meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Friendly Atheist Podcast

620 - An Arizona Push for School Board Prayers

Friendly Atheist Podcast

Friendly Atheist Podcast

Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News, News Commentary

4.61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Patreon supporters who give $5 a month will get an ad-free AND VIDEO version of the show!

Join our private Facebook group and Discord server!

Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.

— The scandal rocking Bethel Church and the world of charismatic Christians. (1:07)

— Arizona GOP pushes bill to allow school board prayers, despite obvious constitutional violations. (18:54)

— After Bible-thumping backfires, Maryland county won't open meetings with the Lord’s Prayer. (32:50)

— In Oregon, a local official's "State of the County" address turned into a Christian revival. (40:16)

— A pastor who rejects “established science” decided polio & measles vaccines should be optional. (50:15)

— An Oklahoma lawmaker wants Creationism taught in science classes. His bill is doomed. (1:03:26)

This episode is sponsored by the Pew Research Center: To learn more about their Religious Landscape Study and dive into the data, visit pewresearch.org/rls.

This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Heming.

0:00.9

And Jessica.

0:01.5

And you're listening to the Friendly Atheist Podcast. Please go to patreon.com slash friendly atheist podcast to support this show. Get your ad-free and bonus episodes. We even have a different camera set up today. So we look closer to the cameras. So much closer and not blurry. I've learned so much about doing video production in the last week. It looks better. I'm excited.

0:22.5

We have Kairons. What a time to be alive, Hemet. Very true. And you're going to Washington.

0:28.2

What's going on with that? Yep. In February, I'm going to be at Snaqualmi Brewery on the 21st.

0:34.6

That's a Saturday at 7 o'clock. There's a Twin Peaks trivia event going on upstairs.

0:39.9

As one does. I shan't participate because I don't need to sandbag people on their vacation.

0:45.5

So, yeah, if you're in the area, I have some friends coming in from Walla Walla from my old Montana

0:51.2

days, who I haven't seen since 2009. I'm really excited.

0:55.5

Very nice.

0:56.6

So if you're interested, all the details are on our Facebook page, you can go there for that.

1:01.5

And Discord as well.

1:02.6

And Discord.

1:03.4

All right.

1:03.8

Let's start this week with the story I'm so excited to tell you about.

1:08.3

I don't know how much of this you have heard.

1:10.8

So there's a church in upstate, I think it's upstate California, a Bethel church.

1:16.3

And they are a major, whatever it is, major hub of charismatic Christianity, faith healing, raising the dead, trusting prophets.

1:24.8

And the trick is anyone gets to call themselves prophets as long as they're convincing enough.

1:31.7

Are they Mormon offshoots?

1:33.7

Because they love to declare themselves prophets.

1:36.4

Excuse me.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Friendly Atheist Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Friendly Atheist Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.