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Catherine Fahringer

On this date in 1922, Catherine Fahringer was born in Utah to a military family. After living in various places in the United States and abroad, her family settled in San Antonio, Texas, when Catherine was 12. Raised as an Episcopalian, she was urged by family members to introduce her children to religion. While living in England, where her husband was stationed, Catherine dutifully purchased The Golden Book of Bible Stories. Perusing it before she read the stories to her children, Catherine had an epiphany: "I said to my husband, 'I can't teach this stuff to my kids. I'm nicer than God" (San Antonio Express News, March 24, 1991). Catherine found a venue for activism when she hooked up with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1987. She created and hosted "Freethought Forum," a cable TV show. Catherine became a well-known public figure in San Antonio, monitoring and challenging numerous, egregious state/church violations there. An officer with the national Foundation, she served on its governing council. With wit and aplomb, Catherine protested city prayer breakfasts, the presence of religious symbols on public property, and kept freethought in focus with numerous op-eds, letters to the editor and educational letters to government officials and media. In the 1990s, she even managed to persuade then-Gov. Ann Richards and city officials to make proclamations commemorating freethought. Catherine's media appearances included being featured on TV's Sally Jessy Raphael Show, where she quipped about rejecting the idea of a "Big Spook in the Sky." Catherine died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 86. Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said of Catherine: "We loved [her] and miss her. She was not only one of FFRF's best activists, but she was one of our best friends, best boosters and best advertisements for freethought." FFRF offers the Catherine Fahringer Youth Activist Memorial Award in her honor. D. 2008.

“We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake.”

—-Catherine Fahringer, Interview, San Antonio Express News, Portrait of an Atheist by Craig Phelon, March 24, 1991)

Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor; Photo by Robert McLeroy

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