We at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are sometimes amazed at how the word gets out about our endeavors.

The National Center for Science Education noticed an important initiative from our legislative arm. 

“A model state bill to safeguard the religious neutrality of public education is making headway across the country — and evolution education in particular would be protected,” reads a piece on its website. “The model bill was drafted by a national coalition of secular organizations, including American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation Action Fund. A guide and advocacy toolkit is available on the Freedom from Religion Foundation Action Fund’s website.” 

The Center hasn’t been the only one following the legislative package.

“What would it look like if people who actually cared about civil rights and religious freedom and public education did something similar?” “Friendly Atheist” blogger Hemant Mehta writes. “We’re finally getting an answer thanks to a coalition of groups focused on church/state separation. The groups recently announced a ‘secular bill of rights’ for students that would require public schools to remain neutral with regards to religion. They brought together experts from American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) to draft legislation that could be filed as quickly as possible by legislative allies. And guess what? That’s already happening.’

We appreciate all of the attention!

Our new and notable victory
Our success as part of a coalition in blocking a proposed Oklahoma religious public charter school garnered us press coverage.

“The Statewide Charter School Board voted unanimously last week to reject the application submitted by the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation,” states a story in the (Oklahoma) Southwest Ledger. “Representatives of several civil rights organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the board, saying a publicly funded religious school ‘would be a flagrant violation of Oklahomans’ religious freedom and the constitutional promise of church-state separation, as well as Oklahoma’s guarantee that public schools be open to all.’ The letter was authored by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU, Education Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.”

Ohio TV reports on our campaign
Our ongoing effort to halt religious education on public school grounds in Ohio has brought us into the limelight in that state.

“The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pushing to stop Bible classes from being held on Elmwood School District property,” says a news piece from the Toledo-area ABC affiliate. “The national nonprofit sent a letter to the district this week requesting it ban LifeWise Academy from holding classes on school grounds. In the letter, the organization says the district has been violating Ohio law and federal Supreme Court rulings by allowing the classes since 2022.”

Madison paper publishes our dissection of school vouchers
And we had several op-eds published this week that brought our viewpoint to the public.

FFRF Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne analyzed Wisconsin’s religiously tilted school voucher experiment in an op-ed published in FFRF’s hometown paper. 

“Nearly half of all private school students in Wisconsin now receive a taxpayer-funded school voucher, according to Wisconsin Watch,” Ryan wrote in the Wisconsin State Journal. “And almost all voucher schools in Wisconsin are religiously affiliated, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.” 

Our N.H. op-ed warns about prioritizing evangelicals
Meanwhile, FFRF Action Fund Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens wrote an op-ed for a New Hampshire paper warning about a proposed constitutional amendment that privileges evangelicals. 

“CACR 28, assigned to the Education Policy Administration Committee and sponsored by Reps. Julius Soti, Matt Sabourin dit Choiniere, John Sellers and Kelley Potenza, would rewrite Article 6 of New Hampshire’s Bill of Rights to declare that morality must be ‘rightly grounded on evangelical principles,’” Mickey stated in the Laconia Daily Sun. The proposed amendment, he rightly pointed out, carries the very real danger of prioritizing Christians over minority religions and nonbelief.  

We demolished Rubio’s appalling speech

The Trump administration’s cabinet members kept us busy. We demolished Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent assertion at a speech in Europe that Christianity is a defining bond of “Western civilization” and a central component of American identity. Such remarks portray an amazingly narrow-minded worldview.

“When the nation’s top diplomat characterizes the United States as bound to Europe by ‘Christian faith’ and frames national identity in religious terms, he marginalizes tens of millions of Americans who are not Christian,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Nearly one in three Americans today is religiously unaffiliated. Millions more practice Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths. They are no less American.”

We upbraided Hegseth’s comments
We slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent overtly sectarian and inflammatory remarks. In his headline address at the National Religious Broadcasters 2026 International Christian Media Convention, Hegseth railed against what he called the “Godless left,” praised “Western Christian” values and declared, “We are not in woke we trust, we are in God we trust.” We warned that such a dogmatic speech from the nation’s top civilian defense official dangerously undermines the constitutional principle of government neutrality toward religion.

We spotlighted DHS’ religious funding
We raised the alarm after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formally invited faith-based organizations to apply for funding — a blatant example of theocratic bias. “Taxpayer-funded public health programs must be secular, science-based and free from religious coercion,” says Annie Laurie.

Don’t eviscerate vaccine requirements!

We warned of a coordinated nationwide effort to dismantle longstanding school vaccine requirements that threaten both public health and constitutional governance. Vaccine mandates are not theological doctrines — they are evidence-based safeguards grounded in modern medicine. We will continue monitoring state-level efforts to weaken vaccine requirements.

A slew of theocratic Alabama bills
We’re cautioning Alabama lawmakers that a series of religion-based education bills recently advanced out of committee represent a direct assault on the First Amendment and the constitutional separation between state and church. If these measures are enacted, we will carefully evaluate them and consider appropriate legal action.

The history of Black secularism


On the Freethought Radio show this week, after FFRF Multimedia Producer Leo Costello and I  expounded on the latest state-church headlines, we had historian Chris Cameron explore the freethinkers of color who helped build a powerful tradition of Black secularism in America. 

Freethought TV now available on a lot more televisions
Exciting news! Freethought TV is now available on LG smart TVs, making it streamable on about 27 million additional TVs. The platform offers a dynamic mix of informative, inspiring and entertaining content aimed at freethinkers, skeptics, state/church separation advocates and anyone curious about secular perspectives. 

A ‘theocratic’ Tennessee state rep
The FFRF Action Fund named Tennessee state Rep. Michael Hale as its “Theocrat of the Week” for leading legislation to post the Ten Commandments in the state’s public schools. The Action Fund urges the Tennessee Legislature to reject Hale’s unconstitutional bill and to keep religious dogma out of its public schools. Hale is doing his state a huge disservice through his theocratic efforts. 

Rep. Raskin is secular hero

The Action Fund salutes state-church ally U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., for his stellar speech at an unnecessary congressional hearing that fearmongered over Shariah law. FFRF Action Fund profusely thanks this member of Congress, who also co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, for his continual work defending the constitutional separation of state and church, especially as theocratic legislators work to cause panic around “Shariah law” in the United States. 

How to use unique constitutional provisions
FFRF Legal Fellow Charlotte Gude focuses her new blog on how a recent Wyoming Supreme Court ruling demonstrates the utility of unique state constitutional provisions to combat Christian nationalism. “While Christian nationalists continue to focus on getting abortion bans on the books in as many states as possible on the books in as many states as possible, Wyoming’s Constitution provides a blueprint for a new way to fight back,” Charlotte concludes.

On a variety of issues and in a variety of forums, our perspective is getting out there — and it is all because of you and your unstinting support.