Barry W. Lynn (born 1948) was the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State from 1992 to November 2017, when he retired. He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ and a prominent leader of the religious left in the United States. Lynn was formerly a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He has been known as a strong advocate of separation of church and state. Early life Barry Lynn was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania when he was a child, where he attended Bethlehem's Liberty High School, graduating in 1966. Lynn received his B.A. in 1970 from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. After attending law school at night, he received his J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Career After law school, Lynn continued to work with the United Church of Christ to gain amnesty for young men who chose desertion to protest the Vietnam War. Before going to Americans United, Lynn held positions related to religious liberties. In the mid-to-late 1980s he was legislative counsel for Washington's ACLU office, where he frequently worked on church–state issues. From 1974 to 1980, Lynn held positions within the national offices of the United Church of Christ, including two years for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C., as legislative counsel. Lynn has appeared frequently on radio broadcasts and television to debate and discuss First Amendment issues, including MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, NBC's Today Show, Nightline, Fox Morning News (Washington, D.C.), CNN's Crossfire, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Anderson Cooper 360°, The Phil Donahue Show, Meet the Press, CBS Morning News, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and Larry King Live. He was formerly a weekly commentator on church-state issues for UPI Radio, and served for two years as regular co-host of Buchanan and Company on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Lynn hosted the radio program Culture Shocks, until 2013, which could be heard on 1160 AM in Washington, D.C., and on several stations nationally. Lynn's first book, Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom (), was published in October 2006. His second book, God and Government: Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism, and Freedom Of Conscience () was published in 2015. Legal actions and