Our work at the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been making quite an impression recently.
We received plenty of media attention when our legal efforts thwarted a Ten Commandments law in Texas.
“A federal district court in Texas temporarily blocked a new state law on Wednesday that would have required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom,” CBS News reported. “The plaintiffs included Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious families with children in Texas public schools. They were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and pro bono counsel from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.”
A prominent news portal, Common Dreams, has a great quote from us: “Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said that ‘religious instruction must be left to parents, not the state, which has no business telling anyone how many gods to have, which gods to have or whether to have any gods at all.’”
In fact, there were so many stories on our constitutional triumph that it’ll be impossible to mention them all! You can take a peek at the news coverage here.
As a follow-up, we sent a letter today to public school superintendents across Texas warning them not to implement the law. The letter also advised districts that have already posted the Ten Commandments to immediately remove the displays.
Our humiliation of Okla. Supt. Walters continues to make waves
The dismissal of the frivolous lawsuit that Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters filed against us has continued to garner media coverage.
“Oklahoma’s right-wing schools chief, Ryan Walters, received a stern rebuke this week as a Trump-appointed federal judge tossed out a baseless lawsuit filed by Walters to try to silence a religious freedom organization,” states a recent MSNBC News column. “The court case that was just tossed involved a lawsuit Walters filed in an attempt to stop the Freedom From Religion Foundation — an organization focused on preventing theocratic rule in the U.S. — from sending letters to Oklahoma school districts raising legal concerns about accounts of school officials proselytizing to students, such as with school-sponsored prayer and Bible readings.”
Oklahoma media was all over it, too.
“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by State Superintendent Ryan Walters against a group that works to enforce the separation of church and state,” reported a Duncan Banner banner (excuse the pun) headline story, to give just one example. “Walters and the State Department of Education filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in March against the Freedom from Religion Foundation.”
News agency gets our perspective on DHS outrages
The premier news agency covering belief and nonbelief came to us for our perspective when the Department of Homeland Security started using religious imagery to justify its egregious behavior.
“FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor called the July 28 video quoting Proverbs 28:1 and calling immigrants wicked ‘totally indefensible,’” writes the Religion News Service. “While the first-term Trump administration embraced Christian nationalism, the ideology is more pervasive in his current administration, Gaylor said. It appears to closely follow the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 guidelines and counts more Christian nationalists in its ranks, she said, referring to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.”
Our denunciation of Texas lieutenant gov gets media play
Baptist News Global extensively covered our rebuke of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for threatening to throw out members of the public for not standing up during a Texas state Senate invocation.
“As for Patrick’s demand that everyone stand for a Christian prayer, the Freedom from Religion Foundation says that’s not the way it works,” the media organization writes. “‘Citizens have the right to attend legislative proceedings without being coerced into religious observance,’ FFRF legal counsel Chris Line wrote to Patrick.”
Texas lt gov is this week’s theocrat
Not surprisingly, Patrick was chosen as the “Theocrat of the Week” by FFRF’s legislative arm, FFRF Action Fund. Patrick must retract his threats, the Fund says, and make it clear that religious coercion has no place in government.
N.Y. lawmakers are secularists for anti-electioneering bill
The FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularists of the Week” are two New York lawmakers, state Sen. James Skoufis and Assemblymember Tony Simone, who have crafted legislation to ensure that their state prohibits electioneering from the pulpit. New York recently introduced the Nonpartisan Pulpit Act, which would codify the 1954 Johnson Amendment into state law. The FFRF Action Fund sincerely thanks Skoufis and Simone for their efforts to hold New York tax-exempt organizations accountable for political activity.
The EPA’s dangerous move
We are strongly opposing a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule that would strip the agency of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases — a dangerous, anti-science move that is part of the Christian nationalist Project 2025 agenda.
“Instead of protecting Americans, this proposal flouts science in favor of the Christian nationalist agenda,” says FFRF Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne. “Public policy must be grounded in secular principles that promote the well-being of everyone. The EPA must live up to its name by regulating factors that fuel climate change, not by abandoning its core mission.”
Costco succumbs to theocratic pressure
A coalition of Christian nationalist outfits is claiming credit for Costco’s recent announcement that it will not start carrying medication abortion at its more than 500 pharmacies nationwide. It’s important to let Costco know you’re taking your pharmacy business elsewhere and to support Walgreens’ and CVS’ principled decisions to dispense this health- and life-saving medication.
The efficacy of protesting
We criticized President Trump’s reprehensible announcement that he planned to issue an executive order seizing control of American elections. For now, the White House has walked it back. FFRF is proud to have been part of the protest and will continue monitoring the situation.
Native American boarding schools
On our Freethought Radio show this week, FFRF Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover recounts FFRF’s recent victory over the Ten Commandments in Texas. Then, we’re joined by journalist Mary Annette Pember, a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe, as she describes her new book “Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools.”
Spilling the beans on Turning Point USA
Our “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live show this week featured a thrilling exposé: Former Turning Point USA employee Caroline Stout tells FFRF legal counsel Chris Line, FFRF Legal Fellow Kyle Steinberg and Governmental Affairs Coordinator Caitlin Berray about how she came to work for the far-right group, why she left, and how she’s working as a “recovering conservative” to warn people about the propaganda organizations such as her ex-employer promote. Watch the riveting revelations here.
A legal challenge to same-sex marriage
We have had two recent blogs dealing with a similar issue: Kim Davis, the notorious former county clerk in Kentucky, and her attempts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 decision guaranteeing marriage equality. “At FFRF, we’ll be watching closely because when religious extremists try to turn back the clock on equality, we’ll be there to fight back,” Chris writes in his piece. “Now is the time to start getting to work, piece by piece, state by state,” advises FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant in a new column.
An unfinished journey from religion to nonbelief
FFRF has extended support to individuals abroad under its “nonbelief relief” campaign, which largely helps freethinkers needing to flee Islamist nations. FFRF asked Iranian-born atheist Arslan (a pseudonym), who is still in asylum limbo, to share his experiences with its membership.
Join us Sunday in upstate New York!
FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, along with author Kate Cohen, will be headlining on Sunday, Aug. 24, the Upstate New York Freethinkers’ second annual chapter gathering. The day’s agenda includes insightful presentations, a delicious hot buffet luncheon, and tours of the historic Matilda Joslyn Gage museum (a short drive from the conference). Attendees will also have the opportunity for book signings with the featured speakers.
Try to make it if you can! We’d love to spend the day with you. After all, everything that we do is made possible only because of members like you.
