Amid all the tumult around us, we at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are making our voice heard.
The American Bar Association Journal has made note of our legal intervention (in the form of an amicus brief) in an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case.
“On March 31, the justices will take up Catholic Charities Bureau Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission,” states a piece in the prestigious publication. “The court will decide whether a state violates the First Amendment’s religion clauses by refusing to provide an unemployment tax exemption to a religion’s charitable arm when it provides such a break to churches, religious schools and some other religious groups. … Wisconsin has the support of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and American Atheists.”
A prominent Wisconsin news portal has given props to our earlier legal intervention in the same case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which ruled correctly against the Catholic employer.
“This ruling meant that dozens of Catholic Charities workers and all of its sub-organizations’ employees — the people who help people in need find jobs — can get unemployment benefits if they lose their jobs through no fault of their own,” says the author. “The Freedom from Religion Foundation noted that a ruling in favor of Catholic Charities would have jeopardized unemployment insurance for thousands of workers at ‘religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges.’”
No religious statues, please
The Massachusetts media are featuring our objection to the proposed installation of two religious statues in the town of Quincy.
“Another civil liberties group is urging Mayor Thomas Koch to rescind plans for two 10-foot-tall bronze statues of saints on the new $175 million public safety headquarters set to open in October,” says a newspaper story. “The letter, authored by staff attorney Madeline Ziegler on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, argues that Koch’s plans violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It asks the mayor and councilors to respond with ‘steps you are taking to address the matter so that we may inform our citizen complainants.’ ‘If they refuse to do as we’re asking, we assess next steps, up to and including a lawsuit,’ Ziegler told The Patriot Ledger.”
Not all South Dakotans are Christians, Gov. Rhoden
We rightfully criticized South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s decision to grant administrative leave to all state employees for Good Friday and Easter Monday while explicitly urging them to “celebrate the resurrection of our good Lord.” The governor’s announcement assumes all state employees are Christian and turns those who do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus into outsiders in their own workplace. We’ve requested a formal response from Gov. Rhoden outlining how his office plans to address this concern.
The grim toll of Trump’s anti-science approach
FFRF pointed out that, whether at home or abroad, children will be the greatest victims of Trump’s Christian nationalist, anti-science administration. God’s believers and science deniers are doing a great deal of wrong through the deeply irrationally, counterproductive and unethical defunding of public health programs.
Christ is not king
An outrageous new resolution introduced in the Oklahoma Legislature “proclaiming ‘Christ is King’” is an un-American attack on religious freedom and needs to be deep-sixed, we’re insisting.
“The revolutionaries who founded the United States threw the king out,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Along with rejecting a monarchy, they deliberately adopted a godless Constitution, whose only references to religion are exclusionary, and which forbids the government from establishing any religion.”
A Texas school voucher shenanigan
The FFRF Action Fund, our legislative arm, has also been speaking up. It called out a pair of Texas bills for pushing religion into public schools. SB 10 would require every public school classroom to display a 16-by-20-inch version of the Ten Commandments “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.” The even more outrageous SB 11 would compound this religious overreach by requiring prayer and bible readings in public schools. The Fund stands ready to defend the constitutional separation of state and church — and the rights of every student in Texas.
Yay for D.C. ban on child marriage
Conversely, the Fund is celebrating a major victory for children’s rights and secular advocacy as Washington, D.C., officially bans child marriage. “Child marriage is a human rights violation that has no place in a just and secular society,” says FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor. The Fund will continue its advocacy efforts to push for nationwide legislative reforms and calls on lawmakers in the 37 remaining states and three territories to follow D.C.’s lead.
‘Secularist’ and ‘theocrat’ groups
The Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is a group of 166 Texas faith leaders responsible for a recent letter calling on state lawmakers to reject legislation that requires all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. FFRF Action Fund thanks these faith leaders for speaking out against this Christian nationalist legislation. On the other hand, the Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is a group of Kansas lawmakers behind a resolution denouncing a satanic group’s black mass at the state Capitol. While the Fund does not endorse any religious ceremony occurring in state institutions, it is important to note that these Kansas lawmakers only denounced the religious ceremony because it is for a religion they disagree with.
A freethinking TV show guest released from prison
Our media offerings are also providing space to marginalized voices.
A Nigerian humanist who was only recently released after spending five years in prison for “blasphemy” is our special guest on the latest episode of Freethought Matters. “My health has suffered immensely,” Mubarak Bala says on the show. You can already watch the episode on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to watch it Sunday on television.
How billionaires created a culture war
After Freethought Radio celebrates this week the birthday of Eric “Monty Python” Idle, 82, by playing his irreverent song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” it hears professor and author Josh Cowen talk about his book “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.” Tune in here.
Discussing Trump’s executive orders
The freshest installment of the “We Dissent” podcast zeroes in on the recent slew of presidential executive orders. FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell and Americans United Legal Director Rebecca Markert talk with Americans United Associate Vice President of Public Policy Dena Sher about the spate of executive orders that President Trump has issued in his new presidential term. Listen here for an erudite discussion.
I was part of a global webinar on the religious right
It was a privilege for me to be a part of a global webinar on the worldwide rise of the populist, religious nationalist right, with my presentation (which the link takes you to) focusing on the phenomenon in India and the connections with what is happening here in the United States. The webinar featured an astonishing range of voices from almost a dozen countries.
The ghost of AIDS
“This might be a controversial take, but I believe in ghosts,” FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant writes — and convincingly explains why. “If the Christian nationalist movement wants us dead, we have no choice but to do all this to survive,” Kat concludes.
Paula White’s astonishing grift
FFRF attorney Chris Line crafts a column on White House faith adviser Paula White’s latest, almost unbelievable grift.
“Religious belief should be a personal choice, not a government-backed racket,” Chris writes. “And no one — especially not a White House official — should be promising miracles for money.”
We are sounding off on these scams and so much more — and it’s all possible only due to your unremitting support.
