Freethought-Now

It is startling how much we here at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are able to take on — and get credit for — in a typical week.

The New York Times graciously acknowledged our role in bringing to its attention the death of a leading freethinker (and an awardee of ours).

“Wallace v. Jaffree … made Mr. Ishmael Jaffree a hero among civil libertarians, atheists and humanists,” it states in its obituary. “A few months after the court’s opinion was handed down, the Freedom From Religion Foundation gave him its inaugural Freethinker of the Year award. Mr. Jaffree died on July 30, 2024, in Mobile. He was 80. His death, which was not widely reported at the time, was brought to the attention of The New York Times last week by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”

Our memorial efforts on Ishmael Jaffree’s behalf got noticed in his hometown media.

“In her own remembrance, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor paid tribute to Jaffree,” says the local CBS affiliate. “‘He was truly a quiet and unsung freethought hero,’ Gaylor wrote in an online post published April 9. ‘His legacy must be remembered and revered.’”

That it must be.

A theocratic agriculture secretary
The media acknowledged our defense of the U.S. Constitution when the top official in charge of our food supply went all theocratic recently.

“Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is facing a formal complaint after sending an Easter email to all department employees that nearly 100,000 workers received,” stated a report from the ABC affiliate in Phoenix. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a formal letter to Rollins requesting she refrain from using her official office to promote personal religious beliefs.”

A Ukrainian website picked up on this, too.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture found itself at the center of controversy after the Secretary of Agriculture sent Easter greetings to all employees,” states a story on Mezha. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation said it had received nearly 30 complaints from USDA employees who described the greeting as inappropriate and offensive, and sent a formal letter to the secretary demanding that she stop ‘pushing her own religious beliefs through official communications.’”

Blocking a religious charter school in Oklahoma
Our legal action in Oklahoma to thwart a religious public charter school has also received attention.

“A group of seven mostly Jewish taxpayers has filed a legal action opposed to the establishment of a virtual Jewish charter school in Oklahoma,” stated a piece for Baptist News. “In addition to Americans United, the proposed intervenors are represented by the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, the Education Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.”

NPR station rocks to our caller hold tune

The Little Rock public radio affiliate has acknowledged our success in getting a Ten Commandments monolith removed from the Arkansas Capitol grounds. “Several groups joined the suit like The American Humanist Association, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, and a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation, whose actual telephone hold music is a song about the separation between church and state,” it says.

Love the reference to our caller hold tune!

We are rocking Arkansas
Another FFRF attorney, Sammi Lawrence, offered a Little Rock TV station a persuasive deconstruction of a local religious released time program. You can take a look at her insightful comments here.

‘Religious Liberty Commission’ is such a misnomer

Our ongoing critique of President Trump’s misnamed Religious Liberty Commission is making a splash.

“The idea that the U.S. Constitution promotes separation of church and state is patently untrue, according to the chair of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission,” reports Baptist News. “A Freedom from Religion Foundation report on the commission’s previous meeting said the session confirmed the group is largely focused on the concerns of MAGA Christians and other right-wing evangelicals.”

For our dissection of the body’s most recent meeting, take a peek here.

California paper likes our perspective
A California paper featured at length our perspective on governmental prayer.
“There are critics outside Merced County, too, such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based legal advocacy group,” says the Mountain Democrat.

“The organization maintains a strict constitutional principle of separation of church and state, and it has participated in lawsuits nationwide to defend that principle. Chris Line, legal counsel for the organization, said government meetings should not begin with prayer at all.”

Read on for Chris’ eloquent viewpoint.

W.Va. media notices our victory
Our victory halting city council invocations in a West Virginia town received media coverage.

“An organization working to keep church and state separate said Ravenswood City Council will no longer deliver religious invocations at official meetings,” states an article in the local paper. “In a news release from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), the organization said it wrote a letter to Mayor Josh Miller after a concerned community member reported that at the Jan. 20 public meeting, Council Member Todd Ritchie began by leading a prayer.”

Our Madison monthly concerts

A special musical treat we are offering our Madison-area members and streaming live to our national membership got spotlighted in the alternative weekly in our hometown.

“‘The Great American Freethought Songbook with Dan & Darcie’ features FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, an accomplished jazz piano player and music history aficionado, and mellow Madison vocalist Darcie Johnston,” says a listing in the Isthmus. “The seven-month concert series will not only celebrate timeless standards but also explore the largely unrecognized freethinking views of many of the Great American Songbook composers. Upcoming concerts will celebrate Irving Berlin (Monday, May 11), George and Ira Gershwin (Monday, June 8), Yip Harburg (Monday, July 13), Cole Porter (Monday, Aug. 24), Richard (and Mary) Rodgers (Monday, Sept. 21) and a finale (Monday, Nov. 9) that will include a medley of other nonreligious 20th century songwriters, including Jay Gorney, Burton Lane, Tom Lehrer, Frank Loesser, Thelonious Monk, Stephen Sondheim and Charles Strouse.”

Please attend if you’re in the neighborhood — or stream via FFRF’s Facebook page, YouTube Channel or Freethought TV app. The first concert can be watched any time on YouTube or Freethought  TV!

FFRF co-president to speak in North Carolina
Dan will be speaking at a Triangle Freethought Society event in North Carolina (my old stomping grounds!) in a few weeks. He is the featured speaker at its monthly program meeting on Sunday, May 3, in Morrisville, North Carolina. Click the link for more details if you are anywhere nearby. He debated the “meaning of life” in Ontario, Canada, just last night.

Voting is a secular issue
We denounced President Trump’s reprehensible executive order that partly carries out his threat to seize control of the federal elections before the midterms. As we have long maintained, voting is a secular and a state/church issue, since a vibrant and fully enfranchised electorate is the best guarantee to protect our secular Constitution and secular government.

We halted North Chicago Police Department’s religious events
We have put a stop to the North Chicago Police Department’s practice of hosting and promoting religious events. A concerned area resident reported that the police department was regularly hosting religious shindigs, which it advertised on its social media. Thankfully, our hard work paid off. The police department’s legal representative wrote back to confirm that the department has corrected its mistakes. Nice!

Texas board is imposing religion

We castigated the Texas State Board of Education’s preliminary approval of a bible-heavy, mandatory reading list for Texas public schools. Public schools are not Sunday schools, and Texas has no business putting one religion’s text on a pedestal above all others. Our legislative arm, the FFRF Action Fund, names the Texas State Board of Education its “Theocrat of the Week” for its move.

Member of Congress is ‘Secularist of the Week’

The Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is Rep. Mike Quigley for his timely endorsement of the constitutional separation between state and church. Quigley, representing Illinois’ 5th Congressional District, took to X last week to criticize the Trump administration’s overt Christian nationalism amid war with Iran and to reaffirm his commitment to state/church separation. The Fund warmly thanks Quigley for his call-out. 

Trump’s personal lawyer unfit to be judge

The FFRF Action Fund has signed on to a senatorial letter from the Alliance for Justice  opposing the confirmation of President Trump’s personal lawyer to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Justin Smith, who holds extremist views on FFRF issues, played a major role in the 2024 Supreme Court case ruling that the president has immunity from prosecution for “official acts.” He’s now working to overturn the judgment against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation and sexual abuse cases. FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor comments, “The Trump administration’s installation of loyalists and extremists across the federal judiciary is placing our system of checks and balances in serious jeopardy.”

Interview with a brave band director

We have a diverse array of media offerings for you. On Freethought Radio, Annie Laurie Gaylor interviews Johnnie Cotton, a Texas band director who resigned rather than put up a Ten Commandments poster in his classroom as Texas law requires.

We’re now offering the interview portion of our weekly program via video, which you can watch here.

What is pro-natalism?

The newest episode of the “We Dissent” podcast welcomes a guest to dig into the recent rise of the pro-natalism movement. FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell, Americans United Legal Director Rebecca Markert and National Women’s Law Center Director of Nominations & Democracy Alison Gill welcome the center’s Chief Program Officer Emily Martin.

My interview with UN association chapter head (and FFRF member)
For my global affairs show on Madison’s community radio station, I interviewed longtime FFRF member Sam Romano, president of the United Nations Association Dane County Chapter (along with UNA Dane County board member Becca Schwartz), on the group’s activities to advocate for the foremost intergovernmental organization existing in our world today.

Christian nationalists do an about face

FFRF attorney Chris Line marvels in a blog at the irony of Christian nationalists discovering the importance of state/church separation. Chris explains the reasons for this remarkable turnaround.

Trump’s AI ‘outrage’

Freethought Today Editor PJ Slinger has fun with the particular Trump action that has triggered many Christians.

“To Trump supporters, this president seldom, if ever, does anything wrong,” he writes. “That’s why it was surprising to see the quick backlash from Christians, many of whom have been OK with Trump’s policies that go in direct contradiction to what Jesus supposedly stood for, such as helping the needy, welcoming immigrants, turning the other cheek and promoting peace. But, really, of all the things Trump has done, THIS is what gets Christians upset? Posting an AI image?”

Our prolonged legal fight

FFRF attorney Sammi Lawrence details a long legal battle that we’re fighting in California.

“At the Freedom From Religion Foundation, we’re used to court cases taking years to wend their way through the court system before we can (hopefully) declare final victory,” she states. “Once a case is closed, it usually stays that way — but not always.” 

It is due to your support that we are in this for the duration — no matter how long it takes.

The post Weekly Wrap: A departed freethinker, a theocratic ag sec, Trump’s personal lawyer and AI ‘blasphemy’ appeared first on Freethought Now.