Barry W Lynn

In this 3rd book of his three-volume memoir, Barry W. Lynn recounts twenty-five years working against the top leaders of the Religious Right on issues including school prayer, prayer in public places, public religious displays, creationism, the Faith-Based Initiative, the Ten Commandments, and death with dignity. He describes his frequent visits to Religious Right conventions to sit in the audience and his broadcast debates with and advocacy to religious leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, Jim Wallis, Joshua DuBois, Jay Sekulow, Rob Schenck, Robert Jeffress, Wiley Drake, Herb Titus, Kelly Shackleford, Bill Murray, Bill Donohue, and Mat Staver. He also tells stories of policy-making as he experienced it behind the scenes with blunt honesty.Lynn worked from 1976-2016 on the social issues that face Americans again in 2023: abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and book banning. He worked for the ACLU and the United Church of Christ national office in DC before becoming executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Well respected for his work on Capitol Hill and with executive branch agencies, he became a radio and television media star for his keen wit and ready repartee as he addressed First Amendment public policy issues. He combines that wit with his experience participating in the making of American history from a front-row seat as a political strategist and lawyer in the Supreme Court Bar. As a clergyperson in the United Church of Christ, his passion for correcting injustice and inequality guided his advocacy on TV, talk radio, his podcast CultureShocks, and in this memoir, which is funny and full of American political history. His battles with the Religious Right will amuse and alarm readers.

In the first book of his three-volume memoir, Barry W. Lynn recounts his work as a clergyperson in the United Church of Christ and a lawyer practicing as part of the U.S. Supreme Court bar, working to get President Jimmy Carter to issue an Amnesty to those who refused to fight in Vietnam. His work extended to years of fighting against registration for the draft and introduced him to the veterans who were falling through the cracks. He also worked on cults and cultivated friendships with comedians and musicians, who kept him sane. His passion for correcting injustice and inequality guided his advocacy to legislators and to speaking on TV, talk radio, as well as to his podcast CultureShocks. He took on the high and mighty with his repartee and keen intelligence. Rich with photos and images, this memoir is funny and full of American political history. It is a reference book on the 1960s-80s battles over registration for the draft and on the individuals involved in the Carter, Ford, and Reagan Administrations and in Congress. It also is appropriate for courses studying opposition to the Vietnam War. Lynn's work helping young Americans who opposed that war informs today's Americans of their options and their right to choose a road less traveled because of their beliefs and convictions.

As a lawyer admitted to the Supreme Court bar, Lynn litigated and debated. As a clergyperson in the United Church of Christ, empathy and a passion for correcting injustice and inequality pulled him to make sure all groups, including Wiccans, were treated equally. Along the way, he cultivated relationships with musicians, and television, radio, and print celebrities and writes about them and about members of Congress with blunt honesty and wit. Through this volume readers watch a young boy from Bethlehem, PA, polish his debate skills and repartee to take on the giants in the nation's capitol and prevail on many critical issues from the 1970s through 2016. Always he was guided by his passion for the First Amendment and his respect for diversity, in his advocacy on TV, talk radio, his podcast CultureShocks, and with policy makers in Congress and the executive branch. His memoir is laugh-out-loud funny, daring, and full of American political history. It will amuse and instruct.

Faith grows when we uphold its vision for a better world and speak of it in the public square—while keeping church and state separate. "Dealing with a splintered media, with its new opportunities and challenges requires being able to mix the facts with the feelings in appropriate measures for the audience you are trying to reach. Reading this book will not make you as glib as your favorite newscaster (who is probably reading a teleprompter) or as dashing or beautiful as a Hollywood celebrity, but it will make you less fearful, better trained and more likely to be used as a source again." —from the Foreword by Rev. Barry W. Lynn A practical and empowering resource. It provides ideas and strategies for expressing a clear, forceful and progressive religious point of view that is all too often overlooked and under-represented in public discourse. It identifies the religious themes in today's great debates—gay rights, the needs of children and families, church-state separation and reproductive rights, including access to sex education, contraception and abortion care—and presents new language and methods for effective communication with the media, policy makers and community. It steers away from the polemics and jargon of politics—left, right, liberal, conservative, socialist—and instead relies on factual historical examples, current events and personal stories to illustrate the best ways to communicate the positive role faith can play in personal and public life by reinforcing the separation of church and state.

The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world, due in large part to the clauses of the First Amendment that guarantee freedom for and from religion. But as we debate displaying Christmas trees at city hall and the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, we must ask: in what other ways is our religious liberty being compromised. In "First Freedom First", with clear language and recognizable examples, two of the most trusted voices on church-state separation address head-on the many areas where religion and politics overlap, with consequences for all Americans. This book is for anyone concerned about such issues as: * Churches hosting politicians and insisting they give testaments of their faith* Science teachers questioning the theory of evolution in their public school classrooms* Public religious debates on private issues involving end-of-life decisions and reproductive choices* Federal funding for religious organizations, including those that discriminate openly With religion a constant presence in political discussions, "First Freedom First" offers practical and easy ways to remind our leaders and our community of the importance of keeping religion and politics separate, for the sake of both institutions

This revised and updated edition of "The Right to Religious Liberty "sets forth an individual s religious rights under present law, offering suggestions as to how they can be preserved and protected.The ACLU has diligently and vigorously advanced claims that the religious liberty of individual believers and religious institutions are infringed upon by government. Written by two ordained Christian ministers and a former Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school student, "The Right to Religious Liberty "represents the view that far from being militantly atheistic, the ACLU s insistence on the separation of church and state is in the best interests of both church and state.Like other handbooks in the ACLU series, this volume is developed in the hope that Americans, informed of their rights, will be encouraged to exercise them. Barry Lynn, Marc D. Stern, and Oliver Thomas explain this shared conviction through the use of a question and answer format that addresses a broad range of issues dealing with church-state separation and religious liberty. In detail, the authors discuss establishment and free exercise clauses, religion and public education, governmental aid to religious organizations, religious displays, the role of chaplains, religion and family law, accommodation of religion, church autonomy, conscientious objection, refusal of medical treatment for religious reasons, zoning and religious institutions, clergy confidentiality, religion in the workplace, prisoners rights, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, state constitutions, and the controversial topic of deprogramming.In presenting the material as objectively as possible, the authors do not always concur with each of the cited decisions, nor do they always agree with the specific solutions of a case. Instead, their goal is to give the interested reader a synopsis of the most current and relevant information and a general sense of the meaning and application of the law."