Julia Sweeney coming to Fayetteville this Saturday!

Well, Fayetteville Freethinkers, we will be having our meeting this Saturday and this month we have a special request of you.

We want you to attend, and we want you to bring a friend (or two) if you can.

This is a special presentation that we have been holding back until now.

Some people have a gift of story telling. Some people have the gift of having a story to tell. Julia Sweeney has both.

You may have heard her "God said Ha" monologue (1995) which won her the "New York Comedy Festival's Audience Award" and a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album (later made into a movie by Quentin Tarantino). You may have heard small excerpts on NPR's "This American Life." What you have probably not seen or heard is this full DVD version of her "Letting Go of God" presentation that she began work on in 2001 and finally released in November 2008.

If you want to introduce friends to what freethinking is all about, this would be an excellent time to bring them to our meeting. Sweeney's journey is the journey that many of us went through. She is not harsh or mean-spirited in any way. She is, however, brutally honest about how difficult and ultimately rewarding it was to go through this journey.

Our attendance has been excellent lately but we have room for more. We will be in the comfortable main room with seating for 200. We are pulling out all of the stops, advertising in the newspaper, NPR and Free Weekly.

And, if you act now, it gets better. Everyone who brings a new guest who has not attended before, will get... a chocolate bar.

You read that right. Your guest gets the treat of a Freethinker meeting and you get a double treat. You can eat it yourself or share it with your friend. That's a moral question you'll have to deal with (this will be our "Moral Question of the day").

This show "Letting Go of God" was made for a freethinker meeting and the gentle and humorous way this information is delivered, it's accessible to everyone with a pulse. You could bring your religious grandmother. She would not be offended. Well, we can't guarantee that, but she probably won't walk out. And if she does, who cares, you'll still have your chocolate bar.

The DVD summary blurb:

"Equally comedic and insightful, Letting Go of God is Sweeney's brilliant one-woman show about her struggle with her faith. Grappling with the seeming contradictions in Adam and Eve, Noah, the Ten Commandments, and even the teachings of Jesus - and trying to understand the Bible's messages about morality, family values, and human suffering while faced with door-knocking Mormons and wise-cracking priests - Sweeney takes listeners on her very personal journey from God to 'not-God'."

We will have a few other things at the meeting, Taylor Henschell will debut a song he wrote and video he created in memory of Nick Masullo.

Julia Sweeney's presentation is the main event. You'll understand why when you see it.

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Freethinker Meeting Details:

When: Saturday, May 30, 2009

Where: The Fayetteville Public Library. 401 W. Mountain
St. (two blocks west of the town square). Library phone: 571-2222.

Time: 2:00 pm

Room: The Walker Room. This is the main meeting room. Go in the front
door, through the lobby and go to your right. You can bring a snack or coffee from Arsaga's in the library lobby.

Map: http://tinyurl.com/b3sfgf

We'll decide a dinner location after the meeting.

Questions? Call Darrel: 479-442-6738