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Episode 8 - What's going on with the Neighbours? A Discussion with Nicole Carr
81 Plays7 months ago
Nicole Carr, the executive director of the American Humanist Association, takes us on a deep dive into the evolving landscape of alt-right and religious conservatism in the US in this timely episode. Together with our executive director, Bettianne Hedges, Nicole explores the impact that this growing conservatism has on the political, cultural, and social dynamics across the border.
(We did have issues with audio, but we corrected it as best we could)
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Transcript
Introduction and Themes
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to the Voice of Canadian Humanism, the official podcast of Humanist Canada. Join us as we delve into thought-provoking discussions, explore critical issues, and celebrate the values of reason, compassion, and secularism through the humanist lens. Welcome to The Conversation. In this episode, Nicole Carr, the executive director of the American Humanist Association, takes us on a deep dive into the evolving landscape of alt-right and religious conservatism in the U.S. in this timely episode. Together with our executive director, Betty Ann Hedges, Nicole explores the impact that this growing conservatism has on the political, cultural, and social dynamics across the border.
00:00:57
Speaker
Now, caveat listeners, we had issues recording Nicole's audio. Please forgive us. We corrected it as best we could, but enjoy the episode. Let's begin.
Acknowledgment of Indigenous Peoples
00:01:08
Speaker
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Betty Ann Hedges, the executive director of Humanist Canada. And welcome. As always, this recording will be available after this event on all of our various platforms, including our new podcast. We are recording live on June 23rd, 2024. I would like to begin by acknowledging during Canada's Indigenous History Month, the Indigenous peoples of all the lands that we are on today. ah While we meet today on a virtual platform, I would like to take ah to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands on which we are guests. I also want to note that the word Canada is the Indigenous word for village or community
00:01:54
Speaker
and we gather here today as a community of humanists.
Introduction of Nicole Carr
00:01:59
Speaker
Canada and the United States are possibly the world's two most similar countries. We speak the same language, eat the same foods, work in the same sorts of jobs, celebrate most of the holidays, and often consume much of the same media. But the gap between our two countries is growing. Canadians are looking south and asking, What's going on? In the last few years, American politics has become one of our favorite sports. And we see religion referenced more often in these public conversations, while Christian nationalism has imposed itself into every conversation. And so why, that is why we are fortunate here today to have as our guest, someone who can help us gain a better perspective. And that perspective through that unique humanist lens
00:02:54
Speaker
that we all share. I'd like to introduce our guest today, Nicole Carr, Interim Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, editor of the Humanist Magazine, and senior editor of thehumanist.com, which many of us follow. And as you know, she hosted the Humanist International Freedom of Thought Report launch. Humanist Canada was involved in that report. Nicole is joining us from Washington, DC, and she works in that great blue building with the happy humanist on the side. Nicole and I had talked about approaching this conversation with a SWOT format, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, um but let's shake up the letters. Let's begin with your strength, the organization you lead, but then let's look at threats. That gives us opportunity as a way to close out today
00:03:52
Speaker
and to look forward in a positive way. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Nicole Carr's Interim Role
00:03:58
Speaker
I'm honored to be here. a So my I became the interim executive director in March of this year while we searched for a, actually, I should say, my last year as we sort of go through a ah prolonged analysis of the organization and a search for a new executive director. um So we are we are deep in the in the process of finding our permanent executive director and we hope to be able to have an announcement today, next couple of weeks. Okay, so um Humanist Canada is celebrating 55 years. How long as is AHA been around?
00:04:47
Speaker
We've been around since 1941. So it's 83 years this year. So let's talk about your public messaging to start.
AHA's Public Messaging Strategies
00:04:56
Speaker
You've been very involved in the outward facing, the external messaging of the American Humanist Association. Um, I really like your website, that journey to humanists project. That's great. That public sharing of anyone's personal journey. If you get an opportunity, have a look at that. that interactive use of technology is brilliant. Many of us share the haikus on your site also. um One that caught my eye this morning by Caitlin Kelly, humanity breathes when logic meets compassion, humanity sees. I like that. So how are you measuring your success in your messaging? Oh, that's a very good question.
00:05:43
Speaker
We certainly part of it is according to what feedback we get on projects like Journeys to Humanism. um That is, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, that is a project where we we solicit the stories from members of our audience about how they made their way to humanism. um And ah we've gotten a lot of really wonderful um tales from from people about the really the variety of of ways that people find um ah humanism and find the AHA. So they the submission to that project itself are a way we measure our public message.
00:06:35
Speaker
And also by, you know, in participation for ah with things like our conference and our webinars and um our public programs. So the humanist, that comes out on a regular basis. that That's very good. Many of us really, you know, use that as a way of interpreting indeed what is going on in the States and measuring some of the actions we've seen recently. So let's get right into the threats.
Threats to Reproductive Rights
00:07:04
Speaker
um We are founded by Henry Morgan Tuller, I don't know if you know that, a doctor who performed abortions and suffered violence due to his role. I was listening to one of your videos this morning and was just shocked by the violence that you're seeing um against those involved in providing abortions, providing abortion information. um it it youre you you You actually had the statistics. So are you monitoring that? are you
00:07:34
Speaker
Are you seeing a continued uprise? Is it leveling out? And why is it happening? Are you talking about violence against, like in clinics? Yeah, abortion practitioners and, you know, with the with the fall of Roe versus Wade, how indeed that um impacted, um you know, your messaging in general, how you had to change the messaging. And as your organization, have you been ah targeted for anything ah specifically due to that, being part of that dialogue. Right. um so we they they the The violence on um around reproductive health hasn't um lately been at clinics where women are actually getting abortions. um it's It's been mostly in the legislature
00:08:31
Speaker
um when during In after um the Supreme Court handed down the Dodds decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, which is what um ah protected the right to abortion, um we've just seen ah about half the states now have some kind of restrictive abortion laws, some of them so restricted that they essentially ban abortion. And what's happening is that people who need abortions are not able to get them. People whose lives are in danger, women whose lives are in danger, have to either travel great distances or are simply not able to
00:09:25
Speaker
to get the abortions that they need. And um the the and now we're seeing that legislatures even further to start trying to restrict contraception and um even um other kinds of reproductive services like in vitro fertilization. um We've seen some courts attack the sort of very foundations um that permit in vitro fertilization. So there is um they reproductive rights in general are very much under threat by Christian nationalists at
00:10:17
Speaker
um all levels of government from state to federal. And we're even seeing some local jurisdictions get into into the act. In Texas, for instance, there have been some local jurisdictions that made rules about the use of highways to travel to ah get an abortion. So um the situation is really very serious. And there have certainly been moves to the the way to if the courts that that have protected the the right to an abortion previously are no longer going to protect it, then the only way to do that would be to make a federal law for Congress to pass a law that would ah ah protect
00:11:11
Speaker
um abortion and other reproductive rights nationally. But um with the and ah divide in our Congress right now, that that just isn't going to happen despite the fact that um several bills to do that have been introduced, they've been blocked. So does this surprise you? And in a nutshell, why do you believe this is all being targeted? Like, what is it about the ah religious approach, the religious life view that has made this become such a political, you know, so important to them that the lengths they're going. What we're seeing now is the fruition of a very long um campaign on the part of Christian nationalists and the far right to um to control reproductive health. um And, you know, the fact of the matter is that it's a
00:12:05
Speaker
um The effort is to control women, and to decide what the role of um you know people who give birth it it in this country um can be. um um they It started a long time ago and they have um that the far right has slowly been um working to put things in place. um so that they can be victorious. And um the Trump administration was able to appoint three Supreme Court justices who paid lip service to the fact that Roe v. Wade was um settled law and was precedent that could not be attacked. And yet they came onto the court with every um intention of overturning it.
00:13:02
Speaker
and and that's what happened. I think um what we're seeing is sort of as fewer and fewer people in the United States, and i i I'm sure this is true in Canada as well, as fewer and fewer people are religious. You know, Christian Evangelicals in our country are oh fighting to hold on to their power. And um they have, ah over many years, and with the organizations like the Heritage um a Foundation in their corner, um have put in place um ah infrastructure that allows them to elect politicians who are, you know, in fairness, very out of step with the interests and
00:13:57
Speaker
desires of the American citizenry. yeah Every poll shows that um reproductive rights are very powerful. And in fact, in places that have gone to extremes to attack it. We have seen some pushback in in terms of you know ballot measures put on the ah put on the ballot um that would protect abortion. And it is galvanizing a certain, you know, i many, some segments of the population. But um at this point, it's sort of an uphill battle.
Project 2025 and Authoritarian Risks
00:14:34
Speaker
So if indeed they're successful and they do elect a president clearly unsuitable for the role,
00:14:41
Speaker
um Project 2025 comes in, supported by the Heritage Foundation, actively opposing your establishment clause in the Constitution, um the clause that separates church and state, that will be a major constitutional movement change that will take generations to get back. Would you agree with the risk would be here? yeah So what what does it feel like in the ground on the ground? That's what I want to ask. What does it feel like there? Here we have the media, we have a few American friends, but are you measuring across the country and what does it feel like? Does it feel like the ground is literally falling out from under you? How is it feeling right now? Yeah, so um mean I I try not to be alarmist, but yes, it feels like the ground is falling out from under us. We are
00:15:39
Speaker
We are literally fighting to to protect or regain rights that we thought were settled decades ago. There are, um and it's it's very scary, but you you mentioned Project 2025. For those of you who aren't familiar, it is a plan that, and you can Google Project, twenty well, you don't have to Google it, it's project2025.org. um And they just lay it out. They are not the far right, the Christian nationalists are not keeping secrets. They are telling us exactly what they will do if they um win elections in November and it is nothing less than dismantling the government as we know it and installing an authoritarian one. They need to
00:16:37
Speaker
um you know literally replace government workers with people who are loyal to a Christian nationalist agenda um and um they need to change how schools function, um how ah education functions in this country. um ah they mean to they are They very clearly are saying that they will um attack organizations that try to oppose them um by using ah tax and regulatory laws. The situation is very is very scary. We've seen some of it already. I mean louisi i i mentioned education. um Louisiana passed a law
00:17:34
Speaker
ah last week that will that required the Ten Commandments, a very specific translation the version of the Ten Commandments, to be posted in every public school in the state. um Now, legal i um cases have already been brought against it by the the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. but There is an uphill battle and we don't know what the Supreme Court will do if it gets to them. So okay are you planning a vote secular campaign and what does that look
Education and Voting Efforts
00:18:16
Speaker
like? How are you pushing back against that? Yeah, so there are a few things we're doing. First, we're certainly trying to educate our members so that so that we make sure that this is not, you know, sort of flying under the radar that that that everybody knows what the stakes are.
00:18:33
Speaker
um There is the Secular Coalition for America, of which we are a member, along with lots of other humanists and atheist organizations in this country, yeah ah has a um ah secular votes program, which we participate in. We regularly remind our ah if you if you um If you read our ah weekly newsletter, thehumanist.com, um I regularly, my staff note is about the the importance of voting and we we have run and encourage our chapters to run um both registration campaigns and get out the vote campaigns.
00:19:20
Speaker
um now i I think the laws in Canada are similar. As a nonprofit organization, we cannot get involved in specific elections. In other words, we can't advocate for specific candidates or against specific candidates, but we can advocate on the issues and we can advocate for voting in general, and we we very much do that at every opportunity. um One, Reason to be hopeful is that um ah um one of our representatives um from the House of Representatives, Jared Huffman, who is um b one of the co-founders of the Congressional Free Caucus, which AHA helped to to found in the House, um he and Representative Jamie Raskin, who's the other co-founder of the caucus,
00:20:19
Speaker
a couple of weeks ago started a project 2025 task force, which is um designed to bring together members of Congress to do what they can before the election to ah create safeguards that would ah prevent um yeah i dismantling ah they the functions of government that Project 2025 threatens, um and also would work to set up some safeguards going forward since we don't don't know what the elections will bring. Those those are the you know education, getting out the vote, and working with the Congressional Task Force are that are the measures we're taking right now.
Influence of Religious Movements
00:21:14
Speaker
um And as you can see in the chat, we are feeling some of that here also in our own political system. And and like you, we can't point to candidates, but again, we are feeling and and you know some religious behind some religious movement behind that, but also the targeting of you know queer and trans people, abortion rights, and and the and the same the same subject matters, the same dialogue, the same approach, but it's just a little quieter here. which indeed may make it a bit more um scary,
00:21:50
Speaker
yeah, comparing things to be afraid of, but because we' we're just not used to seeing it. We're just not used to seeing it and identifying it. And I think an important role for all of us here to point out things when we do see them, um because um it that's a scary road ahead of all of us. We've seen it around the world. Further up in the chat, aye somebody mentioned Jerry Falwell's moral majority. In the 70s, there was Anita Bryant. and we have you know the
00:22:23
Speaker
There's this quote that we love to use ah in the United States. You've probably But the arc of justice is long. I mean, the the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. What we're finding is that is, in fact, only true if you make it bend towards justice. When, you know, Jerry Falwell was a feature in the 70s, it was very much fringe. And we didn't, you know, the the our side tended to think that it wasn't, um you know, that it was it was just a bunch of of
00:23:02
Speaker
of sort of and bizarre people on the edges and that it wasn't a real threat. And the fact of the matter is those are the people that were responsible for the beginnings of where we are today. So if you're seeing the beginnings of it now where you are, pay attention because um that's what can metastasize into into a real threat. Right, right. any Any tangible advice? Anything that we should be doing specifically? Anything you wish you would have done earlier as an organization? Yeah, I think, and it's not that we ignored them at the time, but um I don't think we took them as seriously as we should have. um I think we we we should have fought harder then. um And, you know, we did,
00:23:59
Speaker
and paid more attention to um to the the organized to to the organization that was going on quietly in the background. One of the thoughts in Canada is that the pandemic accelerated all this here, but ah but which is kind of counterintuitive because when you're in it and we're we we're having conversations about um individual rights, you think it would have moved it the other way, but it really did not.
Pandemic's Impact on Politics
00:24:29
Speaker
Did you experience similar there? I think there were certainly factions that were, that the pandemic, there were issues that the pandemic, that that they used the pandemic to organize around.
00:24:46
Speaker
um you know the anti-vax movement, the anti-mask movement, the insistence that um ah government shouldn't be allowed to um ah require churches um to and to close along with other businesses. um And I do think those gave them some things to rally around. But the they Trump administration, the first Trump administration hope it's not, there's not a, I won't say that, because that would be advocating. The the Trump administration, um you know, came before the the pandemic. So i ah the the be then this was certainly
00:25:33
Speaker
you know, part of um what was going on in in the United States before the pandemic. And even during the pandemic, there were there were some, you know, we had the yeah the riots that happened after George Floyd was, ah I'm sorry, the protests that happened after George Floyd was um killed, and then the sort of police riots that came in reaction to that. And then, you know, the insurrection when they literally attacked the Capitol. Some of that was probably exacerbated by the um um by the ah sort of frustrations around the pandemic. And it's hard to know what would have happened if not with the pandemic. Right. What's going on in the courts right now that you're
Upcoming Supreme Court Decisions
00:26:20
Speaker
bracing for? What are you watching for? So the Supreme Court is
00:26:24
Speaker
um ah bringing its current session to a close. um and it Typically, they finish at the end of June. On rare occasions, they release decisions for July. But we're we're waiting for some important decision to be announced. um One is on whether or not Trump has immunity from prosecution as a former president. Obviously crucial um another is there's another um abortion decision that's going to be handed down that has to do with it created around emergency abortion.
00:27:08
Speaker
um And there is another very important there's a there's the very important gun control case still to come. And there is a case called Loper, um which is it's a the very it's ah it's a very complicated issue, but it essentially boils down to whether a decision about whether or not um agencies of government like the that the Food and Drug Administration or or even the Justice Department has the ability to make um certain kinds of regulations and it and in itself could threaten the regulatory and um ability of the government. So those are the things we're waiting for now. um But next year there's all sorts of scary stuff coming, not the least of which will be a a challenge
00:28:02
Speaker
undoubtedly to the Ten Commandments Law in Louisiana. I think there were a couple of questions. Marty, do you want to go ahead? We're struggling with the sound here. Thanks, Betty Ann. Thanks, Nicole, for being with us. I've been a longtime member of both these organizations as a humanist chaplain and been to your conferences and had great chats with Royce Breckhardt before you became the executive director. I have a question about what you think the Free Thought Caucus and ah us humanists politically ah that still can vote in the United States. I'm a dual citizen.
00:28:41
Speaker
Do you think that if Biden is reelected that there will be an emphasis to expand the Supreme Court to try to balance out this six to three conservative bias that the court has as opposed to other ah Democrats who have wanted to expose ah some of the ethical violations of the Supreme Court justices. Are they aiming more towards
00:29:12
Speaker
by expanding the court and adding new justices or more towards exposing the some of the ethical compromises and lack of ah no conflict of interest amongst Aliyoto and Thomas and some of the other Supreme Court justices. Right. So we believe strongly that we need to do both of those things. And there are several bills um um are um ah For those of you who aren't aware, the Supreme Court is the only level of judiciary that does not have a code of ethics with penalties and rules that that they have to follow. out um you they The justices are absolutely responsible for policing themselves.
00:30:10
Speaker
And that's not working very well. And there have been numerous scandals um where the justices have have taken money and gifts and um things from i donors who have very pronounced political viewpoints and also actual business in front of the court. um So ah we we support SCURT, which is the Supreme Court Ethics Recusal and Transparency Act, which would create a um ah and and code of ethics. We support um the Judiciary Act, which would create a series of penalties and um we also support expanding the court. I will say,
00:31:05
Speaker
i Unless there is a progressive majority in both houses, I think it will be hard, of course, to pass anything um in the next administration. But I do think that the ethics rules have a better chance of passing than expansion of the court, um although expansion of of the court is the only way to dilute that the majority.
Humanist Activism and Passion
00:31:33
Speaker
that and and they The plan we support would expand the court to 12, which is the number of judicial districts there are in the country. Craig, Craig's from Ottawa. Your country's in the middle of a civil war. There's no question about that and has been for you know several decades. and Even if Biden gets elected in January,
00:31:57
Speaker
the Trump people and the right far right are not going to go away at all. And all hell may break loose come next January the 20th, one way or the other. um One of the things that when you look at the far right or the Christian evangelical people, they're reasonable people and they're reasoning from their assumptions about God and so forth. And they're logically following that. And that makes sense. But what they're doing in an addition, which I don't think humanists as a group do, is they create a sense of passion that propels them to follow their logic in their activities. And the closest I can think about it in terms of humanism is what we saw during the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement.
00:32:51
Speaker
but there was a large religious element associated with that, especially the civil rights because of Martin Luther King. My question to you is how do we get passion into humanist organizations, individuals to be part of our rational thinking? Because I think that's where the right wing evangelicals are one up on us. They have passion.
00:33:19
Speaker
and which motivates them to do this. And we tend to think, you know what? Logic is the key thing, but I don't think it is. Any comment? Well, I will say that I feel pretty passionately about the importance of protecting democracy. I appreciate that. That wasn't meant to be personal. No, no, I understand. What I'm saying is I think that needs to be the focus. and and i I hope that's what we try to do when we talk to people about you know the importance of ah um understanding what Project 2025 would do and um um and how important it is to fight it and why it's important to vote. I think one of the problems we're facing right now is that um aye people in the United States
00:34:13
Speaker
um are and A certain segment of the population has decided that they don't, you know, they don't much like Biden. and They may not like Trump, so they're just gonna, you know, they're just gonna stay home. And we're fighting that that sort of apathy. is If we could get everybody that thinks Trump is a problem to actually vote, we would probably be okay. So we do have to to to get those people excited about something. And I think that the idea of um of protecting democracy is the thing we need to rally around.
00:34:53
Speaker
all of our um you know ah we where we can't get None of our values will be supported in an authoritarian government. That's all there is to it. So it's incumbent upon us to to make sure that that doesn't happen. What's scary for me is not Trump. um it's rather the approximately close to 50% of Americans who currently support him after so many years. I i don't disagree with him. That is absolutely mind boggling. And that's not going away because his support is not only with evangelical people, but rich people as well who do like lower taxation. And I just see
00:35:38
Speaker
ah an ongoing for the next several decades, a big fight in your country. Yeah. And as a Canadian, what would you say advise us as Canadians of what we should do to offset the change in relationship that we will be having with your country in the future? Wow, that's a good question. um You know, ah hold our government accountable no matter who it is. um a it You know, it's it's important, I think, that our our friends and the allies,
00:36:11
Speaker
um i ah you know, be a ae like ah counter force as well. I would like to comment if I may. I suggested to Brockles Bonham, political advisor, asshole a lot. I suggested to him that President Biden should, with all due respect to Kamala Harris, should Um, choose, uh, Barack Obama as his, uh, vice vice president running mate. And then Mr. Biden should a year or two later resign. And then Obama could be the president for a couple of years because your constitution says he can't be elected more than twice. Doesn't mean he doesn't say there, he can't serve as president more than twice. And that might cause people to be concerned about their vice president.
00:37:08
Speaker
willing to vote for Biden again. I pass that on for what it's worth, but I realize you're not a political organization. Right. Yeah. it is mean That would certainly be interesting. I think it's too late to do that. Nicole, do you want to look at Barbara's question in the chat? How do you respond to criticism that humanists are too woke? That's something we get here also. Any thoughts on that?
00:37:34
Speaker
love of the who I I'm not exactly sure. I mean, I don't have a good definition for it. to me, um the the um the criticism of being woke is, um you know, ah is is what you level against somebody because you disagree with them. i'm I'm not particularly sure what it means. I will say that the AHA does, um our view is that a large part of our mission um it includes a support of social justice issues.
00:38:16
Speaker
um we you know, part of um humanism is on is in um believing that this this ah world is all we have and that we are, and ah therefore we should have an obligation to make it the the best place for other humans to live in along with ourselves. And um I, you know i I firmly believe that. And to me, that translates into caring about things like certainly reproductive health, which we've talked a lot about, but also um ah writes for a full ah rights for LGBTQ people. It translates into caring about racial equity. It translates into caring about climate justice. um And so all those issues do get tagged with
00:39:13
Speaker
um as being woke. So I mean, I guess I, I, you know, i I think the term, it's my understanding that the term started as a way to say that we were awake to the problems in our society and were curious about trying to to fix them to kill them. um So i I do, I guess I, you know, to that extent, I do think humanists are, you know, to use a somewhat religious term, are called to be woke. I like that. So I think one of the things that we came out today, you know, and just in order to transition towards opportunities in this discussion, how is it feeling on the ground? Do you feel there's there are a critical mass of Americans
00:40:09
Speaker
that really do feel that this movement is wrong. We know that secularism, the nuns, however you want to call it, those numbers are, you know, are are um you know when they're when they are being um and counted, we know the numbers are going up. How is that going to look at the ballot box and do you feel that there's enough to to push this back this time? It is without question true, obviously, according to ah all surveys and polls, that the number of people who don't identify with um or which i organized religion is
Opportunities with Non-religious Growth
00:40:48
Speaker
growing. um And that is obviously very much to our benefit and and creates a a large opportunity for us. i I do just want to complicate that a little by saying that many of those people who don't identify with organized religion
00:41:04
Speaker
do consider themselves believers and would not consider themselves humanists. They just aren't interested in you know sort of the the yeah um organized religion. But I do think it provides an opportunity for us to reach out to those people. And in some in some cases, in sort of, for lack of a better word, an interfaith way, um two to work with the people whose values are the same as humanist values. And Betty, before the meeting, you and I were talking about the 10 commitments a little, to you know sort of look at the look at the but people who who who agree with us on on those 10 commitments, like compassion and empathy, critical thinking, um i and reason, et cetera.
00:41:59
Speaker
and um and to to to work together with them to accomplish our common aims. I think that's a huge opportunity for for us and and the the um and the people in the humanist community as a whole. And and I hope we find ways to to take advantage of it. um i but will you just We just have to, um
00:42:31
Speaker
ah the The challenge in the opportunity is to figure out how to um get those people activated um and participating in a way that moves things forward.
Excitement for New Collaborations
00:42:46
Speaker
So in terms of opportunities, what else are you excited about right now? I'm excited about our
00:42:58
Speaker
many relationships with the um other secular organizations, um both in the United States and Canada. I think there's tremendous opportunity for for us all to work together to to um to to move things forward. um I am i excited from from the point of view of the AHA as an organization. I'm excited about the opportunities that bringing on a new executive director is gonna bring us, the opportunities to reach out to new audiences um and the opportunities to sort of um reinvigorate our um ra our existing audience base.
00:43:43
Speaker
um and you know we One the plus side of the very scary political climate right now is that we have started upticks in membership. um we did We did see that in the first Trump administration. um and As the Christian nationalist movement, um uh, gain speed. Um, we are seeing that again. So I think that that is a really encouraging, uh, sign that, um, people are paying attention and that, um, and that they, you know, want to try to, to help us do something about it. So I just want to say Craig commented about the 10 commandments in Louisiana and people posting the 10 commitments.
00:44:39
Speaker
And if you're following any you know secular thinkers, any of that on social media, it's just gone crazy doing that. So people have had a lot of fun trying to push back on that one. ah Marty, go ahead, question. ah It's sort of a roundabout question, but it's a comment having been involved in these humanist movements now for quite a few years, and now as a humanist chaplain working in a university. One of the issues that we have up here, and I think I've spoken maybe with you, Betty Ann, about this, but certainly in some of our other humanist groups,
00:45:14
Speaker
And that is a humanist chaplain in the university. People look at my badge and they don't know what the hell I am. First of all, they don't know what a chaplain is and they sure as hell don't know what a humanist is. So one of the areas that I have, even when I was on the board of BCHA up here, I feel like it is an area that we come together more passionately, the separation of church and state, because we are afraid of kind of being suppressed in all these legal things. But my sense is, is that if we want to attract nuns,
00:45:50
Speaker
and the non-affiliated, which may be 30-40% up here in Canada, where a very secular country compared to the United States, we need to do a much improved job in public relations. We need to get out there and let young people know that we exist and that we actually are very involved in various things that I think they would be very interested in. And my sense is that we spend the majority of our time and energy trying to make sure that we suppress
00:46:28
Speaker
white racism and ah the white nationalist movement, the separation of church and state has become almost an obsession because you can raise money around it. But young people in the that I meet at the university are interested in other issues and they want they don't even know who we are as humanists. So if we want to attract these people, they have to know about us. what do you do in the United States to let the word get out that you are there as an alternative to the religious belonging? Yeah, I think that's a really good point. um we So promoting humanism, the awareness of humanism, is a big part of our mission and that's
00:47:18
Speaker
part of what we try to do with our publications. I mean, the publications exist to get the word out about humanism to a larger audience. um The publications have to have content and the content does yeah sometimes tend to be about separation of church and state issues, but but we do cover ah other issues in the, and and so and um ah Talk about what what being a humanist is in those publications as well We're also doing things like you mentioned young people. There's a really interesting um program coming up that is being run by ah were we're a sponsor the the main hosts are the
00:48:03
Speaker
and Tufts University, the humanist chaplaincy there, and ATS United from California. They're coming together to do a program um ah for young humanists specifically, so we're really excited about that. ah And we do our, ah a lot of our education programs are attempts to to reach out to audiences, like we have one coming up on food insecurity, yeah um um and i
00:48:35
Speaker
to the that that do work to reach out to audiences um um that, you know, may not be humanist to explain like what humanism is um and get the get the word out more. Ellen's in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. um Are you experiencing threats? Are your members experiencing threats? so good At the moment, we have not had threats lodged against us at the national. we um But Humanist International certainly has, of which we are a member. The House Foreign Affairs Committee um has gone after Humanist International um because they got a grant from the State Department to do um
00:49:32
Speaker
project in um ah two projects in South Asia um that were designed to teach people how to protect humanists in countries where blasphemy and apostasy are punishable offenses. um And the House Un-American, that's a Freudian split, I was about to say the House Un-American Activities Committee. The um House Foreign Affairs Committee ah has come after the State Department and Humanist International for that grant. And they recently, Craig Smith, who is aye on that committee, a Christian nationalist on that committee, has um proposed a bill that would prohibit the State Department from um creating any more grant programs that protect Asia.
00:50:26
Speaker
So, I mean, to that extent, yeah, we have, and and he has mentioned, because the Humanist International is also an American organization, and they use the AHA's address as their American address, um but Christmas has attacked us on those issues as well, even though we had nothing to do with the grant program. so um And we are, you know, Project 2025 specifically says that they intend to come after organizations like the AHA on any precept they can come up with. So we are, you know, trying to make sure all our regulatory and IRS P's are crossed and I's are dotted and so that
00:51:16
Speaker
you know, we present as small a target as possible, but we do expect them to to come after us and and we we have to be ready for that and and and willing to to to do what we need to do just despite it. So Rosa has a question. and I'm trying to think of how to frame this in a way that you can answer. um Was there a candidate, like has there been any candidate that has been more sympathetic to um issues that are more important to the AHA and to us that hasn't got traction, that may have been a ah better option than those currently running. So there's certainly,
00:51:56
Speaker
um
00:51:59
Speaker
Biden has not, as president, has not been unfriendly to Nancyus. The administration has tried to um make us part of faith-based groups that are convened and gather. um i they As far as an alternative to the two candidates, you know, the United States is for better or for worse a two-party system and there are no viable
00:52:41
Speaker
candidates, especially at the presidential level outside the Democratic and Republican Party. So we are, um are we have the, I will put on my hat as ah interim executive director of the Center for Peace and Equality now, which is our um and adjunct that can do lobbying and advocacy. They are working to create more pipelines. um for candidates like that, um for instance, ah helping to set up and working with the Association of Secular Elected Officials, which is now mostly local um elected, but, um you know, of hoping to see that change, and and also trying to set up um secular caucuses in the states that are the sort of state-level equivalents of the Congressional Free Thought Caucus.
00:53:34
Speaker
All right. Well, thank you, Nicole. This has been informative. I can't say it's been comforting, but it has certainly been informative. Please know you have a group of cheerleaders in Canada, Humanist Canada, our affiliates, our chapters, and all of us that are watching carefully and trying to support and the work you do and influencing at every opportunity anyone we might know who has a voice in the United States. so Thank you very, very much and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. We've had a good representation across Canada today. Thank you.
00:54:16
Speaker
Thank you for listening to The Voice of Canadian Humanism. We would like to especially thank our members and donors who make our work possible. If you feel that this is the type of programming that belongs in the public conversation, please visit us at HumanistCanada.ca and become a member and or donate. You can also like and subscribe to us on social media at Humanist Canada. We'll see you next time.