Join Rep. Jared Huffman, co-founder of the Freethought Caucus, and Secular AZ Executive Director Jeanne Casteen for a discussion and signing of his book, No Prophets, a behind-the-scenes look at the shocking extent of Christian nationalism’s reach in our government—and the fight to defend church-state separation. They’ll be at Changing Hands Books in Tempe on September 8 at 7p!
RSVP here
Sinclair Lewis is said to have warned: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” On January 6, 2021, Rep. Jared Huffman saw something chillingly close to that vision. Thousands of Christians following self-declared prophets stormed the Capitol. The insurrection should have been a national wake-up call about Christian nationalism. Instead, most Americans and politicians looked away.
No Prophets argues that Christian nationalism is now America’s most dangerous political movement. Huffman pulls back the curtain on religious extremists behind the insurrection who have only grown more powerful with Trump’s return. Openly vowing to destroy church-state separation and democracy as we know it, they now work inside the highest levels of government to drive domestic and foreign policy, reshape federal agencies, undermine science and education, and tilt elections. The endgame: an authoritarian theocracy that imposes their religious beliefs by force of law.
Drawing on his experiences as a formerly devout Christian and the only Humanist ever to serve in Congress, Huffman maps the movement’s largely hidden landscape—taking readers behind the scenes of the Capitol, exposing the tactics and myths Christian nationalists use to advance their agenda, and showing how America is imperiled by our reluctance to confront threats cloaked in Christianity.
But, he argues, it’s not too late. If we muster a broad interfaith coalition grounded in shared commitment to democracy, we can reclaim the public square for everyone—religious and secular—to share on equal terms.
No Prophets is a clear-eyed, urgent appeal to defend the secular foundations of democracy.
Join Jews for a Secular Democracy for a timely national webinar with author and commentator John Fugelsang (Separation of Church and Hate), as we explore the rise of Christian nationalism and its impact on religious freedom and American democracy. With humor, historical insight, and a deep understanding of both scripture and the Constitution, Fugelsang offers a clear and engaging perspective on one of the most urgent issues of our time.
📅 Wednesday, April 15
🕖 4:00 pm PST
💻 Online (Zoom)
🎟 Free with registration
👉 Register here: https://bit.ly/johnjfasd
Join us on March 6 at noon (MST) for a conversation with Krispin Mayfield.
Krispin Mayfield is a licensed professional counselor in Portland, OR. He specializes in treating religious trauma and developmental trauma. He and his partner, D.L. Mayfield have been writing about and analyzing Christian nationalism for over a decade. The Mayfields currently publish regular articles about religious authoritarianism on substack at strongwilled.substack.com
A smart, irreverent, and accessible guide to thinking more deeply about how religion permeates and shapes the world around us –and why you need to understand the work it’s doing.
Megan Goodwin PhD is an editorial consultant at Religion Dispatches and media & tech consultant for The Crossroads Project. Her research centers on race, religion, gender/sexuality, and politics in what’s now the United States. Her first book, Abusing Religion: Religious Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions is available through Rutgers. Her next project is Cults Inc.: The Business of Bad Religion.
Dr. Morgenstein Fuerst is an associate professor of Religion and the director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont. Her formal expertise is in Islam in South Asia, racialization of Muslims, and global histories of imperialism. Her first book, Indian Muslim Minorities & the 1857 Rebellion: Religion, Rebels, and Jihad, is available through Bloomsbury. She is also co-editor of Words of Experience: Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst (Equinox).
ABOUT THE BOOK
We are entering a new era of religion in America: For the first time, fewer than half the country belongs to a church.
But within that group, growing numbers are consolidating in megachurches, which are amassing social and political power in our age of convenience and easy celebrity.
Megachurch pastors have never been more influential–with media empires, networks, and entire colleges under their control. But their churches have also never been more prone to abuse and hurt. Gods of the Smoke Machine goes inside America’s largest churches to uncover the hidden stories of trauma happening within our most powerful Christian institutions and meet the survivors, attorneys, and advocates fighting for accountability. It is a cloaked world of sex, power, politics, and money, but also a human story of pain, betrayal, and resilience.
Combining personal storytelling and original reporting, author Scott Latta pulls back the curtain on a dangerously insular institution of more than seventeen hundred churches nationwide that is answerable to almost no outside accountability.
Even those who have never set foot in a church can feel the implications of this societal shift. Megachurch pastors were the kingmakers of Donald Trump and drove the rhetoric behind the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. For decades, they have crafted their own laws even as they fought to influence ours.
Scott Latta is an award-winning journalist who has spent a decade reporting for humanitarian organizations on conflict, displacement, and climate change around the world.
His writing has been featured in The Believer, CityLab, Modern Farmer, The Awl, and The Southampton Review, which awarded him the Frank McCourt Memoir Prize in 2016. He lives in Portland.
Click here to warch on Secular AZ’s YouTubc channel.
Dr. Ratner is a pediatric infectious diseases physician based in New York City. In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Ratner directs an active research group and teaches students, residents, and other trainees. His work has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, PNAS, Pediatrics, and other venues.
Currently, Dr. Ratner is a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics, edits a major textbook of pediatric infectious diseases, and serves on numerous advisory and editorial boards. He speaks widely in both academic settings and news outlets on topics relevant to vaccination and infections in childhood and is the author of the book Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health.
Join us on May 30 at 12p (AZ time) as we welcome special guest Dan Barker to speak about his latest book, Contraduction.
Dan Barker is a former teenage evangelist, choir librarian, associate pastor and Protestant missionary. After decades, Dan gradually outgrew his religious beliefs. Dan says. “I just lost faith in faith” and announced his atheism publicly in 1984. He tells his story in the books Losing Faith i
n Faith (1992) and Godless(2008).
Dan was PR Director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation from 1987 to 2004 and was elected co-president in 2004. With Annie Laurie Gaylor, he is co-host of Freethought Radio, a national weekly talkshow on the Air America network. He is a contributing editor of Freethought Today and is involved with the Foundation’s state/church lawsuits. He regularly travels the country and the world giving lectures, performing concerts, and participating in debates with theists, many at college and university campuses.
(2015. Photo by Ingrid Laas.)
Scott Latta is an award-winning journalist who has spent a decade reporting for humanitarian organizations on conflict, displacement, and climate change around the world.
His writing has been featured in The Believer, CityLab, Modern Farmer, The Awl, and The Southampton Review, which awarded him the Frank McCourt Memoir Prize in 2016. He lives in Portland.
Pre-order Scott’s book at Changing Hands Bookstore!
Join us on May 16 at 11:30 (AZ time) as we welcome special guest Katherine Stewart, author of Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.
Katherine Stewart has been covering religious nationalism and the assault on American democracy for over 15 years. Her latest book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, was awarded first place for Excellence in Nonfiction Books by the Religion News Association as well as a Morris D. Forkosch award. Her previous book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children covered the religious right’s efforts to infiltrate and undermine public education.
Stewart writes for The New York Times opinion, New Republic and many others, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. In 2020 The Power Worshippers was acquired by producers Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner, who subsequently based their documentary feature film, God & Country, on the book. Stewart’s latest bookis Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.
Join us at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on November 6 at 7p for a conversation with Secular AZ’s Jeanne Casteen and Scott Latta, author of 
Click here to warch on Secular AZ’s YouTubc channel.
n Faith (1992) and Godless(2008).
Katherine Stewart has been covering religious nationalism and the assault on American democracy for over 15 years. Her latest book,