On Jan. 18, AU President and CEO Rachel Laser joined a group of other expert panelists in an in-person and virtual forum in Minneapolis in honor of National Religious Freedom Day and sponsored by HumanistsMN. At “The True Meaning of Religion: A Forum,” Laser and co-panelists addressed evolving threats of Christian Nationalism and explained how Minnesotans could fight back against the erosion of church-state separation. Other panelists included Rep. Mike Freiberg, co-chair of the Legislature’s Secular Government Caucus; Rep. Esther Agbaje, member of the Secular Government Caucus, author of the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act; Jess Braverman, legal director at Gender Justice, an organization that fights for gender equity; Rev. Angela Denker, Lutheran minister, book author, outspoken opponent of Christian Nationalism and a contributing columnist at the Minnesota Star Tribune; Audrey Kingstrom, Humanist celebrant, program coordinator and board member of HumanistsMN; and Kyrstin Schuette, executive director at School Board Integrity Project, which recruits and trains school board members who value the freedom to read and to learn in a welcoming environment for all students.
Also on Jan. 18 the Orange County, Calif., AU Chapter presented a talk titled “Fear of a Round Planet,” led by Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education. Branch sketched the history of the flat-Earth movement from the ancient Near East through its coalescence in Victorian Britain to its modern rebirth on the Internet. He also discussed current scholarly research on the prevalence, causes and consequences of the modern flat-Earth movement.
On Feb. 2, Laser spoke at the Temple Aliyah in Needham, Mass. Her educational presentation, titled “How Church-State Separation Protects Everyone’s Rights and Freedoms,” focused on AU’s work in advocating for church-state separation as enshrined in the First Amendment and as the antidote to current threats to religious freedom and democracy. She also discussed recent attempts to undermine church-state separation and voiced the need for a national recommitment to religious freedom, diversity and equity.