Andrew Bradley: Creator of Mrs. Betty Bowers

[Music] [Music] welcome to if he thought matters I'm Annie Laurie Gaylor and I'm Dan Barker Annie Laurie and I are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation a nationwide association of atheists agnostics non-believers working to protect the constitutional principle of the separation between religion and government we invite you to learn more about FFRF at our website FF Roth org and join us in our vital work so that reason and our secular Constitution will prevail our guest today is the humorist Andrew Bradley he's an author a writer who is creator and sole writer for mrs. Betty Bowers America's best Christian an award-winning satirical web series he is written or co-written three books on two topics he was told never to talk about religion and politics the books are what would Betty do and White House handbook and welcome to jesus land he also served as one of the lead writers on land over Baptists org which is a spoof of fundamentalism so you can get an idea of Andrews humor we're going to start this program with a short Betty Bowers clip called parable [Music] give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but give a starving man a Bible and you get to brag about how you saved him forever [Music] so so you are always moving religion can you tell us what your personal views are on religion or why you like to spoof religion well it's imminently spoof of all you know you never run out of material particularly with the incarnation of evangelicalism right now in America it's just the hypocrisy is just so off the charts it's just fun to to spoof it's it's almost effortless you have a huge following on social media for this because it's so watchable and it's so fun and it's actually underneath it all this quite poignant what you're trying to say here well it's I mean it's rooted in truth and it's rooted in a an agenda it's not just silliness you know for the sake of silliness there is a point to what we're doing oh yeah I think that these videos are just a wonderful way humor is a wonderful way to educate you know it's it is because it's so disarming you can say many things in humor that you could not get away with saying seriously because like I said it does disarm people it makes it more palatable to hear and it's not it's not procedures as aggressive yeah if you can get somebody to laugh with you about an idea I mean you're halfway there 2d converting them not that everybody finds what we do is funny but like Monty Python you know or George Carlin on TV people laugh who say should I be laughing at this but it's it's funny stuff so how did you come up with the idea of Eddie Bauers and how did you team up with Devon green for this well Betty Bowers started because well for legal reasons I have to say it's purely from whole cloth not based on a real person but there was a certain hypocrisy that I noticed and I wanted to send it up particularly the self-righteous regard to gays and lesbians and bisexual and transgender people by the First Baptist Church in Atlanta which is where I live so I wanted to send that up because I thought that's the best way to respond to it that's the power that I have I've been writing the the website for just a couple of weeks and then I got contacted by somebody from Simon Shuster they wanted to do the book and so the book was done like very quickly after I started the website and then Devon green who I work with constantly and I'm very fortunate to do so she had done a video called welcome to my home which went viral and it was so hysterically funny and I did what I never do I sent a fan letter and I wrote to her and I said your videos hilarious and it's hilarious because you're so good and then she wrote back I love you too let's do something together and so we started and our first videos were awful it's just really bad but we learned and we the one thing is we really enjoyed working together and we have continued to thoroughly enjoy working with each other and you know we hash out the videos and Devon's been great so we we have one of our favorite videos which is I think Betty Bowers on is America a Christian nation so let's take a look at that America is a Christian nation just look at the Constitution and if you're like most Americans it's for the first time oh four thousand five hundred and forty three words I bet you're wondering how many are Jesus none really not one if we didn't know our founding fathers any better that would seem almost intentional okay so just my copy Article six paragraph three pretends to dismiss all religions as irrelevant to running a country rude but as America says every National Day of Prayer who cares what the Constitution says if the Bible taught us one thing it's that God saves all the good stuff for the amendments well so does America let's look at the very first one it guarantees free speech like telling no one Christians that their faith is hilarious fiction now what could be more Christian than that also forbids treating Christianity as more legitimate that's ridiculous the invisible people they worship aren't actually there how embarrassing well fortunately we don't need secular scribblings to prove that America began as a Christian nation just look at our founding fathers our first Christian president was just like Jesus only with slaves and he too could not tell a lie eugen causes more acrimony and hatred than anything else liar unlike wooden teeth and hell over there our second president was a true Christian United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian really okay maybe we got off to a shockingly unchristian start but by the time our third president came along America was the land of the Bible the Bible is a dunghill well I run into any founding fathers in glory 80% of colonial Americans never sucked inside a church know what the pledge of allegiance has always made it clear we are one nation under God in 1954 but our national model has always been in god we trust' not until 1953 okay so maybe America didn't start as a Christian nation just like France didn't start as a Muslim one but there is no question that America is a Christian nation now it just happens to be full of people who are quarry about showing it audience call out something Jesus commanded and I'll show you just how Christian America really is anyone don't divorce anyone else start retaliate I wasn't pointing to you you and the Butterick pattern I promise to take my money to the poor communist not you dear okay I'll show you think of a percentage of total wealth as square miles the top 1% of Americans would only own this much of the country okay but the top 10% would only have this proportionate share of the wealth now don't jump to conclusions because the bottom 40% that's over 124 million people would get stuck with New Jersey okay maybe we haven't given all our money to the poor yet and yes it could be said that most Americans forget to stay married ooh and to others pray and knock backs or interrupt but America is still a Christian nation isn't it Jesus Jesus Jesus Oh what does he know about being an American Christian so very funny you pack a lot of information in there so you really do your homework yes well I've researched before we do any video because that was to make a point and then to do it it needs to be accurate and need to pick the best points to make my favorite thing about that video no is the children's voices that keep interrupting Betty or my niece and two of her friends in high school so it's really funny Betty Bowers is a satire actually but there are actually people like that I mean this isn't too much of a spoof I know people who still kind of talk and think in that form so it was she based on just a composite or what well I sort of wanted to turn the stereotype on its head because I think when people visualize these superior Betty Bowers types they think of somebody ignorant and I didn't want Betty to be ignorant I wanted her to say things that were technically incorrect perhaps ridiculous but I didn't want her to be ignorant I wanted her to be a formidable force like you don't feel like you can quite get away with one-upping Betty because she has enough to say but isn't quite saying enough but I know people like that I have former Christian friends who are had that same confidence and and it's almost it's almost a caricature of themselves and they still exist although the numbers are smaller now than they used to be oh they are I mean we had dinner with some friends last night here in Madison and we were told that the in-laws wouldn't come for any holidays because this friend's brother's gay and they are super super Christian and they just won't be in the same room as somebody like that but they'll pray for them from a distance so that's why these videos strike home because they're really striking at people who still hold those views well and that's why they're done I mean I have a political agenda I think that there's too much overlap of religion and politics in America considering we're a secular republic and I feel like I've got I'm blessed with the gift of humor and I feel like I should use it to make a point and and maybe bring some people around to seeing things another way so we're gonna take a break and we'll come back we're gonna are we gonna see another clip of another one of them okay but video hours so stay tuned for more free thought matters hi I'm Ron Reagan an unabashed atheist and I'm alarmed by the intrusions of religion into our secular government that's why I'm asking you to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation the nation's largest and most effective Association of atheists and agnostics working to keep state and church separate just like our founding fathers intended please support the Freedom From Religion Foundation Ron Reagan lifelong atheist not afraid of burning in hell my name is Jarvis and I'm in out of the closet atheist there are many reasons why I'm an atheist but I'll start with the crudest explanation I'm sure many of you have seen Clash of the Titans or The Immortals or 300 these blockbuster films about ancient Greek or Roman religion which we now call mythology but back then it wasn't mythology it was very real for them they genuinely believed that you had to put a coin in a person's mouth before they were buried so that they could pay for the literal fairy to the afterlife just as many people today believe that they should eat crackers and wine on a Sunday or that God wants women to hide their bodies under black burkas every religion that has ever existed and there are many have all believed that they were right that their rituals and rules and beliefs were a hundred percent correct and they all thought they nailed it but where are they today if they're not completely forgotten they're on the silver screen amusing us with their sword fights animal sacrifices and Oracle's the religions of today are the entertainment of tomorrow everyone I hope he's an atheist about Zeus and Apollo Juno and Poseidon I just added Jesus and Mohammed to that list thank you for watching free thought matters you can find more content by the Freedom From Religion Foundation at our website FFRF dot org follow FFRF on Facebook and you'll get notifications about all of our content including whenever we go live on FFRF ask an atheist FFRF is also on YouTube where all of our programs including this show and our weekly news bites are available to watch anytime thanks again for watching and we'll see you on the web [Music] and we're talking on free that matters with writer and humorist and he tells me also humanist Andrew Bradley he's the creator of the very very funny Betty Bauer's America's best Christian internet sensation Betty Bowers is portrayed by Deven green and we saw a couple of clips earlier can we watch another one what's this next one about tips on the do's and don'ts of Prayer and fetch me that Prada purse amen whether you're praying for miracles they're just home shopping these are some important rules to follow if you want the magic to work always cast a spell with the incantation amen it's like abracadabra only Christian keep your hands together otherwise God will think you're just asking yourself first stuff always order from stock you never want to give God an excuse to create something from scratch it'll probably arrive like humans so flawed you'll want to fling it into a fire make him think it was his idea otherwise he'll realize that every prayer is just a way of seeing the divine plan he created for you as flawed and shockingly stingy make a show a public spectacle of pray no matter what anyone says especially Jesus he ones really remarked that the only people who pray in public are hypocrites to which America responded from rubbish don't be vulgar and prey thanks to God for sparing you after a natural disaster it's like sending a thank-you note to a serial killer for stabbing the family next door try not thinking too hard about what you're doing after all an omniscient God already knows what you're going to say making prayer the universe's most popular placebo never pray drunk or angry because according to Scripture Jesus will automatically say yes to whatever crazy thing you ask for just to test this guarantee I prayed for him not to answer the prayers of other people word glory I don't ask ow I just ask often that's not real sealskin but I'm barely faulting him frankly I'm surprised a deity would encourage any prayer Facebook doesn't list a phone number to complain for a reason oh one last thing never step on his sandals by asking him to do what any compassionate competent God would have already done like feeding his children Oh sad isn't it but when will penniless tots praying for luxuries like smart phones or clean water it only works if your parents already have the money to buy those things corresponds exactly with one of our favorite mottos at the Freedom From Religion Foundation which is nothing fails like prayer yes it's so funny you know you talk about how Jesus said don't pray in public but then the National Day of Prayer they're always they always want to be seen in public even though that contradicts what the Bible says well that's nothing new in fact we've got another video in fact we're gonna do a piece tonight on evangelicals five favorite ways to ignore Jesus and that of course is one awesome and you did your homework because in the Bible Jesus actually does say whatever you shall ask for you shall receive it's very clear no ifs no maybes the Bible promises that yeah if it had been done today there'd be a lot of small print disclaimers on the screen and back then it was it's just a broad promise just like God saying he would never destroy the planet again you know after the Great Flood and then we get to Revelation and he's destroying it again and you - you identify as an atheist or agnostic or what atheist yeah I was brought up by two parents who very very open-minded and basically told me that religion was nonsense but I mean remember my dad sitting me down when I was 14 and saying look if who died was whether Jesus even lived or not but what difference does it make if you follow some of the things that are attributed to him like treat people like you want to be treated you'll live a good life so you know do that but you don't have to believe it but he wasn't the first to say that even you know the golden rule so no no universal human it is well it's this nonsense about we would have no laws or morality if it weren't for the Bible you know cuz people were just murdering like crazy before the Bible and in China they're murdering everyday you know because they don't have Jesus it's it's just nonsense like my Native American ancestors who were on this continent fifteen thousand years before the Bible were we all just killing each other or did we have some kind of culture and love and family values of course we did well I don't I don't think that it you can say that there's any historical reality that we stop killing people since the Bible would know but see the thing is that Christians who kill as many people as they want and all they have to do is say oops sorry Lord seconds before they die and they're in heaven so heavens just full of people have no virtue other than an exemplary sense of timing you know but where is your ancestors the Native Americans who were kind to each other they're all in Hell for being nice people but they forgot to say the magic words I accept Jesus as my personal Savior and they didn't even know about that no they didn't but that's their fault yeah they committed the crime of being born in the wrong car you know and in the wrong century exactly speaking of Native Americans there is a Betty Bowers video about Thanksgiving so let's watch that [Music] like as I look at this fabulous feast I'm thankful for my impeccable sense of hospitality and I thank you for not throwing off my seating plan by smiting any relatives though clearly you had ample cause as did I as a true Christian and real American I love you with all my heart convenience permitting and I know that your love is unconditional on the condition that I do every single thing you demand Lord on this day of abundance we ask that you give those without food in their tummies leftovers those without clothes on their backs Carew's where and those without you in their hearts grease fires but before you get to any of that I still need that Chagall for the guest house and you needn't wait until the help is served both desserts amen past the Comanche casserole praise God for Christian forefathers shrewd enough to ask Indians for their delish recipes before stealing their land and a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you very Joan Crawford you said yeah so what we action do you get from the public hate mail cranks actually very little hate mail people seem to get what we're up to and it you know I've got like quarter million followers on Twitter almost a million followers on Facebook a lot of adulation I used to get death threats and those gone down a bad I'm almost concerned about that I feel like maybe I'm not us well maybe you convinced them all to change their mind in they're not harassing you anymore now are the same feeling that the Freedom From Religion Foundation you know you get the crank mail or death threats something we don't like those someone's listening yeah we're needling them sufficiently that they react but you know most the other thing is you know I worried that to a certain extent you end up preaching to the choir if your entire audience is people who already agree with you yes you're entertaining them and there is benefit to that but I think both what you're doing and what we're doing we're also trying to convince people of another point of view we're trying to reach the public yes and and have mean it's 24/7 religion over the public airwaves and dominating the internet too so it's terribly important that there should be some you know something for the rest of us but also you there's a regular Twitter feed right see you on Twitter a lot I'm on Twitter a lot yes I mean I've you tweet for Betty Bowers yes but you know the thing is with the Betty Bowers tweets I'm usually not in character because I tweet a lot about politics and a lot of the things that I tweet are basically just my voice but it's got its got it's not about it yeah it's under Betty Bauer's name so how else do you keep busy I well I just I do you mean what the other word passionately I do consulting and do writing you know so I've managed to keep busy now we've been talked about those two websites satirical websites that you used to write for Landover Baptists org which had has given me a great deal pleasure and then the White House org site which was such solace during the Bush years yes it was so mother's eyes were so much fun to write how did you get that domain a friend of mine knew somebody who had the White House org and he said look if you guys want to do it I'll loan it to you and he did and we said yes we want to do it and we had so much fun spoofing that my favorite moment was getting the cease and desist letter from Dick Cheney's lawyer apparently Lynne Cheney had spent the night googling herself and came across our bio that we did on her and we were told that we had to immediately remove the pictures in the bio and I said to the guy who was running the site I said look it's up to you I said but I suggest we you know thumb our noses at them and we put a ridiculous disclaimer on it and say that you know Lynne is concerned that you might think this is true and we want you to know that the rumors about her dealing math and her hobby of licking brandy Alexander's off the hair stoop belly of her spouse are probably almost not true and so we went with it and did it again and then the New York Times picked it up and then CNN picked it up and of course I have the Streisand effect because an article that nobody noticed was suddenly everybody's looking at but you'd think the White House would have had the foresight to grab that before you could get a hold of that you would thank the White House dot-com was a porn site yeah all they had was whitehouse.gov and so you had to type carefully we were not the worst of it trust me we're almost out of time but I do want to ask about Landover Baptist I want to briefly what what's that whatever Baptist was started by Chris Harper who was a student at Liberty University when the original Jerry Falwell was there and he was kicked out of school weeks before graduation so that he paid all this tuition because he'd done a radio show spoofing Jerry Falwell and there's so good skin you can not make fun of them but I he started Landover Baptist to spoof that fundamentalist mentality and he ran a testimony contest Christian testimony contest and I submitted something miss Miss Ann throat and I won the contest and he wanted me to ride and so I started writing and wrote more and more and we did a book together the rest is history yeah it was so much fun well it is a lot of fun for us to see the satire and education you do through Betty Bowers and and the other websites you've worked on and we really appreciate your being here today oh it's it's wonderful to be here and it's nice to meet everybody you make work you're doing making a difference and the cultural difference that could be made just by humor can really change the world well thank you so much for being with us well thank you for inviting me I really appreciate it and thank you for watching free that matters because free thought matters [Music] [Music] [Music] hi i'm steve picker in my book enlightenment now i show that the world has become a better place as reason has been overcoming superstition and tribalism but the values of the Enlightenment are under attack that's why I'm a proud member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation the nation's largest association of free thinkers working to keep the state and church separate please join me in supporting the Freedom From Religion Foundation to ensure that our government is driven not by religion but by reason [Music]

Channel: FFRF

Views: 107,872

Keywords: Andrew Bradley, Betty Bowers, mrs Betty Bowers, Betty Bowers Devon green, Betty Bowers is America's best christian, who plays Betty Bowers, Devon Green, Freedom From Religion Foundation, FFRF, Atheist, Atheism, Freethought Matters

Id: WeKmkrOGTSA

Length: 27min 39sec (1659 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 11 2019