Annual Picnic September 29 -Featured Tony Messenger!!
Our Annual Picnic
held September 29 featured our guest, Pulitzer Prize-winning Tony Messenger, columnist of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the popular singer, Laka, with her band! We had over 60 people in attendance, and everybody had a wonderful time.
Mr. Messenger, author of “Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice”, spoke about how the far-right uses laws intended to further religious freedom to impose the narrow religious interpretations of a small minority on the rest of society.
We strongly supported the petition effort to repeal the current no-exceptions ban on abortions in Missouri, which we learned on 9/11/2024 will be on the November ballot!
Our Board Member (also AU national treasurer), Brian Kaylor, is coauthor with Beau Underwood of a new book about religious freedom in America. The full title is “Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism”. It provides the AU perspective on the alarming growth of Christian Nationalism. Its thesis is that Christian Nationalism is not just a recent aberrant creation of the right wing, but a consequence of years and decades of encroachment on religious freedom by organizations that are often viewed as benign, the “apple pie” denominations such as the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others. The narrative is very up-to-date, but also provides the history of the foundational events that have led to our current uncomfortable situation. The book is published by Chalice Press and is available everywhere.
down Missouri’s abortion ban as a clear violation of the Missouri state constitution. The talk wasco-sponsored by us, Women’s Voices for Social Justice and the National Council of Jewish Women in St. Louis. It was an excellent illustrated lecture, with many good questions afterward. A crowd of about 100 attended. The next step is a hearing on November 16 at 11:00 in the Carnahan Municipal Courthouse in St. Louis, where the AG will attempt for the second time to have the suit thrown out. The same judge will be hearing the same arguments again, so we have every expectation of prevailing as we did last summer, but this is Missouri, so you never know.
Believe it or not, the St. Louis Chapter just celebrated its 75th anniversary! We hope you were able to join us on November 1, 2023, at the History Museum in Forest Park. We had a good group of about 75 who enjoyed hors d’oevres and drinks, and remarks from our Chapter President, Cynthia Holmes and our national CEO, Rachel Laser. Ms. Laser summarized the status of our lawsuit against the Missouri law that bans essentially all abortions and celebrated this historic milestone of one of the oldest, if not the oldest AU Chapter in the country.
Our Annual Picnic was at the Shaw Park South Shelter on September 17, featuring “Church and State” editor Rob Boston. We also had music this year! – “Number 9 Coal” played bluegrass and old timey music. Were you there, or were you square?