Not that this meant the exclusion of other important issues, but we at the Freedom From Religion Foundation expectedly focused a lot this week on the Tuesday elections.
“There’s got to be a better way to grow the membership of the Freedom From Religion Foundation,” opened our statement the day after. “But after last night’s election, we hope that many will be joining us in the battle not only for state and church separation, but also for the secular ‘soul’ of our democracy. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is prepared and ready to lead the Secular Resistance on your behalf and with your help.”
The statement goes on to list the threats posed by the incoming administration. We can only combat them with your help, so please be generous and please spread the word.
Our sister legislative arm, the FFRF Action Fund, celebrated the good news from Election Day (and, yes, there was some good news): Seven states across the nation voted to protect abortion rights. The Action Fund, which contributed $5,000 to the referendum organizations in each of the 10 states with abortion rights on the ballot, commended these citizen-led campaigns.
If you’d like to know what else the Action Fund was recently up to (and there was a whole lot!), please take a peek here.
Our person on Capitol Hill is honored
We’re delighted that Mark Dann, our D.C.-based governmental affairs director and lobbyist, received on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., an award from the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics for being a top lobbyist this year. This prestigious honor highlights Mark’s ethical leadership, advocacy and commitment to advancing state/church separation through strategic lobbying and coalition-building. Congratulations, Mark!
Electioneering churches need to be investigated
We highlighted politicking churches till the end of the elections, asking the IRS on Election Day to immediately investigate two high-profile instances of such churches. Ministries can’t be allowed to get away with blatant politicking, we emphasized, and must abide by the same rules as other nonprofits — or lose their tax code privileges.
We halted a Tenn. election commission’s preachiness
In our other election-related efforts, a Tennessee county election commission will stop proselytizing poll workers after we sent it a letter.“We’re always glad to remind government officials of their constitutional responsibilities,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
Mich. school board member shouldn’t proselytize
We called out a Michigan school board member for proselytizing. “School board members with their vital public mission are obligated to use their time and energy to tackle educational issues, not to proselytize,” Annie Laurie remarks.
Politico quotes us
We’re gratified when media entities quote us on issues, especially if it is an outlet as prestigious as Politico.
“One of the current issues is that churches and nonprofits rarely face repercussions for dabbling in politics,” Politico states in a recent piece. “In fact, a group representing atheists and agnostics, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, just asked the IRS to crack down on Johnson Amendment violations conducted to help both Harris and Trump, as Tax Notes reported.”
Fort Worth publications love us
Dallas/Fort Worth-area publications seem to have taken a liking to us.
“A person who led a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on a high school campus in Mansfield in September was a pastor from a local church, according to information received through an open records request,” reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “ Having a religious leader conduct this type of event on a public school campus amounts to a ‘government-sponsored worship service,’ according to Hirsh Joshi, a legal fellow with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which works to promote and protect the separation of church and state.”
And another media outlet from there noticed a recent constitutional victory of ours.
“Arlington ISD clarified the constitutional constraints on religion in schools to Bowie High School athletics staff after a complaint was filed about a football coach allegedly teaching about the Bible during school hours, according to district officials,” states a piece in the Fort Worth Report. “The investigation was prompted by a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit aiming to ‘protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church,’ and educate ‘on matters relating to nontheism.’”
Dan Barker’s trip to Nigeria
An online portal has a fascinating interview with Black Nonbelievers President Mandisa Thomas that covers, among other things, a recent trip that FFRF Co-President Dan Barker and she took to Nigeria a couple of weeks ago. Read on.
An absorbing discussion about Dan’s new book
Dan talks on our Facebook Live “Ask an Atheist” feature’s episode this week with FFRF Multimedia Producer Leo Costello about his new book, “Contraduction,” which introduces a new word to describe a logical fallacy in which reality is inverted. You can watch the absorbing discussion here. And if you purchase the book from ffrf.org/shop, all the proceeds go to FFRF, since Dan donated copies of his book for our nonprofit.
How religious school vouchers are harming education
An expert who has done decades of research on school voucher programs asserts on our latest TV show episode that they are harming our education system. Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, is the author of a new book titled “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.” He explains on the show that many religious schools now receiving public funding were actually started to counter desegregation. You can watch the show already on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to watch it on television Sunday.
‘Lessons in Chemistry’ author loses her religion
On the Freethought Radio show this week, first we expressed our determination to keep fighting despite the election results, and then Bonnie Garmus, author of the bestselling feminist/freethought novel “Lessons in Chemistry,” told the charming and funny story about how she lost her faith as a teenager in the Presbyterian Church.
What is a woman?
“What is a woman?” asks FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant in a recent blog, opening the piece with a hilarious anecdote about Plato and Diogenes the Cynic.
It’s only due to your unstinting support that we’re able to both address such questions and lead the Secular Resistance for freedom and the First Amendment. We’ll need more of your help in the coming years to continue such endeavors.
One Response
The definition of a woman is easy. A woman is an ‘Adult Human Female’.