Democracy Forum on WERU FM Community Radio

The League of Women Voters-Downeast in cooperation with WERU FM produces a monthly radio program on topics in participatory democracy. It's called the Democracy Forum.

Broadcasts may be heard from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on the third Friday of the month at WERU Community Radio, 89.9 FM Blue Hill. Listen on the web at WERU.org. The show can also be heard in the Portland area at 11:30 a.m., the first Sunday of the following month, at WMPG Community Radio, 90.9 FM Portland, streaming at WMPG.org.

In September, 2018, the Democracy Forum won top honors from the Maine Association of Broadcasting for public affairs radio.

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Archive

Here is information about our latest or upcoming broadcast.

November 19 — Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion: Politics and Religion in America

This new episode was pre-recorded on November 17; no listener calls will be taken. Comments and questions may be emailed to news@weru.org with Democracy Forum on the subject line.

“There is a difference between exercising religious beliefs and imposing them on others. Our Constitution fiercely protects the former and expressly prohibits the latter.”  ― Joseph Kennedy III, former Congressman from Massachusetts

We'll talk about politics and religion. What is the constitutional foundation of the separation of church and state? Is freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights? How did the doctrine emerge and develop from the prohibition on the establishment of religion? How is the interpretation and practice affecting modern politics? What is the intersection of political activism and religious groups, now and in our history?

In case you missed it live, you can listen to this show from the archive at weru.org.

Special Guests: 

• Mark D. Brewer, Professor of Political Science and Department Chair, University of Maine
• Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life, Department of Political Science, Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame University.

To learn more, follow these links to related content:

• Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, James Madison, presented to the Virginia General Assembly in 1785

• In U.S., Far More Support Than Oppose Separation of Church and State, Pew Research Center, October 2021

• The Sleeper SCOTUS Case That Threatens the Separation of Church and State, The Atlantic, October 2021

• The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart, The Atlantic, October 2021

• Opinion | If they’re going to keep passing religious laws, we’re going to need exemptions, Washington Post, September 2021

• The 2020 Census of American Religion, Public Religion Research Institute, July 2021

• How 'In God We Trust' bills are helping advance a Christian nationalist agenda, The Conversation, July 2021

• One Nation Under God? | American Experience, PBS, May 2021

• How Politics Replaced Religion in America, The Atlantic, April 2021

• The Perils of Politicized Religion, Daedalus, Summer 2020

• Ninth Annual Constitution Day Lecture - “Faith and Freedom: Hidden Lessons from the Founding Fathers” | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, September, 2019

• Two Concepts of Religious Liberty: The Natural Rights and Moral Autonomy Approaches to the Free Exercise of Religion, Vincent Phillip Munoz, American Political Science Review, May 2016

• American Christianities; A History of Dominance and Diversity Catherine A. Brekus & W. Clark Gilpin Eds., December 2011.

• History of 'In God We Trust from the Treasury Department, last updated 2011

• Establishment Clause (Separation of Church and State) | The First Amendment Encyclopedia, 2009

• James Madison and the Struggle for the Bills of Rights by Richard Labunski, June 2008

• Relevant No More?: The Catholic/Protestant Divide in American Electoral Politics by Mark D. Brewer, 2003