It has been one thing after the other for us at the Freedom From Religion Foundation this week.
The cabinet nominees for the second Trump administration have been a part of it. Just to give one example, Christian crusader Fox News host Peter Hegseth is so unfit to lead the Pentagon that he compelled a strong FFRF statement. “Appointing someone like Hegseth as secretary of defense — a figure who openly champions Christian nationalism and frames policy in the language of religious crusades — would undermine the secular foundations of our democracy,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
The education cabinet-level pick is little better. Public students will be the losers if erstwhile World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and performer Linda McMahon is confirmed to lead the Department of Education, we pointed out. McMahon will gladly fulfill Trump’s oft-repeated goal of dismantling or crippling the Education Department and expanding voucher programs that transfer funding from public to religiously segregated schools.
Texas’ biblical public school curriculum
We have had to deal with several state-level outrages, too. We condemned the latest efforts by the Texas State Board of Education to force the bible and Christianity upon public school students. The teaching materials for elementary school English and language arts curriculum introduce students as young as kindergartners to Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. The instruction includes the life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection and biblical prophesies. The curriculum is an assault both on student rights of conscience and parental authority.
National media makes note of our interventions in La. and Okla.
Our interventions as part of secular coalitions to block similar affronts to the secular Constitution in two of Texas’ neighboring states have obtained media coverage nationwide.
“A federal judge has temporarily halted a Louisiana law that mandates the Ten Commandment be displayed in public schools,” says a news report for a San Diego Fox-affiliated TV station. “The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its branch in Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the suit on behalf of a multifaith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools.”
A USA Today column on the issue extensively quoted Annie Laurie. Read her take here.
And to see more media reports on our Louisiana legal action, click here.
We’ve been vigilant in that entire portion of the country. When Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Education Ryan Walters unleashed a new Christian gimmick, FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line was ready to provide a counter. See what he had to say.
A victory in Missouri
We’ve also been fruitfully engaged at the local level.
“A southwest Missouri school district has agreed to stop offering an official prayer during staff meetings after concerns were raised this fall,” states a story in the Springfield, Mo., paper. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog committed to the separation of church and state, took action after reports that a local pastor recited a ‘prayer over the loudspeaker’ during the Aug. 13 all-staff assembly in the Bolivar school district.”
Don’t waste the time of Buckeye students
We urged an Ohio school district to halt LifeWise Academy’s stealing of education hours from public school students. “If Buckeye Valley Middle School is hosting bible classes, it is violating the Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment, FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the school district superintendent.
A hometown resident urges people to join us
It is always heartwarming to get a shoutout in your hometown paper, and so a letter in the Wisconsin State Journal urging people to join us was extremely gratifying. Thank you, Donna!
A bad House bill
Our legislative arm, the FFRF Action Fund, strongly opposed a federal bill (alas now approved by the House) couched as anti-terrorism that could potentially target many nonprofits, including groups that confront Christian nationalism. HR 9495 would allow the secretary of the treasury to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits funding terrorist organizations. The pitfall here is that the president could declare any organization a “terrorist organization” by executive order. It has yet to pass the Senate.
White supremacist podcasters want to take over Tenn. town
The Fund’s “Theocrats of the Week” are two white supremacist podcasters who recently moved to rural Tennessee in the hopes of establishing a Christian nationalist town. Pastor Andrew Isker and C. Jay Engel see nothing wrong with their abhorrent writings and podcast episodes. They are proud and open Christian nationalists and white supremacists.
A harrowing escape from a fundamentalist marriage
The guest on this week’s episode of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s television show provides a first-hand account of her traumatic evangelical marriage — and offers some larger lessons. Tia Levings is the author of the bestselling memoir, “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.” You can already watch “Freethought Matters” on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when you can catch it on television Sunday.
A common fight against biblical imposition
Along with FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi, I interviewed Upneet Kaur of the Sikh Coalition, which is actively fighting against the biblical Texas schools curriculum. Watch this week’s “Ask an Atheist” here to learn about the fight against Christian nationalism in the Lone State State.
Annie Laurie’s debate at Cambridge
After an interview this week on Freethought Radio with FFRF’s Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover on recent developments in Louisiana, we then hear Annie Laurie and Maryam Namazie of Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain debate the topic “Feminism and Religion are Incompatible” at Cambridge University (really!). P.S. They won.
How Trump appointees will affect Israel-Gaza
I did an interview for Madison’s community radio station with University of San Francisco Professor Stephen Zunes on Israel-Gaza and the impact that the new Trump appointees (such as Christian nationalist Mike Huckabee appointed to be ambassador to Israel) will have on the conflict. (Scroll down to “World View” on Sunday, Nov. 17, at the link; the interview starts at the half-hour mark.)
So much happening all at the same time — and we are able to respond ably only due to your help.
