The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Center for Inquiry holds its biennial Humanism Banquet on Friday, October 2, 2015 from 7:00-10:00 pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Cleveland suburb of Independence. The guest speaker will be Vyckie Garrison who was once part of the Quiverfull Movement, a Christian fundamentalist group that shuns contraception and believes that it is god who opens and shuts a woman’s womb, which must keep him/her/it pretty busy. The movement encourages families to have vast numbers of children in order to create an army for god and they believe that god would not let families have more children than they can handle.

The CFI-NEO announcement described Garrison’s story.

Garrison edited and published a Christian “pro-life, pro-family” newspaper for over 16 years in northeast Nebraska while home churching, home birthing, and home schooling seven children. She made waves when she left the Quiverfull movement, divorced her husband, and began speaking out against the lifestyle.

Garrison started the blog No Longer Quivering to provide support to women and children who are escaping abusive religious movements and to provide the public with accurate and compassionate information on the unique challenges faced by the spiritually abused.

I have heard Vyckie Garrison speak before and her story is very moving and well worth the price of the dinner.

Incidentally, at the same banquet I will be receiving the Center for Inquiry—Northeast Ohio Humanism Award that “honors Northeast Ohioans who have played a significant role in helping to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.” I am honored that the folks at CFI-NEO have selected me for it.

You can see more details about the event and how to register here.