Enamored of the mountains, my wife and I moved from Chicago to Montana in 1996.From 2013 to 2017 I was president of a local secular humanist group. On the upside, we never encountered any open hostility from Christianists. We celebrated the winter solstice instead of Christmas, and held “Ask an Atheist” programs open to the public. On the downside, we have had to explain to numerous people, including our school superintendent (of all people), the nuances of separation of church and state.Before my tenure as president, our group went to Helena to protest a hairbrained bill to teach creationism alongside evolution in public schools, and handily squashed it.One of our members filed suit in federal court to have a statue of Jesus removed from a publicly owned ski run, and eventually lost.Oh, those were the days!Since then, the group has dissolved. The defeat of Democrat Steve Bulloch in the 2020 governor’s race sounded the death knell for true religious freedom in Montana in favor of the Republican brand of “religious freedom” a la Gianforte. People in the other 49 states take heed. It can happen there. And for all you fans of “true Christians,” I remind you that religion itself is the existential enemy of science, reason and equality. It teaches our children ridiculous nonsense about our universe, discourages them from critical thinking and questioning authority, and tells them who to hate. Bible-thumping Republicans are returning the Rockies to the Stone Age.

Enamored of the mountains, my wife and I moved from Chicago to Montana in 1996.From 2013 to 2017 I was president of a local secular humanist group. On the upside, we never encountered any open hostility from Christianists. We celebrated the winter solstice instead of Christmas, and held “Ask an Atheist” programs open to the public. On the downside, we have had to explain to numerous people, including our school superintendent (of all people), the nuances of separation of church and state.Before my tenure as president, our group went to Helena to protest a hairbrained bill to teach creationism alongside evolution in public schools, and handily squashed it.One of our members filed suit in federal court to have a statue of Jesus removed from a publicly owned ski run, and eventually lost.Oh, those were the days!Since then, the group has dissolved. The defeat of Democrat Steve Bulloch in the 2020 governor’s race sounded the death knell for true religious freedom in Montana in favor of the Republican brand of “religious freedom” a la Gianforte. People in the other 49 states take heed. It can happen there. And for all you fans of “true Christians,” I remind you that religion itself is the existential enemy of science, reason and equality. It teaches our children ridiculous nonsense about our universe, discourages them from critical thinking and questioning authority, and tells them who to hate. Bible-thumping Republicans are returning the Rockies to the Stone Age.

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