Happy holy days

[emad]

Guardian....
It's a tough old time for secularists in the US, with the fundamentalist Christians riding high on the re-election of George Bush. Across the nation, Christian activists have launched Christmas campaigns to reconnect the church and state that the US constitution, and later the Supreme Court, so rudely put asunder.

Those who oppose this development may be interested to learn that a very different view will soon be coming to a screen near you, courtesy of the American version of Wife Swap. The show has signed up one Reginald Finley, aka Infidel Guy, for one of the show's trademark polite exchanges of world views.

A one-man atheist crusade, Finley launched an internet radio show 5 years ago to liberate humanity from religion, as he puts it. He's been keen to appear on Wife Swap both to promote his site - which he says is just starting to make money through subscriptions - and to advertise a positive image of atheism on US television. You can read his posts on the subject here.

Filming starts in January, Finley says. If Wife Swap's producers have any feel for ratings - and I think they do - Finley and his family of loveable heathens will be paired up with someone straight out of Focus on the Family.


Posted by Sarah Left at December 17, 2004 11:56 AM

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/arts_and_culture/2004/12/17/happy_holy_days.html