We’ve been standing strong at the Freedom From Religion Foundation in the defense of the Constitution.
We filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week with the U.S. Supreme Court against an assertion by Catholic-affiliated nonprofits in our home state that they are exempt from Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance program. We pointed out that if the court overturns a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that nonprofits must provide unemployment benefits, it would have egregious consequences for workers nationwide.
Okla. media likes our legal pushback
Our legal pushback in Oklahoma against bible purchases as part of a secular coalition got noticed in the media there. “Plaintiffs in the Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters lawsuit are encouraging the Oklahoma Supreme Court to block Walter’s request for Bibles and Bible-infused instructional materials,” says a local TV station piece. It quotes at length FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. An African-American publication based in the state featured our efforts, as did the Tulsa newspaper.
Boise State coach complaint upsets right-wing media
Our complaint against the Boise State football coach’s overt religiosity has stirred up right-wing media folks. We faced the scorn of Todd Starnes of ex-Fox News fame. A local country music station host gave us a scolding, too.
Our NY Times ad countered Trump address
Ahead of President Trump’s de facto State of the Union remarks to Congress on Tuesday, we took out a full-page ad in that day’s New York Times warning: “The state of the separation between state and church . . . is perilous.” “At the Freedom From Religion Foundation, we truly believe that freedom depends on freethinkers,” said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, “as well as upon every American who understands that we must protect the First Amendment because it protects us all.”
Our testimonies at many statehouses
Our team at the FFRF Action Fund (our lobbying arm) has been keeping a close eye on statehouses. FFRF Action Fund Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne, FFRF Action Fund State Policy Manager Ryan Dudley and FFRF Action Fund Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens provided testimony before the Texas, Maryland and Kentucky legislatures, which you can view here.
The Fund team sent advocates a message detailing the frenzy of legislative action nationwide. “We’re seeing a mad rush of bills all over the country related to the separation of state and church,” it said in “Strongly Stated.”
‘Secularist’ and ‘Theocrat’ legislators
The Fund chose as its “Theocrat of the Week” an Oklahoma state senator, Shane Jett, who used scripture in opposing a bill poised to ban corporal punishment in schools of disabled students. Its choices for “Secularist of the Week” are two Minnesota legislators who have denounced Christian nationalism. State Rep. Andy Smith and state Sen. Erin Maye Quade are protecting our secular democracy and the rights of all their constituents, regardless of their religion or nonreligion.
Bad bills across the country
Our media offerings this week have a broad range.
On our Facebook Live “Ask an Atheist” program, FFRF Action Fund’s Ryan Dudley and Mickey Dollens join FFRF Rapid Response Counsel Chris Line to look at the current state of bad church/state bills cropping up across the country. They discuss common trends and highlight some of the most alarming bills currently waiting to be voted on.
Counseling survivors of religious trauma
Our TV show guest is a survivor of Christian fundamentalism who counsels those needing help in dealing with religious trauma. Janice Selbie is a registered professional counselor in British Columbia and a religious trauma coach whose new book, “Divorcing Religion: A Memoir and Survival Handbook,” was released a few months ago. You can already watch the show on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to watch it on television Sunday.
The option to die legally and peacefully
After tracking a tsunami of (mostly bad) statehouse bills and hearing sneak previews of some of FFRF’s other programming, this week’s Freethought Radio episode has co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor interviewing Brian Ruder, president of the board of the Final Exit Network, which offers people who are unbearably suffering an intractable medical condition the option to die legally and peacefully.
Watch me Monday in global webinar on the far right
I’m keeping busy on the media front. A website covering Asia posted a discussion I had on Madison’s community radio station regarding the recent meeting between President Trump and Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (with a nice descriptive). And I’m flattered to be taking part in a global webinar on Monday, March 10, about the rise of the far right. I’ll be speaking on Modi-Trump starting at 10:40 Central. Log in using this web link!
What the hell is traditional about a tradwife
We had a number of blogs this week on a variety of issues. FFRF Digital Communications Coordinator Rowan Hahn had fun dissecting the notion of the “tradwife.”
“If you’ve been online in the past few years, you may have been unlucky enough to see the new ‘tradwife’ influencer trend,” the piece begins. “Unfortunately for me, I’m sickly fascinated with the phenomenon.”
Anti-trans laws affect us all
FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant writes on how anti-trans laws affect us all. “Whether you’re bringing the fight to Congress, your state legislature or your kitchen table, every time you defend trans rights you defend the United States from Christian nationalism,” the blog concludes.
Is a 2006 movie satire our future?
FFRF Rapid Response Counsel Chris Line remembers a Hollywood satire that now seems possibly prophetic.
“The dystopian world of ‘Idiocracy’ doesn’t have to become our future,” the column states. “But if we continue to devalue intelligence and expertise, we may wake up one day to find that the joke is on us.”
Not if we at FFRF can help it. We promise — with your help — to stop a dysfunctional future from engulfing us.
