Our perspective at the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been featured all over recently.
The Kansas City Star asked us to craft an op-ed discussing a recent victory that FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence obtained in Hannibal (Mo.) defending the rights of student-athletes. “The separation of state and church works to protect religious liberty by ensuring that the government can’t interfere with anyone’s personal private choices about what they do or don’t believe in,” she wrote.
Calif. school board owes us money
This week went well for us in more ways than one.
“The Chino Valley School District (Calif.) has been ordered to pay the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) $134,000 in legal fees after the district lost the prayer lawsuit it filed last July against an injunction put into place in 2018 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,” reported a California paper.
We thwarted a religious public charter school
A coalition we are part of in Oklahoma to stymie a religious public charter school tasted success a few days ago.
“The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board (SCSB) unanimously rejected an application submitted by the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation,” reported an Oklahoma TV station. “A coalition made up of various civil rights organizations including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, Education Law Center, Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, issued a joint statement addressing the SCSB’s decision.”
Our efforts draw praise
An organization dedicated to countering bigotry has recognized our invaluable work in delegitimizing the National Prayer Breakfast.
“The opposition had been organizing for weeks,” writes the Global Project Against Hate And Extremism. “A coalition that included the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Interfaith Alliance urged members of Congress to stay away from the breakfast.”
Our critique is spotlighted
An article detailing a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission prominently featured our critique of the body.
“According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the commission lived up to its one-sided interpretation of faith in America during what was its fifth gathering,” says a piece in the Baptist News. “‘Throughout the meeting, commissioners and invited witnesses focused on ideological grievances, culture-war narratives and foreign policy disputes while paying no attention to the growing influence of white Christian nationalism, the erosion of state/church separation, or the ways “religious liberty” rhetoric is being used to justify discrimination and government entanglement with religion,’ the foundation reported.”
A win in Tennessee
We achieved a victory in Tennessee that has been covered in a number of media outlets in the state.
“Haywood County Schools is changing its practice after receiving concerns about a mandatory religious assembly held in December,” reports an area TV station that extensively quotes our letter to the school board. “According to documents from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a concerned community member reported that Haywood High School held an assembly during the school day featuring Tennessee rapper Project Pat on Dec. 5. During the alleged mandatory assembly, an adult questioned students about their religious beliefs — specifically asking whether they identified as Christian or Muslim — before leading them in prayer.”
We’ve made an impression in North Carolina
Our work has made such an impression in some places that it has reverberated through time.
“A months-long saga has unfolded surrounding the Cleveland County (N.C.) Board of Education’s decision not only about selling a shuttered school building but also about the buyer,” reports the Carolina Public Press. “The board has opted to forgo traditional bidding processes in order for the building to land in the hands of a local religious nonprofit, drawing attention from residents and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
Speaker Mike Johnson needs to cool it
We rebuked House Speaker Mike Johnson for using his government office to promote Christian extremism at a recent get-together in the nation’s capital. The second annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance (co-founded by Johnson and organized by the Family Research Council), held Feb. 4 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., featured two dozen members of Congress alongside far-right pastors and religious activists who framed American politics as a form of “spiritual warfare.” Yikes!
The White House has jettisoned science
We decried the Trump administration’s recent anti-science action that will erase the scientific foundation for federal climate protections. The White House ordered a repeal of the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which recognizes a basic scientific reality: Carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. This determination triggered the EPA’s duty under the Clean Air Act to regulate pollutants that “cause or contribute to” dangerous air pollution — until now.
Rep. Jared Huffman spotlights Congressional Freethought Caucus
On our Freethought Radio show this week, FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence first discussed the victory in Missouri that she wrote about for the Kansas City Star. Then, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman reviewed this year’s National Prayer Breakfast and provided some insight into future plans for the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
Nicki Minaj is ‘theocrat’ for demon-filled rant
The FFRF Action Fund, our legislative arm, picked out rapper Nicki Minaj as its “Theocrat of the Week” for her absurd, Christian nationalism-fueled recent social media tirade. Minaj, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, was once outspoken in criticizing President Trump and his immigration policies, but recently made a 180 degree turn.
Baptist minister is ‘secularist’ for praiseworthy coverage
The Action Fund chose a Baptist minister as its “Secularist of the Week” for his diligent coverage of the Trump administration’s hosting of worship services during regular work hours. Brian Kaylor, an award-winning writer, has tracked official worship services, writing that the Trump-era religious rituals are “the most significant example of government worship services since President Richard Nixon organized Sunday services in the White House.”
KPOP of a different variety
The Action Fund is pleased to announce the introduction of pioneering legislation to preserve the secular nature of our schools in three states: Vermont, Kansas and Oklahoma! The Action Fund is working with a coalition to introduce cutting-edge bills titled Keep Proselytizing Out of Public Schools Act, also known as the Student Secular Bill of Rights.
“We need to keep proselytizing out of our public schools,” says FFRF Action Fund Senior Counsel Ryan Jayne, “and we are moving ahead to enshrine these protections of freedom of conscience in the face of rapidly changing Establishment Clause jurisprudence.”
A bad bill in Arizona
The Action Fund is also keeping track of bad legislation, cautioning that a new attempt in Arizona to insert religion into school boards would blatantly sidestep constitutional law. HB 2110 would require school boards, including charter school governing bodies, community college boards and university governing bodies, to allow prayer during meetings upon request from any member of that body. The Action Fund has urged its Arizona advocates to demand that their legislators reject the bill.
Whether it’s stopping bad legislation or spreading the word about our good efforts, we are able to do it only due to you.
