Today’s episode is the audio of Juhem’s talk at the American Humanist Association (Washington, DC) on October 12, 2017.
Links:
Key facts about unauthorized immigrants enrolled in DACA (Pew Research Center)
The Dream Act, DACA, and Other Policies Designed to Protect Dreamers (American Immigration Council)
Public Support for Basic Policies of DACA Program Edges Up (PRRI)
En el tercer episodio de La Experiencia de Benito Juárez Juhem y Luciano hablan sobre el secularismo y laicismo hispanos en el mes de la herencia hispana. El primer segmento se trata de una discusión del crecimiento del secularismo entre las comunidades Latinas en los Estados Unidos y el por qué a pesar de ser una quinta parte de la población, no escuchamos más en los medios. El segundo segmento se enfoca en el crecimineto de las comunidades digitales de latinos y latinas sin religión y el crecimiento del secularismo en América Latina. Finalmente cerramos con una discusión de la historia laica y secular en las Américas, España y los Estados Unidos con la politóloga Dra. Yazmín Trejo.
La Experiencia de Benito Juárez #2(22): Demócratas, valores familiares, y Charlottesville. In our second Spanish-language episode we discuss the Democrats’ “Better Deal,” a progressive call to appropriate the phrase “family values,” we close with a discussion of confederate monuments after Charlottesville.
In The Thick #78: It’s not Activism, it’s Journalism. María Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela talk with MSNBC’s Joy Reid and she has the best advice for dealing with Trump supporters in the media.
Code Switch: It’s Getting (Dangerously) Hot in Herre. An amazing episode about the inequality of climate change through the lens of a Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles.
En nuestro segundo episodio Juhem y Luciano discuten varios temas. El primer segmento se enfoca en la estrategia de los líderes del partido Demócrata para ganar las elecciones del 2018. El segundo segmento trata de apropiación del término “valores familiares” para el uso de la población no religiosa. El programa cierra con una discusión de los eventos en Charlottesville el mes pasado.
Among the many findings of the latest PRRI report on religion in America, my favorite is the growing number of women with no religious affiliation. In their new report, PRRI reports that 45 percent of women are nones. This is up 4 percentage points from what the Pew Religious Landscape Survey found a decade ago. An increase of 4 percentage points may not sound like much. But if we look at it in terms of real population numbers the impact of this increase becomes apparent.
The nones growing faster than the general population.
Between 2007 and 2016 the adult population in the USA went from 227.2 million to 249.5 million, a 10 percent overall growth in a little less than a decade. However, the secular population increased from 16 percent of the adult population (or roughly 36.4 million people) to 24 percent (or 59.9 million). In other words, the nones increased by 64 percent (basically, 6.5 times faster than the adult population).
More than half of “new nones” are women.
There is still a gender imbalance in the none population, but in the last decade women left religion at similar rates. In 2007 14.9 million women identified as nones (41 percent of all nones). If we extrapolate the PRRI numbers, a total of nearly 27 million women have now no religious affiliation. That indicates a growth of 81 percent in the number of women with no religious affiliation. The 12.1 million women who have joined the ranks of the nones represent 51 percent of the 23.5 million new nones in the last decade.
Making the world safer for secular women
The Pew and PRRI data don’t have much to say about why people, and especially women, are leaving religion. But those of us who have done so and who know many people who have abandoned the religion they were raised in and became atheists, agnostics and other types of nones have an idea of what’s going on. In a world where women are a major part of the labor force, where there’s a political party dedicated full-time to send women back to the home…and that said party is controlled by the most reactionary religious elements of the country, it should not be surprising that women have decided that religion isn’t for them. That doesn’t mean that secularism is more welcoming. Despite of their love for pointing out religious misogyny, many so-called atheist and secular leaders are very good at dissing the views of secular women. The data may show that religion is losing its grip on many in the United States, but unless we have institutions that are truly inclusive, organized secularism will continue to be a boys club.
Sources:
Note: edited to fix typo “adulation” meant “adult population” (thanks autocorrect)
A Requiem for Florida, the Paradise That Should Never Have Been (Michael Grunwald, Politico.com) Interesting story of urban development, water management, and human hubris in the creation of modern Florida.
Can You Be Good Without God? (Brandon Withrow, TheDailyBeast.com) An article about negative stereotypes about atheists that goes beyond the usual Angry White Dudes (you know who they are) and interviews some fresh and reasonable atheist voices.
The First White President (Ta-Nehisi Coates, TheAtlantic.com) Long-ish read about white rage and the rise of Trump.
Busy week, little time to listen podcasts but got a few gems to share.
The Benito Juárez Experience 17 TBJE 2.0 Luciano and I reboot the show after 16 episodes. We discuss what we liked, what we want to change, and the changes that are coming to the show in the near future.
Understanding Latin American Politics: The Podcast 38 The Russia-Cuba Connection Been reading a lot about several of these topics recently. Good timing, good podcast subject by UNC-Charlotte Prof. Greg Weeks who interview Prof. Mervyn Bain from Univ. of Aberdeen.
La Voz del Centro 754 La toma de Jayuya en la Revolución de 1950 Since nationalism seems to be a trendy subject these days, listen [en español] about the 1950 Nationalist Revolt in Puerto Rico.
Other atheists. That's according to a new study co-authored by psychologist Will Gervais. Says Gervais:
I suspect that this stems from the prevalence of deeply entrenched pro-religious norms. Even in places that are currently quite overtly secular, people still seem to intuitively hold on to the believe that religion is a moral safeguard.
-Will Gervais, PhD
The scope of the study was international and according to the write up in The Guardian "Only in Finland and New Zealand … did the experiment not yield conclusive evidence of anti-atheist prejudice…"
From an American perspective this finding doesn't surprise me. I've met plenty of atheists who sort of believe that most religious leaders are closet atheists conning people out of their money. That kind of thinking reached fever pitch this year when Michael Shermer gloated about [white] evangelicals getting duped by immoral atheist Trump (I write why I think he's wrong here).
Some other circumstantial evidence comes from PRRI's 2013 American Values Survey. They found that the nones reported a score of 77 (out of 100) in a cold-warm scale. But that number dropped to 71 for atheists. Sample size limitations don't allow for an analysis of Atheists' responses.
Read the full Gervais et al. study at Nature Human Behavior.
This week Luciano and I reflect on the first 16 weeks of the show. We discuss our favorite moments and argue about what can be improved. We also announce some changes in format.
In his latest post at Sin/God Luciano argues that "Democrats Need To Stop Considering Backing Anti-Choice Politicians." He's right on so many levels and here's a sample:
The Democratic Party would strengthen itself if it reaffirmed a commitment to women’s rights and it would embolden many of its supporters who like me felt and feel incredibly disappointed by some within the Party reportedly considering this cowardly move.
Luciano González, Sin/God "Democrats Need to Stop Considering Backing Anti-Choice Politicians"
I agree that the Democratic Party needs to embrace reproductive rights more strongly. The vast majority of women holding legislative office, and virtually all women of color in Congress and state legislatures, are Democrats. The majority of women, thanks to the overwhelming support of women of color, voted for Hillary Clinton.
And yet, the Party as an institution is still trying to win elections by attracting the voters they don't have -and likely won't have ever again: religious conservatives. Those working and not-so-working class whites that once were the core of the Party before women joined the labor force en masse and people of color asserted their rights to equal citizenship. The ones who fell for Nixon and his Southern Strategy hook, sink, and liner. The ones who enthusiastically supported the Mediocrity in Chief.
Instead, Party leaders should focus on not diminishing the enthusiasm and activism that the Trump presidency has awakened. Rather than trying to replay the last election, they should focus in winning the next one. There's a constituency out there who will support a Party with principles. Just stop trying to be a nicer version of the other party because a Republican-lite Party is one that still throws the core of the Democratic Party under the proverbial bus. And that's no way to win an election.
The LatiNone 