We at the Freedom From Religion Foundation have been utilizing the opening weeks of 2025 to intently plan for the year ahead.
To this end, we’re delighted that Mickey Dollens, a seated state representative in the Oklahoma Legislature, is enhancing our secular efforts by becoming our first regional governmental affairs manager. A leading Oklahoma news portal carried the news.
“A Democratic House lawmaker has taken on a job as a regional government affairs manager for a nonprofit organization focused on the separation of church and state,” the Oklahoma Voice reports. “In addition to serving as a state representative, Mickey Dollens, D-Oklahoma City, announced Wednesday that he will also work for the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
Dollens says, “Joining FFRF is a chance to defend religious freedom on a broader stage and ensure our government serves all people, not just a select few.”
FFRF is delighted to welcome Mickey!
New Congress unrepresentative of America
We critiqued the lack of representation of the nonreligious in the new Congress (not many Mickey Dollens equivalents there, alas!). A whopping 95 percent of lawmakers identify with a religious faith, 87 percent of them with Christianity — with only one self-identified as a humanist and three as “unaffiliated.” “This overrepresentation by Christians and gross underrepresentation of atheists, agnostics and ‘nothing in particulars’ shows that we desperately need a separation between politics and church,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
Speaker Johnson’s false history
Not too surprisingly, House Speaker Mike Johnson opened the 119th Congress with a prayer spuriously attributed to the famously skeptical Thomas Jefferson — and we were glad that he was widely called out on it. One of the first to debunk the false quote was Rep. Jared Huffman, the only “out” humanist in Congress and co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
What to expect from the Supreme Court
FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence warns us what to expect this year from the U.S. Supreme Court. She particularly focuses on one case from our home state — and the potential implications of the expected ruling.
“Churches continue to own vast quantities of real estate and other wealth that isn’t being taxed, and that unfairness makes me mad,” she concludes. “It should make you mad, too.”
La. AG’s misleading guidance in our lawsuit
We are continuing our legal battles. Along with three other leading secular organizations, we issued a response to a misleading guidance from the Louisiana attorney general to school district superintendents about an ongoing case of ours (regarding an unconstitutional state law that requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom). “The attorney general’s guidance is grossly misleading, and schools that follow it will be playing with fire,” we said in a joint statement.
Nigerian freethinker’s release good news
We’re happy about some good news early in the year: the release of Mubarak Bala, the Nigerian human rights advocate unjustly imprisoned for his outspoken views on religion. Bala, 40, who is president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was finally released on Tuesday after nearly five years of detention stemming from his courageous exercise of free speech. Leo Igwe, founder of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, has commented: “Thanks that he’s out, thanks that he’s a free man. But no thanks, because there is a dent on him as if he committed a crime.”
Law student essay deadline approaches
It may not be too far along in the year but the deadline for our law school students’ essay competition is fast approaching. Law school students are being asked to respond to recent Supreme Court decisions that allow religious organizations to participate in government funding programs. The deadline is Jan. 27. Please spread the word!
Thomas Paine birthday celebration on Jan. 29
Along with other like-minded groups, we are organizing later this month an online birthday celebration of the Forgotten Founder, Thomas Paine, in the form of a Zoom webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. Eastern. Rep. Jamie Raskin will be the headline speaker. Margaret Downey, president of the Thomas Paine Memorial Association, will welcome everyone to the event and introduce the special guest speaker, artist Steve Simon. Register here!
Profound questions — and answers — to cosmic questions
The lively expert on this week’s FFRF television show attempts to answer some of the profoundest questions about our existence. “I’m acutely aware that as of right now, we are the only sentient life that we are aware of in the universe that’s capable of even trying to understand the universe,” Kelsey Johnson, an award-winning professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia, tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. You can already watch the show on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to watch it on television Sunday.
Debunking creationism
After prominent science communicator and YouTuber Dave Farina uploaded a three-hour video debunking creationism, FFRF’s Leo Costello and Chris Line talked to him on our Facebook Live “Ask an Atheist” show about how he decided to take on this task. Watch the riveting exchange here.
Heretical notions in early Christianity
On our most recent Freethought Radio show, FFRF Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover first provides an update on our Ten Commandments Louisiana lawsuit. Then the lively guest Catherine Nixey, author of the new book “Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God,” tells co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor some shocking stories about early Christianity.
Jimmy Carter ‘Secularist of the Week’
Our legislative arm, the FFRF Action Fund, has chosen as its “Secularist of the Week” President Jimmy Carter for his lifetime dedication to state-church separation. Despite his personal religious beliefs, Carter did not abuse his office to push his religion onto American citizens. His presidency and post-presidential work certainly earns him his “Secularist of the Week” honorific.
Okla. state Sen. three-peat ‘Theocrat’
The Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is state Sen. Dusty Deevers (a three-repeat offender) who recently filed a covenant marriage bill that would make divorce harder to obtain in Oklahoma. Deevers’ past Christian nationalist rants make his newest stint as “Theocrat of the Week” come as no surprise. The FFRF Action Fund will continue to keep a close eye on Deevers and his complete disregard for the separation of state and church.
There will be a lot for us to handle this year — and thanks to your able support, we are ready.
