Come Join us at the Bird and the Book, 1509 E Broadway Ave, Maryville , for socializing and dinner.
If you have any extra copies of Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Freethought Today, or other Freethought magazines, bring them to the social. We will try to have RET stickers ready to place over your addresses to make the magazines suitable for distribution for outreach.
If you enjoy looking at menus ahead of time, check out this link:
https://southlandbooksandcafe.com/files/documents/67c026ee-7a0f-43a0-ad07-c2de2926950e.pdf
This will be a monthly event on the First Wednesday.
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RET is participating in the Farragut July 4 Parade. The route is 1.3 miles long and participants will need to assemble by 8:30 AM.
Please note: We need a definite RSVP to secretary@rationalists.org so we can provide participants with the specifics about parking and protocols for the parade. We will have a really funny Flying Spaghetti Monster super-sized puppet and will need 3 people to manage it. We also need folks to carry banners and distribute fliers.
Line up for parade vehicles will be at the Farragut High School junior lot (not the circle lot!) Access to the high school junior lot is available from Campbell Station Road and West End Avenue via Kingston Pike.
Please note: Once you have sent an RSVP, you will receive a PDF with all of the rules and particulars. Please read that information carefully. If couples are driving we suggest two vehicles, one at the start point and one at the end point to aide in transportation.
Abdurahim Oguz, a Uyghur physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will give a talk on “Persecution of Uyghurs in China – A Uyghur’s Perspective.”
Abdurahim Oguz received his PhD in Physics from Syracuse University in 2011. His PhD research was performed at the Physics Division of the Jefferson Lab on developing high power green laser based precision Compton Polarimetry for low energy electron beams. After completing two post-doctoral appointments at Penn State University and University of Tennessee, he joined ORNL Research Accelerator Division as a Laser and Optical Physicist in 2017. Currently, he is leading the laser and optical technology development efforts for several key R&D projects that include laser assisted charge exchange (LACE) injection, stripper foil temperature measurements, novel optical beam diagnostic methods for Ring Injection Dump and Target Imaging System for Second Target Station etc. He is a member of the American Physical Society (APS), Optica (formerly known as Optical Society of America) and International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).
Coffee and other warm drinks will be served. Bring a snack to share if you wish.
We meet in the Cafeteria Annex of the Goins Administrative building. The direct entrance is at the rear of the building. Please use that entrance to avoid disturbing other events happening in the building.
Topic: First Sunday In-Person
Time: Jul 6, 2025 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Brenda Wineapple
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Katherine Stewart, author of Money, Lies and God will be speaking on this important book that exposes Christian Nationalism.
About Katherine:
Katherine Stewart has been covering the rise of the anti-democratic movement for over 16 years. Her latest book, Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury 2025), is an instant New York Times bestseller. Her previous book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (Bloomsbury 2020), won First Place in the Nonfiction Books category from the Religion News Association, as well as a Morris B. Forkosch Best Book award. The Power Worshippers formed the basis of the documentary feature God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner; Stewart served as executive producer. Her 2012 book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children, focused on the religious right’s efforts to undermine public education. Stewart’s writing appears in The New York Times op ed, New Republic, Religion News Service and others. Her substack is at katherinestewartbooks, and she is on Bluesky at katherinestewart.bsky.social.
Her books will be available for sale at the presentation and there will be a light reception afterward along with book signing.
There will be no Third Sunday Morning Meeting in July because of this presentation Sunday evening.
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Come join an informal gathering for food and conversation at the Corner 16, 637 Kroger Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37922 near Pellissippi and Northshore.
If you are interested in seeing the menu beforehand, you can check it out here.
Please note that this is NEW LOCATION.
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Are You Going to Serve a New Lord?
Many social philosophers seem to think we are heading toward a Techno-Feudal state. They point to a society that is being led by a small elite that is increasingly hoarding all the wealth in society and dictating social norms and customs to the rest of us. This encompasses both the right and left and is the top few percent of the population. Social mobility is being reduced, and fewer people are able to rise above their class. See:
Our Neo-Feudal Future - First Things
"America has only a limited feudal past, the plantation aristocracy of the antebellum South and the enormous class chasms of the Gilded Age being pretty much our only examples. Yet today—after decades of social mobility, a digital revolution that was supposed to empower individuals everywhere, and the construction of a vigorous anti-discrimination apparatus that putatively ensures equal rights and status—a rigid new social order with feudal elements has come into view."
So, after serving your Lord, come and discuss with us your new future. We may Knight you.
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