a phrase, caught between two worlds. The English name “Melody” combined with the Iranian “Moezzi” is in itself a summary of the situation in which many young American Muslims find themselves. Those who are first or second generation Americans (what Moezzi humorously labels Children of Fresh-Off-the-Boats, or COFOBs) struggle to find a day-by-day middle ground between mainstream American culture, which is largely and often willfully ignorant of any faith other than Protestant Christianity, and the deep-seated Islamic traditions of their forefathers. They are often called upon by their non-Muslim fellow citizens to account for the actions of the extremists within their faith (”…this mistaken minority of hate-mongers and power-seekers who fraudulently claim to be acting in the name of Islam.”). The Western world is very much in conflict with this highly vocal and decidedly violent minority, regardless of how much we might wish it to be otherwise. Fortunately, the United States has so far been spared the variety of home-grown extremists that have caused so much trouble in Spain, France and the United Kingdom.
