Jon Huertas: Unshackling ourselves from holy handcuffs

This was the speech (slightly edited) given by Jon Huertas on Sept. 28 at FFRF’s 47th annual convention in Denver. He was introduced by Margaret Downey, who is the founder the Freethought Society, president of the Thomas Paine Memorial Association and an FFRF state representative. To watch the video of his presentation, go to ffrf.us/con24.

Margaret Downey: Good evening, everyone. Hasn’t this been the most wonderful conference ever?

It is my honor to introduce my friend and fellow atheist, Jon Huertas, who is attending this conference with his spouse, Nicole Burgess. Many of you may recognize Jon from his remarkable career as an actor. He has captivated audiences with his dynamic performances in hit television programs such as “Castle” and “This Is Us.” Jon is particularly proud of his performance as Sgt. Tony Espera in the HBO miniseries “Generation Kill.” Being a veteran himself, Jon says that his “Generation Kill” character was the most meaningful role of his career.

Jon is also proud to say that in real life he was an atheist in the foxhole, having served eight years in the United States Air Force. Currently, Jon is working as a screenwriter, director and producer. Jon is a passionate advocate for secularism and the separation of religion and government. Jon has an unwavering commitment to the principles of freedom, reason and humanism.

Since 2020, Jon has volunteered to participate in the online annual International Secular Day of the Dead — Dia de Los Muertos. Each time Jon opens our Dia de Los Muertos secular program, he conveys an inspiring and passionate message.

Jon’s dedication to ensuring that individuals are free from religious coercion is commendable, and his promotion of separation of religion and government is very impressive.

I’m confident that the Freedom From Religion Foundation convention audience will enjoy what Jon has to say tonight as he presents his speech titled “Blacks and Latinos: Unshackling Ourselves from the Holy Handcuffs.”

Please welcome Jon Huertas.

By Jon Huertas

Good evening. Thanks for that introduction. That was very nice. I’m a little nervous. This is my first AA meeting, so bear with me. Sorry. I’m Jon Huertas, and I am an American atheist.

Wow. I mean, that was a pretty good applause, but I thought that that would have a little more impact, but I guess being an out and proud atheist at an atheist-based conference is kind of like being a vegan at a salad bar. No one here is impressed. But can you imagine if more atheists made that proclamation proudly? Wouldn’t the world be a better place, right?

Anyway, thank you all for having me here tonight. And thank you for being here. If my speech “Blacks and Latinos: Unshackling Ourselves from Holy Handcuffs” doesn’t grab your attention, well, don’t worry, because I got a backup plan. We can all bond over how to survive those family gatherings where your aunt comes up and ask you if you found Jesus yet.

Now, let’s just be real. Where did Jesus go? Where has he been? It’s been over 2,000 years. If Jesus hasn’t noticed, shit is fucked up here on Earth. And back then, every guy in the Middle East had a beard, dark skin, curly hair — basically me. And, finding an empty tomb and thinking that Jesus was back because he supposedly made an appearance is like mistaking every other guy at the gym for your buddy Dave. Plus, grave robbing was practically a national sport back then. An empty tomb. Come on, that was probably just some guys trying to get an easy score. And all those appearances of Jesus. Come on. They likely happened after a bunch of wine was drunk. I mean, they drank a lot of wine back then, according to the Good Book.

Anyway, tonight is about taking a journey through the tangled corridors of our shared histories, our complex identities, and to envision a future free from the heavy chains of religious indoctrination that have weighed down on Indigenous peoples in the Americas to Africa and beyond.

I stand before you tonight not just as a speaker, but as a living testament to the power of personal freedom. I’m an atheist and I am free from religion.

Clinging to beliefs

My goal tonight is for us to unravel the layers of religious devotion that have bound us as humans, but especially some of the most devout in our communities — the Blacks and Latinos.

It boggles my mind. I mean, come on, it is so ironic. My ancestors were introduced to Christianity with chains and whips, not appearances of the Messiah. And yet, centuries later, here we are, still clinging to the beliefs once used to control, enslave and murder us.

But we’re going to talk about breaking those chains so that we can free our communities and hopefully do some good. Imagine an Afro-Latino me, raised in the bosom of Catholicism since the day they snipped my foreskin and nearly drowned me in that baptismal bowl of sorrow. As a kid, I walked the line between altar boy duties and the fact that I had already become a nonbeliever by the age of 9.

(I got privileges for being an altar boy, so I stuck with it.)

Now, as someone who’s always favored the hard facts of science over the soft comfort of scripture, I can’t help but think that if we treated science with the same reverence that we’ve given these ancient texts, we would have probably all teleported here tonight instead of Ubered.

Let’s talk about the historical chains. Religion in the Latino and Black communities has always been like that double-edged sword, part sanctuary and part prison, reminding us of the days that when faith was handed out not as a choice, but as a set of shackles on an auction block. Wandering through my Catholic school hallways and sitting through chapel in college — I went to TCU — I always felt the weight of those invisible chains. And I’m not talking about the baller kind you might wear with your sexy outfit. I’m talking about the sneaky heavy kind that route back to slavery, promising you heaven while keeping you in line. Today’s religious walls in America aren’t just metaphorical barriers from your grandma’s “back in my day” tales. No, they are huge. They are real. And they mess with everything from our paychecks to our political power, deciding who rises to the top and who stays at the bottom. Much like the actual walls that used to segregate slaves, the house slaves from the field slaves. Today’s holy divisions slice up our marginalized communities by design.

You have the devout on one side looking all sanctified and skeptics like me on the other, wondering how is this ridiculous religious Kool-Aid still so damn popular?

It’s like a bizarre civil war over who owns the moral high ground. Meanwhile, as everyone is distracted fighting over ideas like divine real estate — hello, Gaza Strip — the real goals of unity and equality just keep getting pushed further and further away in an endless game of spiritual keep away. Questioning the piety. Now for Blacks and Latinos, questioning religious norms and our culture is like telling your grandmother that her legendary recipe could use a little more salt? It’s necessary, but you’d better duck.

Now, the church is lauded far and wide as this grand beacon of hope, but it’s also quite the bouncer at the club of life, isn’t it? Setting the rules, telling you what you can and can’t do. And, let’s not forget, it often squashes more spirits than it uplifts. You want to talk about a power trip? They call this strict adherence “piety.”

But, really, it’s just a fancy way of not letting anyone ask “Why are we still doing all this?”

Think about this. Why do Blacks and Latinos still cling so tightly to the doctrines delivered by the same ships that brought Blacks over in chains and genocide and scores of native peoples? Seems a bit suspect, right? It’s like asking directions from the person who just stole your car.

Why should the road map to our freedom be drawn with the fairy tools of our past oppression? It’s not just ironic. It’s fucked up. Speaking of fucked up, I mentioned earlier my journey toward true freedom. Well, it didn’t come without some spiritual speed bumps.

The Sears saga

Enter the Sears saga. A tale of faith, folly and frisky encounters. Let’s rewind back to my high school days. Seventeen-year-old me slinging merchandise at Sears and Roebuck and Co., moonlighting as a skeptical atheist, and then enter the captivating, blond-haired beauty, 24-year-old brand new co-worker who, when I walked up to her, quizzes me with the “Are you a Christian?”

Well, in a tangle of teen confusion and, let’s just be honest, raging hormones, I blurt out, “Yes, absolutely! I’m Catholic.” And, of course, she turns to me and says, “Well, then you’re not really a Christian.” It’s because she says I’m not saved. So, there I was, suddenly, all in on getting saved. I mean, she was really cute. I had to just do what I had to do.

Now, was it divine intervention or was it just the hot chick in the women’s department? It’s hard to tell, but as a person of color, I have this theory. Maybe we are just predisposed to fall for European sales pitches, spiritual or otherwise.

Or, maybe, it’s just my bad luck in spiritual encounters doubling as dating. More on that later . . . I have another story.

Anyway. Her husband — yes, you heard that right — he was a youth pastor at the church and the basketball coach. Oh, yeah. It was the classic move. Something straight out of the old colonial playbook. You know the type. Anglos using religion as a front to exploit the physical prowess of Black and Indigenous populations. His outreach wasn’t about saving my soul. It was about leveraging my athleticism to salvage his basketball team.

And his wife, by day, she was all casseroles and choirs — the model churchgoer, making everyone believe that she was as pure as communion wine. But, by night, she morphed into the seductress with less than holy intentions. She was supposed to be my guide to the light, but she was more interested in turning down the lights. There I was, freshly saved, and the coach’s wife invites me over for dinner, as they did often on Friday nights, with the coach conveniently out of town on a church retreat.

Halfway through the dessert, she decides to make that move, slipping my newfound Christian faith into a full-blown spiritual meltdown. And, it’s really perfect timing. Nothing nudges you back into atheism faster than holy hypocrisy, served up as a side dish. Now, this very personal and true story is way more than a detour on the road to enlightenment. It deeply affected me.

It was like accidentally taking the highway to absurdity. It’s a hilarious peek into how history just repeats itself over and over again with religious exploitation. Only this time, it happened in a Sears store. Turns out people will use any excuse to manipulate, be it for basketball or something a little steamier.

Now, breaking free for progress.

Ditch the shackles

Look, it is critical for us in the Black and Latino communities to get one thing straight. We have to ditch these old-school shackles. Our ancestors fought way too hard for our freedom for us to just be walking around with these historical handcuffs on, like there’s some kind of fashion statement. Imagine if we took all the energy that we’re using to defend the ancient doctrines and actually put it into something useful, like educational empowerment, economic independence or getting more deeply involved in politics.

Why hold on to a broken record when you can upgrade to streaming? Spotify is great.

Let’s swap out those rusty chains for something that’s actually going to get us somewhere. It’s time to move forward and start writing our own story, instead of being stuck in someone else’s outdated script.

I have one more tale on my road to personal freedom, and I call it “Seeker in the city: Rediscovering religion in the Hollywood Hills.”

Now, you guys know what a seeker is, right? Raise your hands if you know what a seeker is. A seeker is someone who’s seeking Jesus, but he’s not really Christian. Back in 2003, I didn’t have a clue until life decided to give me a crash course. Literally. You see, when I started off in Hollywood, I was on a high note. And then it quickly spiraled into the lean years, meaning I ran out of money.

First, I crashed my girlfriend’s car, a cool $8,000 right down the drain. Then my dog decided to tangle with a monster truck. That stunt cost me $10,000 to save her. And then for the grand finale, my girlfriend decided to dump me because I wasn’t making TMZ headlines yet. I’m still not, and I’m fine with that.

So, there I was, a perfect mix of broke and heartbroken, the perfect sucker to fall into the seeker trap. I thought maybe little baby Jesus had some pull in Tinseltown. I popped into this Presbyterian church in the Hills, hoping for a bit of celestial guidance, and instead, I get this dude pastor Mark up there condemning the gay crowd that was sitting right in the middle of church, like he’s auditioning for the next villain in the next “Mission Impossible” movie.

His sermon was more fantastical than a Harry Potter novel. I mean, come on, who writes this shit? Really? Oh, that’s right, prehistoric man. And just then, to add spice to the saga, I ended up dating a girl at this church. Yes, Jesus knows my Kryptonite.

Everything was going pretty well until the bible came up. You see, she was against premarital sex. I was not. We weren’t compatible. So she’s told me that she’s celibate because the bible says so. And I couldn’t help but point out that “Yeah, but the bible also endorses slavery, promotes it, even.” Needless to say, pointing that out went over just about as well as explaining quantum physics at a frat party.

Then it hit me. Diving back into religion after such a catastrophic run of luck was like ordering the same bad dish at a restaurant because you forgot how terrible it tasted the first time.

It’s high time that we put aside these ancient fairy tales. Imagine if we, as Blacks and Latinos, channeled our energy into advancing health care access. Imagine fostering community entrepreneurship or amplifying our voices in the tech industry instead of going to church on Sunday. Why cling to a past that doesn’t serve us when we can build a future that does?

Crafting our freedom

Now, in conclusion, crafting our freedom. We can craft ourselves a new era where our spirituality is defined not by the doctrines of old, but by the diverse, vibrant and inclusive values that we all hold dear. Let’s build communities that encourage dialogue and dissent where questioning is not just accepted, it is encouraged. An era where Black, Latino and all identities are celebrated in all of their facets, free from the dogmas that once sought to define, divide and confine us.

Let’s sketch out a new chapter with a vibrant, inclusive spectrum that actually suits us. With events like this one, we’re setting up kind of a spiritual debate club, right? Where questioning isn’t just allowed, it’s the main event. Now, this isn’t just crucial for Black and Latino communities. It’s crucial for all communities. It’s essential on a global scale.

Take the ongoing drama in Gaza and Israel, for example. It’s what happens when you let age-old religious texts call the shots in a modern world. It’s like using a typewriter to send a text message.

Organizations like the Freedom From Religion Foundation get it, trying to stop the world from continually rebooting these ancient, conflicting programs.

Imagine instead of fighting over divine land rights, we’re all just chillin’, arguing over something that really matters — like whether pineapple truly belongs on pizza. It does not. Do not put it on there!

As we move forward as a group of nonbelievers, as people who know real freedom, let’s be proud. Step out of the shadows. Let’s celebrate ourselves. And when the confetti settles, let’s not just stand there brushing it out of our hair, let’s pledge to explore these freedoms that genuinely resonate with us. Let’s celebrate our aspirations. It’s about time that my people define what it means to be truly free. Shaking off these holy handcuffs of imposed beliefs to step into a liberty that fits every aspect of our identity. Just like the perfect Spotify playlist.

Now, as we wrap up tonight, let’s leave all this heavy stuff I’ve been talking about behind. Let’s focus on enjoying the moment. We’ve all come together for something really cool and really special. Go grab a drink, mingle and let’s have some fun without any celestial oversight.

After all, life is too short to miss out on a good time because you’re stressing about a higher approval. Let’s cheer to freedom, to new ideas, and to a night where the only judgment you’re going to face is from the bartender for ordering that extra cocktail. Thank you very much.