We initiated this week our eye-catching “Vote Like Your Rights Depends on It because They Do” campaign, aimed at mobilizing especially the growing population of Gen Z “Nones” (religiously unaffiliated). We’ve launched an all-out multimedia approach — leveraging podcasts, satellite radio, social media, digital, and print ads to spread the message far and wide. To learn more about the campaign, visit our landing page at: www.ffrf.org/vote
Our chapters all over the nation have also launched a second round of a voter awareness billboard drive in swing states. Red-white-and-blue billboards proclaiming “Be a Voter — Save Democracy” and personalized to each swing state have gone up in all seven of these states. “At FFRF, we’re on the front lines, fighting to preserve democracy and resist theocracy through litigation, education and advocacy,” notes FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
A politicking Texas church
We demanded that the IRS take away the nonprofit status of an electioneering Texas megachurch that has Josh Howerton as its senior pastor. On Oct. 6, Howerton of Lakepointe Church delivered a sermon in which he told members of his congregation how to cast their votes. FFRF is flagging this as an election endorsement on Lakepointe Church’s part. “Churches can’t be allowed to get away with such blatant politicking,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
A Texas cheerleading win
We scored a win in the same state when we protected Texas cheerleaders from a coach’s preaching. A concerned parent informed us that the Tascosa High School cheerleading coach was posting bible quotes in messages to cheerleaders. “It is unlawful for public school athletic coaches to lead their teams in biblical instruction, lessons or prayer,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district. A legal representative for the district confirmed that corrective action has been taken. That’s something to cheer about.
Hazardous religious wires in Milwaukee
We are urging Milwaukee County to remove a hazardous eruv line from public property that could have decapitated a bicyclist recently injured by one. Eruvin are perimeters, often created by wire, that Orthodox Jews put up to extend private spaces, allowing them to avoid Sabbath restrictions. “Even before this unnerving incident, there was no reason for Milwaukee County to grant one religious sect special privileges to hang wires on public property in order to help them avoid their self-imposed religious obligations,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line has written to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
Our awards through Secular Student Alliance
With the backing of individual donors, we collaborated with the Secular Student Alliance to select, announce and distribute a variety of $1,000 student awards this week, including to student freethinkers attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We have other scholarships available to give directly for exceptional student activism. If you know of any student who is actively helping to uphold state/church separation or fighting for the rights of nonbelievers, please use the form at ffrf.us/nominate.
Project 2025’s terrible plan to defund hurricane forecaster
We’re strongly opposing Project 2025’s proposed plan to defund and dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton’s devastation strongly in people’s minds, we are warning that stripping vital agencies like NOAA of their funding will severely weaken the nation’s ability to predict, prepare for and respond to extreme weather events. Prayers aren’t helpful to prepare for hurricanes — but rejecting Project 2025’s agenda is.
‘Pro-life’ judges are anything but
Women’s right to life is endangered by “pro-life” judges, we contended. The recent U.S. Supreme Court action to let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that supposedly violate Texas’ draconian abortion ban is proof that the so-called religiously motivated “pro-lifers” on the court are profoundly anti-women and anti-life — caring about life only from conception to birth.
Okla. media spotlights our anti-Ryan Walters efforts
Media coverage of our endeavors has continued unabated. Various Oklahoma media outlets (such as the Oklahoma City paper) have highlighted our pushback against the state superintendent’s theocratic shenanigans.
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation, along with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation are seeking to obtain additional records pertaining to State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ bible mandate for public schools,” said a state TV station’s report. “The records being sought are in relation to Walters’ recent $3 million request to help fund said mandate.”
Press outlet covers our home state victory
A victory in our home state also got media play. “The Germantown Police Department recently removed a Bible quote from a social media post promoting a job listing following a letter sent from the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sharing concerns of potential legal ramifications,” says a piece in a local media outlet.
A stellar state rep and a biblical judicial worldview
Our legislative arm, the FFRF Action Fund, was active this week, too. It chose as its “Secularist of the Week” a stellar state representative, Brianna Titone, who has ensured that Colorado Catholic hospitals have to be upfront about what medical procedures they do not offer. Its “Theocrat of the Week” is a leading Christian nationalist, Phillip Jauregui, senior counsel for AFA Action (the American Family Association’s political advocacy wing) and a leading voice narrowing down prospective Supreme Court justices to those who align with a “biblical worldview.” Read more about them here.
If you’d like to know what else the Fund has been up to, please visit here.
An expert on global anti-abortion network
The guest on this week’s episode of our TV show uncovers the network that U.S. Christian nationalist organizations have formed to deny abortion rights not only in the United States but worldwide. Sian Norris is a writer and investigative journalist who worked as chief European and social affairs reporter at the Byline Times in the United Kingdom and is the author of “Bodies Under Siege: How The Far Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global.” You can already watch the show on our YouTube channel. Or find out where and when to catch it on television Sunday.
Listen to Ron Reagan’s speech on Freethought Radio
The centerpiece on our most recent Freethought Radio episode is an engaging speech that Ron Reagan (son of the former president) gave at FFRF’s recent annual convention, where he informed the audience about ongoing authoritarian threats — and what we can do in response.
Why are churches suing the IRS?
On our “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live feature this week, FFRF’s Chris Line and Liz Cavell highlighted the importance of the Johnson Amendment after news broke that a coalition of religious broadcasters and churches is suing the IRS over a long-standing rule that prevents tax-exempt nonprofits (including churches) from financially supporting politicians and political campaigns. Watch the scintillating discussion here.
We’re able to tackle such a broad array of issues — “wide-ranging” doesn’t do it any justice — only due to your consistent and generous backing.
