Celebrate Religious Freedom with the Fredericksburg Coalition of Reason

The Fredericksburg Coalition of Reason (FredCor) will host Professor Emile Lester on January 10, 2016 as the speaker for the Religious Freedom Celebration.

The meeting will follow FredCoR’s participation in the Fredericksburg Religious Freedom Day Celebration to honor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. We will take part in the parade, carrying the FredCoR banner and FSH signs, and will attend the ceremony conducted by the organizers, the Knights of Columbus. We will then proceed to our event at the nearby downtown library auditorium.

Emile Lester is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington. His book Teaching about Religions was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2011. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, and his work on religion and politics has been featured among in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Huffington Post, USA Today, and C-Span.

Speaker Topic: Holy Moses! The Founders and Religion in Texas Textbooks

Summary: The Texas State Board of Education touched off a firestorm in 2010 when it adopted social studies standards that misled students about American history. Among other things, the standards said that separation of church and state in the United States was a myth, and that the Founders borrowed their laws and views of government from Moses and Solomon. In 2014, textbook companies released books that aimed to conform to these standards. Since Texas has an outsized influence on the content of textbooks, these passages may determine what students around the country learn about American history and government, University of Mary Washington Professor Emile Lester and other academic experts reviewed these textbooks. His speech will address what they found in their review, and what can be done about it.

The Fredericksburg Coalition of Reason is composed of the following groups:

FREDERICKSBURG SECULAR HUMANISTS

FREDERICKSBURG SKEPTICS

READING SKEPTICALLY

CONSERVATIVE SKEPTICS OF FREDERICKSBURG

PARENTING BEYOND BELIEF

SKEPTICS ACTIVITIES GROUP