Denver FFRF Schools’ troubled Safe and chapter puts history with legal abortion up 12 billboards religion continues is pro-life PAGE 7 PAGE 16 PAGE 12 Vol. 34 No. 4 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. May 2017 Visiting the ark park on a lark Poundstone joins lively lineup at convention FFRF is excited to announce that well-known comedian Paula Poundstone, an “out” atheist, will perform at its 40th annual convention. Poundstone joins Nation columnist, writer and poet Katha Pollitt as two of the latest additions to the impressive convention lineup for the weekend of Sept. 15-17 at the Monona Terrace FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel recently took a tour of Ken Ham’s $100 million Ark Encounter in Convention Cen- Kentucky. Despite Ham’s reports to the contrary, attendance has been way below projected numbers, ter in Madison, and, according to Seidel, the ark is filled with logical and scientific impossibilities, including dinosaurs! Wis. See Seidel’s story on page 13. View the digital ad at ffrf.org/ark-ad. Poundstone is one of America’s top comedians. She is listed in Comedy Central’s Taking on the Internal Revenue Service list of “100 Great- est Stand-Ups Of Paula Poundstone Ministerial housing as the estate of President Emerita requires complex determinations All Time” and has allowance goes before Anne Nicol Gaylor, were denied relating to the tenets, principles also won an Amer- court once again a similar benefit, although FFRF and practices of those churches ican Comedy Award for Best Female Standup designates a housing allowance that provide their clergy with cash Comic. She routinely identifies as an atheist in FFRF has filed a federal brief for them. Attorney Rich L. Bolton, housing allowances.” her performances. Among Poundstone’s claims supporting its long-running who authored the brief, writes, The IRS and several churches to fame is her regular appearances as a panelist challenge of the preferential tax “The Supreme Court has refused that intervened in the case filed on on NPR’s funny weekly news quiz show, “Wait treatment that the IRS provides to allow government to preferen- March 8 for summary judgment. Wait . Don’t Tell Me.” to ministers of the gospel. tially favor religion with tax breaks FFRF’s response brief debunks In 2016, Paula voiced the character “Forgetter FFRF’s brief, filed before U.S. that are not generally available to many of their claims. Both the IRS Paula” in Disney/Pixar’s Academy Award-winning District Judge Barbara Crabb in other taxpayers.” and the churches contend that animated feature film, “Inside Out.” In June 2016, Madison, Wis., on April 5, forceful- Besides the direct advancement the housing allowance, passed by her first double-live CD, “North By Northwest: ly argues that the IRS is discriminat- of religion, the housing allowance Congress in 1954, is on par with Paula Poundstone Live!” debuted at No. 1 on both ing by allowing clergy — and only fosters excessive government en- housing provided more generally Amazon’s “Hot New Releases – Nonfiction” and clergy — to exclude cash payments tanglement with religion. FFRF “for the convenience of the em- “Comedy CD” lists. for housing from taxable income. points out: “In order to ensure that ployer.” But FFRF counters: “The In 1992, she became the first woman to host the FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker this preferential tax benefit is lim- historical evidence indicates that prestigious White House Correspondents dinner and Annie Laurie Gaylor, as well ited to religious officials, §107(2) See Housing on page 9 See Convention on page 24 How I won $1,000 betting on the Antichrist By Derek Mathias guy so that he wouldn’t forget about our deal. And on Jan. 20, as you know, I won the bet. Of course, few months ago, one of the many fundamen- I was disappointed that we now have a wee-handed talist Christians I’ve argued with on YouTube tangerine tweet monkey as our president, but at least A claimed that President Obama is the Antichrist, I had $1,000 coming to me from my fundie oppo- and that he would seek a third presidential term. nent. To his credit, with a little appeal to his honor, Being aware of how our government works, I im- he sent the money. mediately bet the guy $1,000 that Obama would step This bet was about teaching a lesson, not about down after his second term. My fundie opponent was enriching myself, so I wanted to donate the mon- hesitant, but I challenged him to have the courage of ey to a worthy organization. To that end, I’ve sent his convictions and put his money where his mouth a $1,000 donation to the Freedom From Religion is. He finally agreed to take the bet, but with one Foundation to become a Life Member . because change: If he won, he wouldn’t take my money, but I I just like the poetic justice of fundies helping to would instead have to delete all of my anti-theism vid- finance an atheist organization. eos and never make another such video ever again. Unfortunately, the only lesson my opponent learned Derek Mathias shows off the $1,000 he won betting Of course, I agreed immediately. a fundamentalist Christian that President Obama As the weeks went by, I kept up a dialog with the See Antichrist on page 5 would not take a third presidential term. Page 2 FFRF | FREETHOUGHT TODAY | Madison, Wisconsin | May 2017 Anthropolo-gee, this is interesting! Name: Sue Kocher. hooked on travel and language learn- Where I live: Raleigh, N.C. ing. I realized no one was hiring eth- Where and when I was born: Grand nographers anymore, so I would more Rapids, Mich., in 1956. likely wind up teaching Anthropology Family: I am second oldest of five 101 somewhere and being pressured to children — one of the smaller Catho- publish. The question was how to sup- lic families in our neighborhood at the port myself and still be able to live in in- time. My father was a devoted Catholic teresting places. The answer was to get and deacon, but he died of a heart at- a master’s degree in teaching English tack at 48, when I was 8 years old. My as a Second Language. Which I did, at mother returned to waitressing and the University of Hawaii — those were raised us on her own, with the help of some wonderful years! After my grad- Social Security and veteran’s benefits uate studies, I taught academic English — my father having served as a radio- reading and writing in Japan, Australia man in WW2. It was a bit rough some- and Turkey over a period of 12 years. times, but we had what we needed. Along the way I married a Turk, and we I have lost two siblings — my el- moved from Istanbul to North Carolina der sister to illness, my baby sister to in 1996 — both of us ready for a career estrangement. She no longer speaks change. I’ve been here ever since — he to me except to spew anger and ha- moved on after an amicable divorce. tred because of my atheism and liber- Occupation: I work at a large cor- al politics. Fortu- poration that pro- nately, I still have duces complex an- two siblings that I alytics software for love and enjoy: my various industries dear brother (who around the world. is also an atheist) I started as a tech- and a younger sis- nical editor, and Sue Kocher, left, taunts a Westboro Baptist protester with her sign. ter (also atheist, eventually worked though not very out a niche for Fathers by a man who was supposedly around him, and knew how lucky he “out” or thoughtful myself as corpo- taking orders from God — but who was to have experienced it for even a about it). rate terminologist. was really just a man. day, much less for a long lifetime. Education: I had What I do is main- I kept a churchy journal when I was Quotation I like: Anything by Doro- a wonderful men- tain a database of in third grade at Catholic School — thy Parker. Here’s one: “The cure for tor in my child- terms, definitions someone had stolen it and ditched it boredom is curiosity. There is no cure hood who helped and usage stan- in the boiler room, where it was found for curiosity.” Also, anything by Jack me navigate the dards that we use and returned to me 20 years later! I Handy. Here’s one: “If a kid asks where mystical waters of in our software and didn’t write in it much — mostly about rain comes from, I think a cute thing college applica- documentation. I the reptiles and amphibians I caught to tell him is ‘God is crying.’ And if he tions and financial Sue Kocher get to interact with and kept as pets, or how much I dis- asks why God is crying, another cute aid. Thanks to her, people in all areas liked the bully at school who tripped thing to tell him is ‘Probably because I was accepted into a small liberal arts and levels of the company and it keeps me so that he could see my underwear of something you did.’” college, tuition-free, and graduated in me on my toes. under my plaid uniform skirt. But I These are a few of my favorite things: 1979 with a major in anthropology. I be- My doubts about religion started: found one page that stated, “Oh, how Finding an interesting creature and came aware of the Looking back, I I love Jesus!” and I chuckled to myself, knowing what it is — or finding out Peace Corps, and MEET A MEMBER realize that I had remembering how I wrote those words what it is.