The Freedom From Religion Foundation has ensured a debut for freethought in the heart of Cleveland.

The Northern Ohio Freethought Society, the local chapter of FFRF, has obtained at spot at the Cleveland Public Square for the FFRF Bill of Rights exhibit. The installation was set up on Dec. 2 directly across from a large crèche scene that the Knights of Columbus has erected.

The mainstay of the display is FFRF's playful Bill of Rights "nativity." The irreverent cutout by artist Jacob Fortin depicts Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington gazing adoringly at a "baby" Bill of Rights in a manger while the Statue of Liberty looks on.

A sign beside the tongue-in-cheek nativity states: "Happy Winter Solstice. At this Season of the Winter Solstice, we honor reason and the Bill of Rights (adopted Dec. 15, 1791)." At the bottom, it reads: "Keep State & Church Separate."

Northern Ohio Freethought Society Director Marni Huebner-Tiborsky and other volunteers with the group helped put up the exhibit, and FFRF helped defray installation costs.

The display exemplifies the can-do spirit of members of the freethought organization, who often assemble such installations in their hometowns to counter religious tableaus on public land. FFRF helps out by providing the materials. 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is the largest national association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) with roughly 30,000 members and 20 chapters all over the country, including almost 800 members and the Northern Ohio chapter in Ohio. The organization works to protect the constitutional separation between religion and government.

"The presence of freethought deserves to be felt in our social fabric," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "With a significant and growing presence of the nonreligious, we're making ourselves heard."

The Bill of Rights "nativity" has also gone up in the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, where FFRF is headquartered. For more than 20 Decembers running, the Foundation has installed it there, along with an engraved sign saluting the Winter Solstice that proclaims there are no gods, only our natural world.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is adamantly opposing a provision in a pending congressional bill that would force taxpayers to repair houses of worship.

The U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, or H.R. 4460, which includes a provision to add houses of worship as eligible recipients of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, despite longstanding agency policy prohibiting this use. If passed, Section 211 of this law would instruct FEMA to disburse federal taxpayer funds to repair houses of worship following a natural disaster.

This bill has the potential to devastate a foundational protection of religious liberty in this country, FFRF notes. The government should not force citizens to financially support houses of worship using its coercive taxing power. This is true even if those churches have been hit by a hurricane.

FFRF's Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel explained in a recent article why churches should not receive public money.

"This is a central tenet of the constitutional separation between state and church," Seidel wrote. "The coercive taxing power of the government can't oblige Muslims to bankroll temples and yeshivas, compel Jews to subsidize churches and Catholic schools or force Christians to fund mosques and madrassas. The idea is simple: Let the faithful voluntarily support their faith." 

Section 211 of H.R. 4460 slips language from a failed bill earlier this year, which FFRF helped to fight, into a new, much larger FEMA bill. Section 211 would violate the rights of conscience and religious freedom rights of all citizens, which, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, is "sinful and tyrannical."

The compulsory support of a religion or god that is not your own is anathema to American principles, reminds FFRF. Supporters of this bill seem to forget that it is not only Christian churches that will get taxpayer funds. Every sect will be clamoring for federal dollars, including The Satanic Temple and Scientologists.

"We thought these constitutional issues were settled a long time back in our history," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Many of our ancestors fled to this continent precisely to avoid being forced to pay tithes or taxes to support religions in which they disbelieved."

The founders wisely chose to cut off all public funding for the construction and repair of churches. This history seems distant today, but the rule was bred of millennia of oppression by religion blended with government. Thanks to the separation of state and church, we are free of that oppression. As a result, Americans may have a certain level of complacency and fail to understand that these provisions actually protect and foster religious freedom.

H.R. 4460 is currently on the House floor, having passed out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill is long and covers many aspects of FEMA, but Section 211 would include churches as FEMA recipients. FFRF strongly opposes this provision and urges the House to reject H.R. 4460 until Section 211 is removed.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its Metropolitan Chicago chapter have put on display their annual secular solstice exhibits at a number of locations in the Chicago area.

A colorful banner invoking the Founding Fathers was recently unfurled in downtown Daley Plaza in the heart of America's renowned megalopolis. It greets everyone with: "Happy Winter Solstice," and pictures Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Statue of Liberty gazing adoringly at a "baby" Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was adopted on Dec. 15, 1791.

"At this season of the Winter Solstice, we celebrate the birth of the unconquered sun — the true reason for the season," the banner reads. "As Americans, let us also honor our Bill of Rights, which reminds us that there can be no freedom OF religion without having freedom FROM religion in government."

The display also includes an 8½-foot-tall lighted "A," which stands for "atheist" or "agnostic" — an emblem conceptualized by scientist Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion." This is the fourth year in a row the chapter has put up the displays.

The FFRF exhibit is designed to dispel misconceptions about atheists and to affirm their presence in the American social landscape.

"Atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and freethinkers are far more numerous than people realize," a sign accompanying the display reminds everyone. Polls now number nonreligious Americans at approximately one-fourth of the country's population.

The exhibits have the additional purpose of countering the overt religiosity that is regularly on show at Daley Plaza and at pretty much every public square in the United States during December, including an oversized Christian nativity tableau at Daley Plaza that the Thomas More Society has created since 1984.

FFRF and its Chicago chapter have also installed a freethought display at North School Park in Arlington Heights, Ill. They have been putting together a nontheist exhibit each year since 2012 in the public forum area of the park to counter a privately erected crèche by the Illinois Nativity Scene Committee. In the past, the FFRF chapter has placed FFRF's "Let Reason Prevail" banner, and, more recently, the lighted Dawkins Scarlet "A" sign there. This is the first year the Bill of Rights "nativity" cutout has been on show in the Chicago suburb.

"It's great to see our message flying high in America's Windy City," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We'd prefer to keep religion — and irreligion — off of government property. But if religion displays are invited, there has to be room at the inn for the nonreligious perspective."

FFRF Metropolitan Chicago chapter Director Tom Cara and other volunteers with the organization's active Chicago chapter put up the displays, and FFRF helped defray display costs.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national freethought association dedicated to keeping state and church separate, with roughly 30,000 nonreligious members and 20 chapters all over the country, including almost 1,000 members and the Metropolitan Chicago chapter in Illinois.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation's Winter Solstice display is back at the Illinois Capitol for the ninth year in a row.

The exhibit was installed by FFRF member Kathryn Koldehoff in the heart of the Illinois state government in Springfield on Dec. 1 and will be up till the end of the month.

FFRF is the largest national association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) with approximately 30,000 members and 20 chapters all over the country including almost 1,000 members and a Chicago chapter in the state of Illinois. The organization works to protect the constitutional separation between religion and government. Back in 2008, Illinois members asked FFRF to erect an equal-time display in protest against a decision to permit a religious group to plant a nativity scene in the Capitol during the holiday season. A manger scene and Christmas tree were already set up in the Capitol when FFRF installed its display this year.

"Contentious exhibits need not be on show at state capitols," notes FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "But if a state allows an overtly religious manger scene, we will be there to balance out this religiosity."

The pretty green and red sign contains a secular message, composed by the late Anne Nicol Gaylor, FFRF's principal founder:

"At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail."
"There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
"There is only our natural world.
"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, "This sign is a reminder of the real reason for the season, the Winter Solstice," FFRF co-president, which is the shortest and darkest day of the year and takes place on Dec. 21 this year. The natural holiday heralds the rebirth of the sun and the natural new year, and has been celebrated for millennia in the Northern Hemisphere with festivals of light, evergreens, feasts and gift exchanges.

An engraved sign with the same wording has been erected by the Foundation for 22 Decembers running at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, where FFRF is headquartered.

FFRF and its members are ensuring a space for freethought at seats of lawmaking around the country.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent letters of warning to 350 school districts across the United States cautioning against allowing a disturbing evangelical group into public schools to convert students.

FFRF has sent its letters and a report entitled, "Closing the Doors: Why the Todd Becker Foundation Must Not be Allowed in Public Schools" to school districts located in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas. The report notifies the school districts that they may face legal liability if they permit the Todd Becker Foundation to proselytize to their students. Each of the school districts that FFRF wrote to has either hosted or allowed its students to attend an assembly put on by the foundation in the past.

The Todd Becker Foundation targets high school students, seeking to convert them into fundamentalist Christianity. The foundation is a Christian ministry that travels throughout the Midwest putting on assemblies in public schools.

At each school, the foundation puts on two separate assemblies. The first is an afternoon assembly held during school hours that focuses on two questions: "Where is your life headed?" and "Where will you go when you die?" During the in-school assembly, students are encouraged to "take the narrow path," a reference to a bible verse that the program centers around, Matthew 7:13. The second assembly takes place in the evening and involves proselytization and a presentation of the foundation's full faith-based, Christian message.

Additionally, the foundation partners with local churches and invites local clergy members to help proselytize to students after its assemblies.

Source: A Todd Becker Foundation advertisement

After both the in-school and evening events, students are encouraged to sit down with foundation staff members and local clergy one-on-one to discuss their religious beliefs. During these one-on-one conversations, the foundation "shares with the student the gospel of Jesus Christ and points them to the hope of a new beginning found in Christ." Not only do foundation members discuss their religious beliefs with students, but students are asked to profess to these strangers a personal decision " to surrender their life to Christ, or to walk away from Him."

The FFRF report rebuts claims by the Todd Becker Foundation that one-on-one student evangelizing is permissible because they are the "student's own choice." The report says, "Far from spontaneous student-initiated conversations, these one-on-ones are the entire purpose of the assembly. The entire program is designed to elicit an emotional response from students, identify those students who are ripe for proselytizing, and single out those students for one-on-one proselytizing."

"These shocking school assemblies are not only problematic from a constitutional perspective, but they are a deeply disturbing and harmful assault on the students' right of conscience," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

The report highlights a particularly troubling story from the Todd Becker Foundation newsletter that describes the foundation's interactions with a girl in Kansas who was in a relationship with another girl. A foundation member read bible passages to the girl explaining that homosexuality is a sin. Later, during a foundation evening event that the girl and her girlfriend attended, the team member and Ministry Director Keith Becker sat down with these two girls and "showed them through Scripture how this was not God's plan for their lives and how Satan had twisted their perception of God."

FFRF also reminds these districts that public school administrators should only be inviting speakers that foster a welcoming environment for all students and enhance their education. Speakers with a religious mission that cause legal problems for the district and controversy in the community have no place in a public school.

An Iowa superintendent who felt that the foundation delivered a "really good message" about how drinking can affect students' lives changed his tone after learning the foundation was reportedly spreading anti-gay and anti-Mormon messages following the in-school assembly. "If I had known that would have been the case, they would not have come into the building," he later said. 

"Public school administrators have an obligation to protect students from proselytizing adults while they are at school," FFRF's report concludes. "In order to protect students' rights and comply with the Establishment Clause, the Todd Becker Foundation must no longer be allowed to present in public schools."

FFRF is considering taking legal action to protect students' rights and is at this time asking parents and students whose schools have allowed in the Todd Becker Foundation to come forward.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 30,000 members and 20 chapters across the country, including chapters in Colorado and Minnesota. FFRF's purposes are to protect the constitutional separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.