We filed a brief last year in a case involving a Catholic organization in our home state — and that got us a whole lot of attention when the U.S. Supreme Court (unfortunately) decided to hear it.
“The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a new religious rights case over whether a Catholic charitable organization must pay Wisconsin’s employment tax,” reported ABC News. “At the state Supreme Court, the Freedom from Religion Foundation argued that a ruling for Catholic Charities would extend to religiously affiliated hospitals and some colleges across Wisconsin, potentially taking their employees out of the state unemployment insurance system.”
CNN and New York Times quote us
CNN and The New York Times quoted FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott about the case.
“The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether religious affiliated entities like Catholic Charities should be exempt from state unemployment taxes, taking up its first major religion case in more than a year,” stated a CNN story. “‘If the petitioners get their way, there’s going to potentially be a fallout in these other areas,’ said Patrick Elliott, legal director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which filed a brief opposing Catholic Charities in state court.”
In fact, the Times quoted Patrick quite extensively.
“‘The next stage of this is getting these large employers to be exempt,’ said Patrick Elliott, legal director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation,” the Times reported. “The key question, he said, should not be whether a charity’s motivations are religious, but whether participation in the tax system in some way hampers its religious expression. ‘The exemption is there to protect churches from interference, and now they’re taking it and running with it and saying it covers anything religiously affiliated,’ he said. ‘It’s not a good system if a religious entity can just opt themselves out even when it’s not interfering with their religious practice.’”
Houston news portal notices our complaints against churches
The premier Houston news portal decided to feature a long, detailed piece based on complaints we filed with the IRS some months ago about electioneering Texas churches.
“In early October, Josh Howerton, the senior pastor at Lakepointe Church in the Dallas area, delivered a sermon titled, ‘How to Vote Like Jesus,’ in which he repeated GOP talking points in support of electing Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the presidential election,” says the article. “The sermon quickly drew national attention: The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Wisconsin-based association of ‘atheists, agnostics and skeptics’ who aim to maintain the separation of church and state ahead of the elections, filed a complaint with the IRS accusing Howerton of breaking the 70-year-old Johnson Amendment.”
“The FFRF reported that Lakepointe allegedly violated the U.S. tax law prohibiting religious organizations and many nonprofits from endorsing or opposing political candidates,” the story continues. “The FFRF demanded the IRS revoke the church’s tax-exempt status. ‘Churches can’t be allowed to get away with such blatant politicking,’ FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said in a statement.”
TV station features our objection to the Ten Commandments
There’s been media coverage of our more recent activities, too, such as our objection to a California school district’s consideration of a proposal to display the Ten Commandments in its schools.
“One group is warning [Kern County] they may sue the district if it approves posting the Ten Commandments in public schools,” says a local TV station piece. “A group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Kern County Public School Board of Education urging the board not to vote to post the Ten Commandments in public schools, saying it is unconstitutional. Chris Line, is a Legal Counsel at Freedom From Religion Foundation and he says, ‘In 1980, in a case called Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court definitely ruled that putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms is unconstitutional. So, this is a clear precedent from the Supreme Court. This issue has already been litigated and resolved — you cannot be displaying the Ten Commandments in every school classroom.’”
A silly billboard tries to troll us
And then there are press stories about farcical religious right attempts to bait us.
“The conservative religious organization the Catholic League has unveiled a new Christmas-themed billboard in response to an atheist organization’s display at the Wisconsin state Capitol,” says an item on MSN. “The billboard, which was posted on Monday in the Madison, Wis., metropolitan area, declared that ‘Atheists strike out at Christmas’ and that ‘Celebrating Winter Solstice is a Child’s Game.’”
Thankfully, the piece carried our response: “For their part, the FFRF briefly responded to the billboard’s presence on their X account, tweeting that the ‘scrooges at the Catholic League really know how to spread love and joy during the holiday season.’
‘Happy holidays!’ the FFRF added.”
No citywide prayer event
Of course, we defend the Constitution regardless of the amount of media coverage we receive.
We recently called on city officials in Vicksburg, Miss., to cease their unconstitutional sponsorship and promotion of an explicitly Christian prayer event. We emphasized that government neutrality on matters of religion is not an attack on people of faith; instead, it ensures that public officials do not use their positions to favor one religion over others or religion over nonreligion.
A hometown school shooting
We deplored and mourned the recent U.S. school shooting that took place Monday in our hometown of Madison, Wis. We urged citizens and policymakers alike to replace empty platitudes with meaningful actions. Comprehensive, evidence-based gun reform is the way to prevent more senseless tragedies like the one that occurred at Abundant Life Christian School.
Bad choice for the Civil Rights Division
We expressed our strong opposition to the nomination of Harmeet Dhillon to lead the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Dhillon has been a vocal proponent of policies and legal positions prioritizing religious privilege over individual rights and the separation of church and state. Her approach is inconsistent with the mission of the Civil Rights Division, which must advocate for justice and fairness, not preferential treatment for religious ideologies.
Texas AG does it again
We denounced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against a New York physician for providing abortion medication to a Texas resident. Paxton is also suing to block federal rules prohibiting investigators from viewing the medical records of women who travel out of state for abortion care. “The goal of these religiously motivated anti-abortionists is to abolish abortion nationwide,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
Supreme Court’s worrying move
We’re gravely concerned about yet another decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case (Kerr v. Planned Parenthood) that could severely undermine women’s access to health care and reproductive rights. The United States was founded as a secular nation, with a Constitution that enshrines the right of individuals to make personal decisions free from government-imposed religious doctrine. Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and restrict reproductive care not only violate these principles but also endanger lives.
Our secular holiday displays
And we engaged in our traditional secular activism during the holiday season.
Our Greater Sacramento Chapter was pleased to return to the California Capitol with a Winter Solstice exhibit celebrating the Bill of Rights, adopted on Dec. 15, 1791. The chapter first put up the exhibit in 2016 as a counter to religious displays on government property. “The Greater Sacramento Chapter always celebrates the real reason for the season with pride — and we’re always glad to see it!” said Annie Laurie.
Our Maine chapter has erected a freethinking display in a park in the town of Fairfield amid religious exhibits. FFRF is thankful that secular advocates are willing to counterbalance religious signs during the winter season throughout the nation, including Maine.
Winter Solstice celebrations!
In the spirit of the season, we are airing a Winter Solstice special this Sunday. FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor provide an enjoyable cultural lesson on FFRF’s “Freethought Matters” TV show about how Christians stole Christmas. And they explain the pagan origins of the seasonal celebrations. You can already catch the special on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to watch it on television Sunday.
Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan with special guest Shelley Segal held a special fun musical celebration of the Winter Solstice at our headquarters in Freethought Hall with our Madison-area members, which is available to view on YouTube. Don’t miss out on the fun!
Our Freethought Radio show this week is in the same spirit. We celebrate with music and freethought humor, including songs and performances by Kristin Lems, Dan Barker, Tim Minchin, Roy Zimmerman, Irving Berlin, Trey Parker, Tom Lehrer, the London Humanist Choir, Ken Lonnquist and Brent Michael Davids.
An election postmortem
The “We Dissent” podcast that FFRF co-produces this month discusses a difficult but impossible-to-avoid subject. FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell and Americans United Legal Director Rebecca Markert process the recent election results. They talk about the challenges the new administration will bring, some under-the-radar encouraging election results and how their organizations plan to continue fighting for secular democracy.
A riveting roundup
Liz Cavell and Staff Attorney Chris Line on our “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live feature engage in an informative review of FFRF’s legal activity over the past year. Watch here an engaging roundup of all that we accomplished in 2024.
Secularists and Theocrats
Our lobbying arm, the FFRF Action Fund, is also keeping it going. It admonishes its “Theocrat of the Week,” the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, for canceling a Satanic Temple holiday event at the state Capitol. Its “Secularist of the Week” is Jocelyn Williamson, the co-founder and a director of the Central Florida Freethought Community, FFRF’s only Florida chapter, for her work combating efforts to install chaplains in Florida’s public schools.
Whether it’s basking in the afterglow of our actions from the past or persisting in the present, we are able to do it all only because of you.
A merry Winter Solstice to everyone!
