We at the Freedom From Religion Foundation have been constantly pushing back to protect our constitutional freedoms.
Some of these pushbacks have involved intense legal action.
“The battle over Texas’ Senate Bill 10 continued on Monday, with families in the state filing a federal lawsuit to block the display of a Protestant Christian version of the Ten Commandments in a ‘conspicuous place’ in every public school classroom,” notes a leading news and commentary portal. “The plaintiffs are represented by … Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the state and national ACLU, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
We are determined to fight on.
Calif. publication intrigued by our viewpoint
Our efforts are sometimes noticed even by entities that may not completely agree with our perspective.
A California weekly extensively cited our objection to a city’s approval of $50,000 to a church as reimbursement for a religious Fourth of July celebration (and then came to a perplexingly different conclusion): “The government cannot subsidize certain religions or dispense special financial benefits to religious organizations or ministries,” Samantha F. Lawrence, staff attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote in a Sept. 8 letter to council urging them to reject sponsorship of the event. “The city of Salinas should devote public funds to endeavors that are inclusive and welcoming to the entire community, not just community members who adhere to a particular faith.”
Good riddance to Supt. Walters
We hailed the resignation of Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters as a major win for the Constitution and for the state’s students. We have been demanding for two years that he step down — and we were the first organization to do so. You may remember that he actually sued FFRF for sending letters to school districts objecting to unconstitutional religious activities, a lawsuit that even a President Trump-appointed federal judge swiftly dismissed. Good riddance to the supe!
Our successful intervention in Kentucky
We successfully protested a school-sponsored religious assembly in Kentucky. On Sept. 16, 3 Heath Brothers, a Christian boy band, performed for all students at Breathitt Elementary School. FFRF’s letter to the district offered sound constitutional advice. “Elementary students cannot legally or practically be expected to dissent and leave what appeared to be a mandatory school assembly in order to resist their school violating their constitutional rights,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude wrote. Thankfully, the district acted quickly and appropriately in response.
We protested against a giveaway in Georgia
We strongly objected to a Georgia county board’s $450,000 grant to a faith-based crisis pregnancy center. “By partnering with and leading citizens to an explicitly Christian organization, the county will signal blatant favoritism toward religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners. We urged the board to refrain from transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds to a religious entity, and to desist from awarding grants to religious organizations in the future.
We awarded nearly $20,000 to college essay students
We gave $19,650 in prize money to the winners of the 2025 Kenneth L. Proulx Memorial Essay Contest for Ongoing College Students. “FFRF is pleased to honor this year’s winners, and is encouraged by the willingness of so many students to raise their voices for freethought,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. Congratulations to all the excelling students! This is the fourth essay scholarship awarded this year by FFRF, with the final contest for grad students soon to be announced.
Governors need to opt out of the national voucher scheme
We are advising governors to absorb the lessons of a damning new study of voucher programs before deciding whether to opt in to the first-ever national voucher scheme diverting taxpayer funds to private, mostly religious schools. FFRF and its advocacy arm, the FFRF Action Fund, will be mounting an educational campaign about the issue.
Kirk memorial featured disturbing rhetoric
Our legislative arm (the FFRF Action Fund) has been monitoring the recent burgeoning of Christian nationalism. Religious extremists and Trump administration officials unleashed chilling threats at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, promising “spiritual warfare,” calling Kirk a “warrior” and “martyr,” and advising people to put “on the full armor of God.” The Action Fund will double down on its work to ensure that the principle of secularism triumphs over Christian nationalism.
Education Secretary McMahon ‘Theocrat’ for religious partnership
In line with its concerns, the Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is Education Secretary Linda McMahon for recently announcing the Education Department’s “partnership” with Christian nationalist groups to turn U.S. history curricula into propaganda — a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution. The nation instead needs evidence-based civics education that reflects the true nature of the founding of the United States.
Rep. Jared Huffman ‘Secularist’ for warning about Christian nationalism
The Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is longtime secular ally U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman for his recent Daily Beast op-ed highlighting the dangers of Christian nationalism and of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. The Fund thanks Rep. Huffman for consistently working to raise public awareness of the Christian nationalism movement in this country.
Godless romance
Our media offerings this week cover a variety of issues.
FFRF’s Sammi Lawrence and Rowan Hahn have a fascinating discussion for our “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live feature with romance author and FFRF Lifetime Member Alyssa Jarrett about the “Marvelization” of media and how it aligns with conservative Christian efforts to censor books and control culture. Catch the conversation here.
Defending evolution
After playing excerpts on this week’s Freethought Radio episode of the Christian nationalist rhetoric at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, we heard distinguished attorney Richard Katskee speaking at the recent Scopes Trial Centennial conference on his role in the 2005 lawsuit in Dover, Pa., that defended the teaching of evolution in the public schools.
Explaining the U.S.-India split
Why has there been such a falling out between two leaders steeped in religious nationalism who have been quite friendly in the past? Writer and researcher Sukumar Muralidharan explains on my Madison community radio station show the recent tempestuousness in the relationship between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and lays out the consequences for the two countries.
Our freedoms are at risk
FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line’s powerful new blog focuses on the imperiling of our freedoms. “I’m compelled to speak to a broader constitutional crisis happening in our country: the Trump administration’s growing hostility toward free speech and those who criticize the actions of our Christian nationalist administration,” he writes.
The Catholic Church’s teenage saint
Annie Laurie examines the spectacle of the Catholic Church anointing a teenage saint.
“The way the Catholic Church is milking the death of 15-year-old Carlo Acutis to promote superstition is embarrassing,” she writes. “It’s a further embarrassment that so many bona fide media outlets have unquestioningly repeated the Church’s claims.”
There are no ‘good and decent’ bigots
FFRF contributing writer Kat Grant dissects the notion of Chief Justice John Roberts in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that “many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith.”
“The truth is simple: There are no ‘good and decent’ homophobes,” Kat writes. “There are no virtuous bigots. And until that truth is recognized, the fight for equality will never be finished.”
Uniting to keep religion out of public schools
FFRF Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens provided an on-the-ground report from the first-ever National Religious Freedom in Public Schools Summit (where he and two FFRF attorneys spoke), which had more than 150 advocates, educators, clergy members, nontheists, secular voices and community leaders from 22 states. “After this gathering in Dallas, I’m more convinced than ever that when faith leaders and secular coalitions come together we can be effective in protecting religious freedom for all people,” Mickey concluded.
It’s only with your generous help that we can build toward such a future.
One Response
Whoso lives with the Creator is free from the Creator. These need no man’s government; for they practice righteousness, peace, love, industry and wisdom, with due regard to one another. Such is the Creator’s kingdom on earth. In which there shall be no laws made by man; neither shall there be leaders or rulers. As one finds a dilapidated old house, no longer inhabitable, workmen must be sent to pull it down, then laborers to clear away the rubbish. Afterwards, builders are sent that lay a new foundation, larger and broader than the old one, and thereon, they build a new edifice, adapted with new improvements unto the increase and requirements of the family. The old edifices of doctrines and creeds and religions as of the Brahmins, Buddhists, Jews, Ka’yuans, Kriste’yans and Mohammedans which could not, have not nor can fulfill the requirements of man. European immigrants fleeing Kriste’yan persecution and tyranny brought to Guatama North America these doctrines which the Creator of All allowed. Guatama North America in the care of copper-color Amer’icans (1828,Webster’s Dictionary: Amer’ican), was untrammeled by religious worship of Gods, Lords or Saviors. Amer’icans worshipped no Gods, Lords or Saviors, neither had any need for weapons of war. The Great Spirit, the Creator of All Life is Whom they worship in privacy even to this day.