SHL Book Club: Candidate Without a Prayer by Herb Silverman
Details
2024 marks the 30th Anniversary of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry (SHL), so for our first book club meeting of the year we'll be reading Candidate Without A Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt by SHL founder Herb Silverman.
Since many in our group have previously read Candidate Without A Prayer, we are also recommending Herb's collection of essays published as An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land.
Herb has generously donated copies of both books to SHL which we are offering for $10 each. You can support SHL by buying your copy from us. Please email tucker.lentz@lowcountryhumanists.org for details on buying your book from us. I'll have copies for sale at upcoming events, including our December book club meeting.
The meeting will be held in Meeting Room B of the Main Public Library downtown. There is parking available in the garage under the library (garage closes at 5). After the meeting we'll go out for food and further conversation.
Here is a link to a list of possible book choices for future meetings. Please look these over, and mention any other suggestions in the comments, or at the next meeting.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GsB_OOE-7JkTs0CZv-gs9DJQDOxPNbGT5oF_9gqZjhk/edit?usp=sharing
And here's a blurb about the book:
In this deeply revealing and engaging autobiography, Herb Silverman tells his iconoclastic life story. He takes the listener from his childhood as an Orthodox Jew in Philadelphia, where he stopped fasting on Yom Kippur to test God's existence, to his adult life in the heart of the Bible Belt, where he became a legendary figure within America's secular activist community and remains one of its most beloved leaders.
Never one to shy from controversy, Silverman relates many of his high-profile battles with the Religious Right, including his decision to run for governor of South Carolina to challenge the state's constitutional provision that prohibited atheists from holding public office.
Candidate Without a Prayer offers an intimate portrait of a central player in today's increasingly heated culture wars. It will be sure to charm both believers and nonbelievers alike, and will lead all those who care about the separation of church and state to give thanks.