Our interventions in a typical week at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are often so wide-ranging that they sometimes surprise even us.
We filed a brief to defend anti-discrimination rules
Take this week as an example. We filed a proposed friend-of-the-court brief that sides with the state of Minnesota over anti-discrimination provisions that religious institutions have legally challenged, involving high school students receiving tax-paid tuition to take college classes.
“The state’s nondiscrimination rules for colleges that apply for Postsecondary Enrollment Options public funding are legitimate constitutional means to ensure students’ access to education,” the brief states. “Crown and Northwestern [the two religious entities suing Minnesota] seek an incorrect, harmful and unprecedented interpretation of the First Amendment.”
We called out the Utah governor
Revoke your recent unconstitutional “Day of Prayer” proclamation, we insisted to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
“We agree with your assertion on social media that you made in announcing this proclamation that we need a ‘recommitment’ to our longstanding constitutional principles,” FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor wrote to Cox. “We ask that you start by respecting the First Amendment and our secular government by not misusing your position as governor to promote prayer and religious belief.”
We disbursed almost $20,000 in essays prize money
We proudly announced almost $20,000 in award money to the 12 winners and seven honorable mentions in the 2024 Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students. Currently enrolled college students (up to age 24) wrote on the topic of “Why is Gen Z the least religious generation?” The winning essays will be reprinted or excerpted in the November issue of Freethought Today, FFRF’s newspaper.
We got media coverage in Alabama
Our chiding of an Alabama educator for foisting religion on her class received coverage in the state’s main news portal (and in other media outlets there).
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation says an Etowah County school teacher is ‘misusing her position’ by displaying Bible verses in class,” says a story on Al.com. “The Wisconsin-based organization sent a letter to Etowah County Superintendent Alan Cosby, saying the teacher at Glencoe High School, whose name was redacted, writes a Bible verse on her whiteboard each day. She recently posted a video to TikTok showing this, according to the group.”
We received press coverage in Mississippi, too
And our rebuking of a Mississippi sheriff for his public proselytization got noticed by the media in the Magnolia State (and outside).
“A national nonprofit has called on a Mississippi sheriff to cease promoting Christianity through official channels,” reports one such piece. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has raised concerns that Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook’s office has been using its platforms, including its website and Facebook page, to broadcast religious messages.”
We insisted for an end to Christian proselytization
We urged the Englewood Schools system in Colorado to put a stop to a school counselor’s Christian proselytization.
“We understand, of course, that the district cannot monitor every email sent by employees or every posting in the school,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line wrote to the district. “But we do ask that it take the appropriate steps to ensure that employees, including [the school counselor] are made aware of their constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion while acting in their official capacity.”
We tutored an Ala. school district
We insisted that the Lauderdale County School System in Florence, Ala., rectify multiple First Amendment violations. The district needs to stop infringing the Constitution in order to protect the rights of students, families, employees and community members, we reminded it. “These intrusive and inappropriate religious practices at games need to be benched,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
We lauded the Missouri Supreme Court
We applauded a Missouri Supreme Court ruling to return a referendum protecting abortion rights onto the state’s November ballot. “Missouri’s women have been placed under the harshest abortion restriction in the nation, and have lost their fundamental rights. Amendment 3 provides a path to freedom,” said FFRF Legal Fellow and Missouri-licensed attorney Hirsh M. Joshi.
We welcomed a S.C. judgment
And we welcomed a recent South Carolina Supreme Court ruling striking down an unconstitutional state voucher scheme. Under the phony guise of “school choice,” voucher schemes and similar measures transfer taxpayer funds directly to private religious schools. About 90 percent of private schools are religiously affiliated. Voucher schemes have become a means of circumventing the constitutional requirement of separation between state and church that prohibits the government from funding or favoring religion.
Our lobbying arm has also been busy
FFRF’s lobbying arm, the FFRF Legal Fund, has also been busy in recent days. It chose as “Theocrat of the Week” U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who is vehemently against common-sense gun control, claiming the nation only needs “to get back to God,” despite representing the district that houses the site for the latest deadly school shooting. Its “Secularists of the Week” are two Singapore researchers investigating the ties between Christian nationalism and direct violence against religious minorities.
Find out what else the Fund has been engaged in by visiting its website.
We shed light on Shinto nationalism
We focus in the latest episode of our TV show, “Freethought Matters,” on a form of religious nationalism not very much talked about. An author explains how Japan’s appalling conduct during World War II was in large part due to Shinto nationalism. Historian Bryan Mark Rigg’s newest book is called “Japan’s Holocaust: A History of Imperial Japan’s Mass Murder and Rape during World War II.” You can already watch the show on our YouTube channel. Or find out when and where you can catch it on television Sunday.
We honed in on impoundment
FFRF Director of Governmental Affairs Mark Dann and FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi engaged in an absorbing conversation on FFRF’s Facebook Live feature “Ask an Atheist” with Daniel Schuman of the American Governance Institute about how Project 2025 could bring back the practice of impoundment, which was outlawed in 1974 and allows the president to cancel spending authorized by Congress. Find out more about this important issue here.
We spoke about school vouchers
After FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliot and Hirsh appeared on this week’s Freethought Radio episode to talk about various state-church developments, co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor interviewed Michigan State University Professor Josh Cowen about his powerful new book, “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.”
I focused on a restless, globally important region
I had the good fortune to interview for Madison’s community radio station a former reporter, Shezad Baloch, from a restive region (Balochistan) of Pakistan that borders both Afghanistan and Iran. Listen in for a fascinatingly informative conversation about that part of the world.
We even talked about animal sacrifice
Hirsh has had a busy week, since he also penned an educative column about the constitutional right to animal sacrifice (actually the lack thereof).
“Next time, give your friendly neighborhood atheists a call,” he advised the New York Post, which had published the incorrect assertion. “We’re always available to set the record straight.”
Whether it is enlightening major media outlets or intervening in the legal system, we’re able to do so much week after week only because of you.
