It may be the dog days of summer, but we at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are not letting this slow us down — and we have the media receipts to prove it.
CBS News featured our response to a new directive from President Trump’s Office of Personnel and Management regarding religion in the federal workplace.
“The Trump administration on Monday told federal workers they can talk about religion at work, including by trying to ‘persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,’” said a piece on the national network. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation called Monday’s memo ‘outrageous and unconstitutional,’ arguing the guidance ‘purports to protect religious expression in the federal workplace but encourages outright proselytizing.’ ‘These shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing, but worse still, allow supervisors to evangelize underlings and federal workers to proselytize the public they serve,’ the group’s co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said in a statement.”
A prominent progressive portal also carried our reaction
“Critics blasted what the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) called ‘a gift to evangelicals and the myth of ‘anti-Christian bias,’” stated a Common Dreams article. “FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said that ‘these shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing, but worse still, allow supervisors to evangelize underlings and federal workers to proselytize the public they serve.’”
‘Friendly Atheist’ blogger details our role in Illinois constitutional win
We had a significant win in Illinois this week, where Jefferson County removed a large Ten Commandments monument from the lawn of the county courthouse in response to a lawsuit from plaintiffs represented by us, the ACLU of Illinois and the ACLU, enabling us to dismiss our lawsuit. “Friendly Atheist” blogger Hemant Mehta prominently featured the role we played in this, especially that of FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi.
Legal news site highlights our name
A premier legal website published a piece about a letter that we co-signed addressed to the Trump administration, featuring our name as one of the few from the (literally) more than 1,000 groups that signed on.
“Over 1,000 nonprofits launched a national campaign on Wednesday against the White House’s effort to allow churches to engage in partisan politics, pushing President Donald Trump to uphold a decades-old provision of the tax code,” stated the Courthouse News piece. “National Council of Nonprofits, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Independent Sector, Interfaith Alliance and Public Citizen were among the signatories.”
Iowa public radio station notices our victory
Public radio in Iowa covered a recent victory of ours in the Hawkeye State.
“The Le Mars School District in Northwest Iowa will stop letting religious groups hold events on school grounds,” said a story on the Sioux City Public Radio station. “The move was prompted by a letter from a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state. The Freedom from Religion Foundation learned about a National Day of Prayer event held outside the Le Mars middle and high school building in May.”
Our anti-blasphemy law op-eds are published in Detroit and Massachusetts papers
Our project to get outdated blasphemy laws repealed in the six states where they’re still on the books is reaping media dividends. FFRF Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens has had a piece published in the Detroit News decrying the state’s still-standing blasphemy law.
“Michigan is one of only six states that still have archaic anti-blasphemy laws, alongside Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming,” Mickey writes. “These kinds of antediluvian statutes often harken back to America’s colonial era, before the U.S. Constitution, when church and state were entangled and civil rights were routinely curtailed.”
You can read the rest of the op-ed here.
Mickey also had a column in the Massachusetts newspaper, The Telegram & Gazette, spotlighting a current attempt in the Legislature to repeal that state’s anti-blasphemy law.
“Thankfully, a Massachusetts lawmaker is working to fix this issue,” Mickey writes. “State Sen. Rebecca Rausch has introduced SB 1251, a bill to repeal the state’s anti-blasphemy statute. The bill has successfully advanced out of its first committee and is now awaiting a vote in the Senate Rules Committee, just one step away from a full Senate vote. Massachusetts lawmakers should support and pass SB 1251 to finally bring state law in line with constitutional protections.”
You can read the full piece here.
We’ll fight to preserve our legal triumph in California
We are prepared to fight back against a California school board that is seeking to resurrect a closed civil rights case. The Board of Education of the Chino Valley Unified School District yesterday filed a motion to end a court injunction that resulted from an FFRF legal victory prohibiting board members from opening their public meetings with prayer. We won our case, first filed in 2013, on behalf of 22 local plaintiffs, at both the federal district level and before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018. Be assured we will contest the board’s motion in court!
No bible study at top levels of government!
We are raising a red flag over the resurgence of a bible study group featuring senior U.S. officials, including members of President Trump’s cabinet. Capitol Ministries, led by Christian nationalist pastor Ralph Drollinger, relaunched its cabinet-level bible study in March. The group also holds weekly sessions with members of Congress, senators and high-ranking Trump administration officials. We are strongly condemning these sessions, which take place inside the halls of government, as an attempt to erode the wall between state and church.
Trump’s extremist judicial nominees
Our legislative arm has been making its presence felt, too. The FFRF Action Fund expressed its opposition to the third round of judicial nominations from the Trump administration.
“Each of these nominees is emblematic of the goal to destroy our secular Constitution,” said FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Their Christian nationalist records show a chilling willingness to embrace dogma over the rule of law.”
And the Action Fund strongly condemned the U.S. Senate’s confirmation on Tuesday of Emil Bove to a lifetime federal judgeship to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, our nation must expect more nominees in Bove’s mold — loyal to Trump above all else, ideologically extreme and willing to use the courts to erode foundational rights and freedoms.
A ‘secularist’ anti-blasphemy lawmaker
The Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is Massachusetts state Sen. Rebecca Rausch (spotlighted in Mickey’s op-ed) for leading the legislative effort to repeal the state’s blasphemy law. The Action Fund sincerely thanks Rausch.
An extremist Lt. Gov. ‘theocrat’
The Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith for supporting an exception for rape victims in abortion bans — but only if the perpetrators face the death penalty. Rape exceptions in abortion bans cannot be contingent on the death penalty for rapists. Women must have control over their bodies and access to all health care options when they become pregnant and the Action Fund strongly condemns Beckwith’s barbaric proposal.
Two well-lived, freethinking lives
On this week’s episode of Freethought Radio, we first report our rapid court victory getting the Ten Commandments monument removed from the Jefferson County, Ill., courthouse, speaking with FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi, who oversaw our challenge. Then, hosts Dan and Annie Laurie remember the lives of two precious freethinkers who died this month: longtime FFRF member Dick Hewetson, an Episcopal priest turned gay/atheist activist, who died at age 95 and whose interview from Freethought Radio in 2008 is replayed; and satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer (“Vatican Rag”), who died at age 97, featuring some of his irreverent tunes.
Dissecting the Supreme Court’s recent decisions
The latest episode of “We Dissent” (a joint project of FFRF and Americans United) breaks down the last few state/church Supreme Court decisions coming down from the U.S. Supreme Court this judicial term. FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell and Americans United Legal Director Rebecca Markert explain the final three Supreme Court rulings with huge stakes for true religious freedom. Listen in to the erudite discussion.
Where did the term ‘gender ideology’ come from?
FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant uncovers the religious roots of the term “gender ideology” in a recent blog. “A term this common and this powerful had to come from somewhere, so I sent myself down the rabbit hole of anti-trans pseudoscience and political fear-mongering,” Kat writes. Find out where Kat’s search leads to.
Religious propaganda at a county fair
FFRF Digital Marketing and Communications Intern Ashley Harrison did what many of us do in the summer — and saw an unexpected sight. “When I recently visited my local county fair, I was immediately greeted by not one, not two, but three explicitly Christian booths along the fair’s main strip,” Ashley begins a fascinating journey of discovery and reflection.
We are surviving religion at county fairs — and pushing back hard against local, state and federal Christian nationalist incursions this summer — only due to the warmth and generosity of your backing.
