Freethought-Now

There can be no better feeling for us at the Freedom From Religion Foundation than our message finding a large target audience — and there’s been a lot of that happening over the past few days. 

NPR ran on its website an Associated Press story mentioning us.

“A U.S. appeals court has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms to take effect,” the piece reported. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, another group involved in the challenge, called the ruling ‘extremely disappointing’ and said the law will force families ‘into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole’ where they will have to separately challenge each school district’s displays.”

A leading education publication also made note of our response to the ruling.

“A full federal appeals court has lifted an injunction blocking a Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, saying it needs more information about how the measure will be implemented in practice before it can decide whether the law is constitutional,” stated an article in EducationWeek. “The 5th Circuit decision ‘is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,’ said the statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. ‘But this fight isn’t over.’”

It sure isn’t.

USA Today likes our social media messaging

USA Today seems to be closely tracking our social media.

“President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address included a continued push to boost the presence of religion in American public life,” said a story in the wildly popular newspaper. “‘Such sentiments resemble ‘an updated version of manifest destiny,’ the Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote on X.  The organization is one of several that have raised concerns about the Trump administration’s language and actions related to religion.”

A Christian portal features our criticism of Rubio
Even a staunchly Christian website noticed (with disapproval) our critique of an appalling recent Marco Rubio speech.

“While conservatives lauded Rubio’s speech as a rousing defense of Western civilization, it sparked ire from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF),” stated a web posting on Beliefnet. “‘Nearly one in three Americans today is religiously unaffiliated. Millions more practice Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths. They are no less American,’ said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. The FFRF went further to assert that ‘the United States is not a Christian nation.’”

Glad that we cleared this up.

We are famous in Tennessee
A successful intervention of ours in Tennessee has received extensive coverage.

“The Haywood County School District says it will make changes after the group Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a formal complaint about what it called ‘a religiously charged’ school assembly featuring Memphis rapper Project Pat,” states a story on the CBS Memphis affiliate website, to give just one example. “The church watchdog group said attendance appeared mandatory, and Project Pat was introduced by a person who asked students to identify as Christian or Muslim, then led the audience in prayer.”

We asked an Indiana police department to be less biblical

The media noticed just a fraction of what we’ve been up to recently.

We demanded that the Marion (Indiana) Police Department remove a Christian verse displayed on state property. A concerned community member informed us that the department displays this bible verse at its main police station: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.  – Matthew 5:9.” 

“Citizens of Marion trust their law enforcement officials to attend to their secular duties,” FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler has written to the police chief. “Spending taxpayer time and money placing religious messages on police department property is beyond the scope of secular government.”

An alarming surgeon general nomination

We expressed alarm at the nomination of Casey Means for U.S. surgeon general — reflecting the Trump administration’s hostility toward science, medicine and the secular principles that uphold sound public policy.

“America’s top physician should defend medical science, not undermine it,” says Annie Laurie. “Means’ nomination is part of the broader effort by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ‘MAHA’ agenda to replace evidence-based public health with faith-based pseudoscience.”

Mamdani needs to tone it down 
We reprimanded New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for crossing a constitutional line by engaging in a religious observance with municipal employees while acting in his official capacity. (A social media post of his includes an image of him appearing to engage in prayer alongside city employees.) We’ve sent him a letter explaining that while public officials are free to practice their religion in their personal capacities, the Constitution prohibits government officials from promoting or participating in religious exercise in their official roles.

Moroccan activist Betty Lachgar to receive Avijit Roy Courage Award

On the 11th anniversary of Avijit Roy’s assassination, we announced that the 2026 recipient of the Avijit Roy Courage Award will be Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar, a feminist and freethinker unjustly imprisoned in Morocco for blasphemy. Lachgar was arrested on Aug. 11 last year and subsequently sentenced to 30 months in prison for wearing a “blasphemous” T-shirt and for “insulting Islam.” Get involved personally by joining the 350,000 who have signed a petition calling for Betty’s release and by filling out the fast action alert directed to the U.S. Embassy in Morocco, both linked in our press release.

‘We Dissent’ has a reunion
We have a diverse line-up of media products for you this week.

A former “We Dissent” host returns to the podcast. FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell and Americans United Legal Director Rebecca Markert welcome back National Women’s Law Center Director of Nominations and Democracy Alison Gill, former co-host of the show. They then discuss recent federal judicial nominations — and their impact.

The national prayer propaganda-fest
We dig into the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast (a Christian nationalist propaganda-fest) on the latest episode of “Secular Spotlight.” FFRF’s Chris Line and Mark Dann break down the Prayer Breakfast with journalist Jonathan Larsen, revealing it as a hub for right-wing religious influence and elite networking rather than a simple bipartisan faith event.

An intrepidly secular schoolteacher

The centerpiece of the latest Freethought Radio episode was co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor talking with Texas schoolteacher Gigi Cervantes about her decision to quit her job rather than force the Ten Commandments on her students. You can watch the video podcast of the conversation here.

A complicated uprising
I interviewed for my community radio station global affairs show former reporter Shezad Baloch on the latest flare-up in his native province of Balochistan: the causes of the secular-minded insurgency, how it fits into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s broader turmoil, the part that the United States, China and India are playing — and the increasing role of women.

Pioneering school legislation

Our legislative arm has also been working hard lately.

The FFRF Action Fund is gathering support for pioneering legislation in Vermont to preserve the secular nature of the state’s public schools. It is working with a coalition to introduce cutting-edge bills titled Keep Proselytizing Out of Public Schools (KPOP) Act, also known as the Student Secular Bill of Rights, designed to protect the rights of public school students across the country. As a prime example, the Vermont bill will uphold longstanding U.S. Supreme Court case law safeguarding student rights to a secular public school education.

A welcome Kentucky Supreme Court ruling
The Action Fund is celebrating a unanimous Kentucky Supreme Court decision annulling a law that would have allowed official funding of charter schools in violation of the state Constitution.

“The Kentucky Constitution protects a public school system that is adequate, uniform and accountable to the public,” says FFRF Action Fund Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne. “This decision is a powerful reminder that legislatures cannot sidestep constitutional limits simply by rebranding privatization schemes.”

Hegseth yet again a ‘theocrat’

The Action Fund has once again designated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “Theocrat of the Week” for abusing his cabinet position to officially promote Christian nationalism. Hegseth recently invited the infamous Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead the latest unconstitutional Pentagon worship service, an endeavor Hegseth started in May. Hegseth is now a four-time “Theocrat,” including his designation as last year’s “Theocrat of the Year.”

A dangerous pipeline

FFRF Contributing Writer Kat Grant in a new blog homes in on a little-known alt-right pipeline. 

“Our well-justified dissatisfaction with the economy and our growing distrust of our public health institutions can and will leave us vulnerable to these pipelines, especially as our social media algorithms direct us toward people who profit from making these lifestyles so appealing,” Kat concludes. “No one is immune to these politics, and we need to continue to push back against gender essentialism in all forms, lest we set social progress back not just decades or centuries, but millennia.”

Whether it is spotlighting such subterranean social phenomena or pushing back against more visible regressive trends, we are able to do so much only because of you.

The post Weekly Wrap: Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Zohran Mamdani and an imprisoned Moroccan activist appeared first on Freethought Now.