Our vigilance at the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of the Constitution is becoming quite newsworthy.
“Freedom From Religion Foundation is monitoring Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park vote” announces a recent headline in the city paper.
“The Knoxville City Council will vote Sept. 30 on a controversial plan to sell 12.7 acres of Chilhowee Park land to a religious nonprofit,” the piece says. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has influenced Knoxville’s decisions in the past, is watching.”
Yes, indeed, we were watching — and that seemed to play a role in the Knoxville City Council’s vote.
“Knoxville councilmembers shelved Mayor Indya Kincannon’s proposal to sell 12.7 acres of Chilhowee Park land to the Emerald Youth Foundation in a 5-4 vote Sept. 30,” said a follow-up story. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has influenced Knoxville’s decisions in the past, sent a letter to city officials Sept. 15 echoing community member concerns a sale would unfairly benefit the religious nonprofit because of Emerald Youth’s unusual control over the process and the economic benefits it would gain from the sale of public land.”
We’re influencing events in Ohio
Tennessee hasn’t been the only state where we have had an impact.
“The Lake Local school district was in the news recently, on television reports and in city newspapers, because of complaints from some residents about coaches leading students in prayer,” reports an Ohio news portal. “The district had received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which it sent to its legal counsel.”
Our secular buddies love us
Our work is getting hosannas from our friends at fellow secular groups.
“There are many secular organizations like CFI engaged in this struggle: the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and both national and state-level chapters of the ACLU,” Azhar Majeed, director of government affairs at the Center for Inquiry, says in an interview. “We at CFI are proud to stand alongside these allies.”
We lambasted a presidential memo
We have denounced a new presidential memorandum for dangerously equating dissent and nonbelief with terrorism. The memo states: “Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” We are urging the administration to rescind the memorandum and for Congress to investigate its unconstitutional targeting of religious dissent.
Trump’s ‘Religious Liberty Commission’ is promoting Christian nationalism
We warned that the latest meeting of President Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission” featured a lopsided agenda promoting Christian nationalism. The hearing, billed as the second in an exploration of “religious liberty in education,” was dominated by panels advocating for even more religious privilege rather than protecting true freedom of conscience. “This commission already has a foregone agenda to promote conservative Christian faith and encourage its further encroachment into our public institutions,” commented FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
We are co-sponsors of ‘No Kings II’
We are proudly co-sponsoring the “No Kings II” National Day of Action taking place on Saturday, Oct. 18. Already, there are 2,100-plus events planned in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and internationally. As freethinker and Founder Thomas Paine wisely pointed out: “In America, the law is king.” You can find an event near you and sign up here. (If you click on the “Find an event” at the No Kings II homesite using this dedicated link, it will count you as a supporter of FFRF.)
An absurd bill named in honor of Charlie Kirk
Our legislative arm is engaging in its share of vigilance, too. The FFRF Action Fund is strongly opposing a dangerous new Ohio bill that seeks to turn public schools and colleges into tools of Christian nationalist indoctrination. Ohio House Bill 486 — brazenly titled the “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act” — would encourage schools and universities to promote a one-sided, fictionalized narrative of religion’s “positive” influence on American history. “This bill is not history. It’s propaganda,” says FFRF Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne.
A theocratic Texas lawmaker
The Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is a Lone Star lawmaker who reprehensibly encouraged pastors at a recent Christian gathering to preach politics from the pulpit. Alongside other Christian leaders and legislators, Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson urged pastors to engage in politics. Oliverson has undoubtedly earned his “Theocrat” designation.
Get rid of the Ohio motto
The Fund awards its “Secularist of the Week” to an Ohio resident who has launched a campaign urging the Legislature to remove the state motto, a quote from the bible. Tyquawn Darrisaw, 21, of Cleveland asserts that the state’s religious motto “conflicts with the principle of government neutrality” and sparks state-church separation concerns. The Action Fund warmly thanks Darrisaw for leading the charge in removing this blatant entwining of government and religion and urges Ohio residents to sign the petition.
Abuse inside the Catholic Church
The main feature of this week’s Freethought Radio episode is the interview that co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor conducted with the author of an unforgettable new book about the Catholic Church: University of Toronto Professor of Religion Kevin Lewis O’Neill on his “Unforgivable: An Abusive Priest and the Church That Sent Him Abroad.” Listen in here.
The coal mine of Christian nationalism
Trans youth are the canaries in the coal mine of Christian nationalism, asserts FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant in a new blog.
“Trans youth are on the front lines, but the fight is about all of us: equality, freedom and the separation of church and state,” Kat writes. “Their struggle is emblematic of a larger battle for the principles that hold our society together. Their fight is a warning, and it is urgent. Ignore it at our peril.”
Come see Dan Barker in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 11
Dan Barker is making a presentation on FFRF’s work in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Oct. 11. It’s at the Parsons branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Do come there if you can!
We love to meet our members in person. We recognize that our existence is, ultimately, all due to you.
