Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville

"NC Medicaid: Issues and Options - A discussion" will be presented by NC Representatives Lindsey Prather and Brian Turner at the Sunday, July 20, 2025, meeting of the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville, 2:30 – 4:00 pm at 227 Edgewood Rd, Asheville, NC. Lindsey and Brian will be with us in-person for presentation and Q&A. There will also be a hybrid Zoom option. All are welcome to attend.

This presentation will center on policy developments, the process of how NC expanded Medicaid, the impact the OBBBA Medicaid cuts will likely have on our state and explore issues and options as the NC legislature seeks to balance competing objectives. At this early date, we may not know the extent of the cuts impacting NC residents and the options. Nevertheless, the conversation will be valuable to both participants and presenters.

Please note: This is a nonpartisan, educational event. We ask all attendees to keep the conversation focused on issues and legislation—not political parties, campaigns, or candidates—in accordance with our nonprofit guidelines. Thank you for helping us maintain a respectful and constructive environment.

Lindsey Prather is an educator, community leader, and public servant. Lindsey received a NC Teaching Fellows scholarship, graduated from the University of North Carolina Asheville with a Sociology degree, taught Special Education, Civics, and U.S. History for 6 years in Buncombe County Schools and is now the Assistant Director of Admissions at UNC Asheville. She earned a Masters of Public Affairs from Western Carolina University and dove into making her community a better place. In 2022 she was elected to the NC legislature representing the 115 district. Lindsey loves biking in the Pisgah mountains with her husband, Eric.

Brian Turner grew up in Asheville, worked as a television producer for MTV in New York, returned to Asheville in 2004 to assist the family manufacturing business, joined UNC Asheville as Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations in 2012 and was promoted to Assistant Vice Chancellor. He was first elected to the NC House of Representatives in 2014. After a short break from legislating, Brian, now in his fifth term, represents the Downtown/ center of Buncombe County - District 116. Brian is an avid outdoor enthusiast and lifelong learner. He earned a degree in Economics from Northwestern University, an MBA from Wake Forest University, and is pursuing a Masters in Energy and Environmental Management at the University of Connecticut. He is especially delighted that his wife, Hope, has joined him as his legislative assistant.

The Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville endeavors to nurture the capacity and responsibility of human beings to act in their personal relationships and in the larger community to help create a better world. We are inspired by the ideal of working to create a more humane society, recognizing each person’s worth and dignity, and helping to bring out the best in them. We are a member of the American Ethical Union and an affiliate of the American Humanist Association. We join together to assist each other in developing ethical ideas and ideals, to celebrate life’s joys, support each other through life’s crises, and to cultivate ethical behavior in our community.

“The Exvangelicals” will be presented by Sarah McCammon at the Sunday, August 17, 2025, meeting of the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville, 2:30 – 4:00 pm. Sarah will join us live on Zoom. We will meet at our regular Sunday location at the Friends Meeting House on Edgewood Road near the UNC-Asheville campus. All are welcome to attend.

Sarah will talk about the growing social movement of people leaving the church from her March 2024 NYTimes Bestseller book: “The Exvangelicals”.

The Exvangelicals is the story of a rising generation of the children of evangelicalism, including Sarah herself, who are growing up and fleeing the fold, who are thinking for themselves and deconstructing what feel like the “alternative facts” of their childhood. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, Sarah describes the post-evangelical movement: identifying its origins, telling the stories of its members, and examining its vast cultural, social, and political impact.

Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower and—most of the time—a true believer. But through it all, she was increasingly plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she’d been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.

After spending her early adult life striving to make sense of an unraveling worldview, by her 30s, she found herself face-to-face with it once again as she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, where she witnessed first-hand the power and influence that evangelical Christian beliefs held on the political right.

The Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville endeavors to nurture the capacity and responsibility of human beings to act in their personal relationships and in the larger community to help create a better world. We are inspired by the ideal of working to create a more humane society, recognizing each person’s worth and dignity, and helping to bring out the best in them. We are a member of the American Ethical Union and an affiliate of the American Humanist Association. We join together to assist each other in developing ethical ideas and ideals, to celebrate life’s joys, support each other through life’s crises, and to cultivate ethical behavior in our community.