An expert on an issue that everyone is talking about — the intersection of religious and racial extremism — is the guest on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s TV show this Sunday.

Robert P. Jones is the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute. He’s a leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics who is frequently featured on national media such as CNN, NPR and The New York Times. Jones is the author of the 2016 book, The End of White Christian America, and the recently released White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.

"If you look at the relationship between holding racist attitudes and identifying as a white evangelical, that connection is actually stronger among those who attend church more frequently rather than less,” he tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. Jones notes that the nonreligious register the least racism.

If you don’t live in the quarter-plus of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel.

This is the fall season’s 23rd episode of “Freethought Matters,” airing in over a dozen cities on Sunday, Jan. 31.

Shows in the coming year will include interviews with Atheist Republic founder and former Muslim Armin Navabi; Nate Phelps, the freethinking son of the notorious Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church; and Law Professor Jay Wexler, whose most recent book is Our Non-Christian Nation.

“Freethought Matters” airs in:

• Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
• Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
• Houston, KUBE-IND (Ch. 57), Sundays at 9 a.m.
• Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
• Minneapolis, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45), Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
• New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
• Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sundays at 10 a.m.
• Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
• Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 8 a.m.

Previous guests from the fall season include: pundit Eleanor Clift, whose interview you can watch here, actor and FFRF After-Life Member John de Lancie of “Star Trek” “Q” fame, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Linda Greenhouse, the country’s leading analyst of the U.S. Supreme Court, and legislative stalwart and feminist and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. One of the most eminent public intellectuals in the world, Professor Steven Pinker, was interviewed a few episodes ago talking about his new course on rationality. Legendary TV host, actor and singer John Davidson was the guest in early December. Recently, the show featured Ann Druyan, the co-creator of “Cosmos,” possibly the most acclaimed TV series of all time. And A.C. Grayling, a prominent British philosopher and the author of about 30 books, grappled on the show a couple weeks ago with philosophy and the pandemic, and discussed how he himself dealt as a nonbeliever with a personal tragedy.

Watch previous seasons here, including interviews with Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney and Ed Asner, as well as U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.

P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers!

A Christian Nationalist Judiciary 

Freedom From Religion Foundation’s 2020 report exposes the Christian Nationalist takeover of the federal courts and the damage this is causing to the separation of state and church.

Over the Trump administration’s four years, the federal courts have been taken over by ultraconservative judges who have radical views on religious liberty, and who are rapidly redefining the First Amendment in ways that expand Christian privilege and erode the wall of separation between state and church.

The right of every American to freely exercise any religion requires a government free from religion. But the federal judges appointed by Trump have shown increasing hostility toward the principle of separation between state and church, while jumping at every chance to exempt conservative Christians from laws that protect the rest of us.

President Trump has made three Supreme Court appointments, 54 appellate court appointments, and 174 district court appointments.

As Trump appointees continue to decide cases in the decades to come, we will continue to see courts sanction government favoritism of religion.

FFRF has outlined this alarming development in detail here. Below we continue to follow the alarming influence of these radical judges in the federal courts:

Supreme Court

Justice Gorsuch

• Voted in 2018 ruling that Colorado violated a bakery owner’s free exercise rights when state officials criticized the baker’s practice of refusing to sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples.
• Voted in 2019 to uphold an outsized Latin cross displayed on public property, and argued that citizens should not even be allowed to challenge religious displays in court.
• Voted in 2020 to expand the “ministerial exception,” which allows religious organizations to fire so-called “ministerial” employees for any reason — even because of race, sex, religion, age, national origin, etc. with legal impunity.
• Voted in 2020 to require taxpayers to fund religious schools.
• Voted in 2020 to strike down public health restrictions limiting the crowd size at gatherings including worship services, characterizing the classification of worship services as non-essential as “religious discrimination.”

Justice Kavanaugh

• Voted in 2020 to expand the “ministerial exception,” which allows religious organizations to fire so-called “ministerial” employees for any reason — even because of race, sex, religion, age, national origin, etc. with legal impunity.
• Voted in 2020 to require taxpayers to fund religious schools.
• Voted in 2019 to uphold an outsized Latin cross displayed on public property, and argued for a relaxed legal analysis under which there is not much the government could do to violate the Establishment Clause.
• Voted in 2020 to strike down public health restrictions limiting the crowd size at gatherings including worship services, characterizing the classification of worship services as non-essential as “religious discrimination.”

Justice Barrett

• Voted in 2020 to strike down public health restrictions limiting the crowd size at gatherings including worship services, characterizing the classification of worship services as non-essential as “religious discrimination.” Less than four months earlier, when Justice Ginsburg was still on the Court, it voted 5-4 the other way, upholding public health restrictions in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Justice Barrett flipped the Court on this issue.

The Circuit Courts of Appeal

Fifth Circuit

• Judge James Ho wrote a dissent arguing that religious objections could invalidate a fire department’s immunization policy, and that the free exercise clause must accommodate the devoutly religious above others. “It would be of little solace to the person of faith that a nonbeliever might be equally inconvenienced. For it is the person of faith whose faith is uniquely burdened — the non-believer, by definition, suffers no such crisis of conscience.”

Sixth Circuit

• Judge Amul Thaper during oral arguments about a professor’s lawsuit against a public university that disciplined him for intentionally misgendering a transgender student, posed the analogy of the university requiring a Jewish professor to refer to a student as “my Fuhrer” to illustrate the consequences of a ruling requiring professors to refer to trans students in class by their proper pronouns.

Eighth Circuit

• Judge David Stras ruled in 2019 that a wedding video company likelyhas a constitutional right to deny service to same-sex couples in violation of Minnesota’s anti-discrimination laws. He argued forcing videographers to provide equal services violates their free speech rights.

Ninth Circuit

• Judge Ryan Nelson dissented in December 2018 from a ruling to deny rehearing a case that struck down school-sponsored prayer at school board meetings. He argued for the court to revisit the established case law prohibiting prayer at school board meetings.

• Judge Mark Bennett joined in dissenting in December 2018 from a ruling to deny rehearing a case that struck down school-sponsored prayer at school board meetings.

Eleventh Circuit

• Judge Kevin Newsom wrote a September 2018 opinion openly urging the Supreme Court to overrule the circuit’s opinion and allow crosses on public land since there is “lots of history underlying the practice.” The Supreme Court took up his admonition the following year, eviscerating decades of federal court precedent and upholding a cross on public land.

• Judge Britt Grant ruled in November 2020 to block enforcement of an ordinance that bans conversion therapy of minors, dismissing evidence of the harm conversion therapy causes to children, stating, “People have intense moral, religious, and spiritual views about these matters — on all sides.”

• Judge Barbara Lagoa joined in the November 2020 opinion that blocked enforcement of an ordinance that bans conversion therapy of minors, dismissing evidence of the harm conversion therapy causes to children.

The District Courts

• Judge Justin Walker of the Western District of Kentucky ruled in April 2020 to allow large Christian congregations to gather for Easter services in violation of a neutral statewide pandemic public health, Walker stated: “On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter.” Despite being rated as not qualified for judicial office by the nonpartisan American Bar Association, Walker was nominated and confirmed shortly after this opinion to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is thought of as the second most powerful court in the nation.

• Judge Daniel D. Domenico of the District of Colorado in October 2020 temporarily blocked enforcement of state public health orders against churches, writing, “And while the religious, like the irreligious or agnostic, must comply with neutral, generally applicable restrictions, the First Amendment does not allow government officials, whether in the executive or judicial branch, to treat religious worship as any less critical or essential than other human endeavors.”

• Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also in October 2020 temporarily blocked enforcement of a public health order restricting churches from holding outdoor worship services in excess of 100 congregants. He quoted scripture in his opinion, arguing, “It is for the Church, not the District or this Court, to define for itself the meaning of “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Hebrews 10:25.”

Sampling of Christian Nationalist House members who voted not to certify

Below is a representative sampling of the Christian Nationalist views of some of the 138 House members who voted unsuccessfully to nullify the will of the electorate.

ROBERT ADERHOLT (Alabama’s 4th District), serving his 13th term, is the evangelical son of a Congregationalist lay minister. As a member of the secretive Christian Nationalist organization known as “The Family,” which organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast, he reportedly traveled to Romania and met with a local Holocaust denier.

He sponsored a House bill, the “Ten Commandments Defense Act Amendment” in 1999, to permit the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, despite a Supreme Court decision to the contrary, and in other public buildings. He issued a press release applauding the court dismissal of a lawsuit FFRF and others had taken challenging “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency. He and 40 other members of Congress joined an amicus brief filed by the American Center for Law and Justice (run by Jay Sekulow, later serving as President Trump’s personal attorney) against the lawsuit. He also signed a letter in support of coach Joseph Kennedy, after the Bremerton School District, Wash., took action against the proselytizing coach following an FFRF complaint.

RICK ALLEN (Georgia’s 12th District), elected in 2014, is an active member of Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church. Following the mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016, he read bible verses from Romans 1:18–32 and Revelations 22:18–19, which say homosexuals are “worthy of death,” to the House Republican Conference. When called on it, he said, “Well, I’m imperfect. And I consider that we are all imperfect and we all fall short of the glory of God, which is why we need a savior, by the way.”

Allen issued a press release for National Bible Week, “God’s Word Can Heal our Nation,” recognizing “the importance of honoring God’s word.” “I made a covenant with God, and that covenant was to put Him first . . . . If we debated what the scripture says about these issues [that divide us in this chamber], we would all come to agreement that God is correct and that His way is the only way.”

Allen, like Aderholt, signed a letter in support of Joseph Kennedy, after the Bremerton School District, Wash., took action against the proselytizing coach following an FFRF complaint. Among the 47 members of Congress who signed on were Reps. Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, Barry Loudermilk and Tim Walberg (see their entries below).

BRIAN BABIN (Texas’ 36th District), first elected to the House in 2014, is a member of the First Baptist Church of Woodville, where he is a deacon, Sunday School teacher, choir member and member of the all-male Gideons International. “Pro-Life” is a “key issue” on his official website, where he lists that he is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, favors permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood, and would prevent taxpayer funding of abortion altogther. He condemned the Obergefell Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriages. He has accused the “radical Left” of “vandalizing/destroying churches.”

Babin withdrew an op-ed, “Religious freedom is at risk in a Biden administration,” after the Washington Examiner edited his references casting doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election. After nonreligious constituents complained about receiving sectarian Easter and Christmas emails from Babin, FFRF sent him complaint letters for using his official office to proselytize and endorse religion.

ANDY BIGGS (Arizona’s 5th District), elected in 2016, is Mormon. Biggs, as state representative was tied to the religious advocacy group United Families International, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an anti-gay “hate group.” Among his recent tweets: “First it was the War on Easter. Then came the War on Independence Day. The War on Thanksgiving just ended. And the War on Christmas has started. The radical left, aided by allies in the mainstream media & the bureaucracy, have used Covid-19 to try to overturn our society.”

Biggs is chair of the House Freedom Caucus, a reactionary congressional group. He “was seen by leaders of the Stop the Steal movement as an inspiration,” and spoke at a 2015 event where a member of the far-right Oath Keepers called for hanging Sen. John McCain.

At a Dec. 19 “Stop the Steal” rally at the Arizona Capitol, Biggs contributed a video in which he said: “I’m in the D.C. swamp fighting on behalf of Arizona’s residents and freedom fighters all over the country. … We are going to keep fighting, and I implore you to keep fighting, too. God bless you for being here today. And God bless this great country.”

Ali Alexander, the man who claims he came up with the idea to stage the Jan. 6 insurrection, asserts that Reps. Biggs, Brooks and Gosar (see separate entries) were co-planners. Says Alexander: "We four schemed up of putting max pressure on Congress while they were voting so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside." Biggs denies any involvement, but two of his brothers subsequently wrote a public letter calling for Biggs’ removal, saying he is “at least partially to blame'' for the deadly assault.

Biggs wrote the Trump administration to say that restrictions on large gatherings in churches during the pandemic violate the First Amendment, and that churches should be considered essential services. During the insurrection, when Biggs was taken to a safe location with other House members, he refused to wear a face mask in violation of House rules.

DAN BISHOP (North Carolina’s 9th District), elected in 2019, identifies as “Christian.”

As a state legislator, he reportedly threatened to sue media outlets if they broadcast an ad about his 2017 investment in Gab, a website frequented by white nationalists, after the neo-Nazi violent rally in Charlottesville. He authored HB2, the notorious 2016 “bathroom” bill that discriminates against transgender people and others. The Charlotte Observer opined that he had a decade-long “history of discrimination.” Bishop reportedly compared LGBTQ activists to the Taliban and said “I don’t fear man. I fear God.” He sought “the Lord’s help and your prayers” in passing the bathroom bill.

LAUREN BOEBERT (Colorado’s 3rd District), who just took office, says she became a born-again Christian in 2009. Boebert has had skirmishes with the law, and is primarily known as a gun-rights activist who slings a pistol on her hip, and for refusing to open her bag for Capitol police after it set off a metal detector. She promised to remind “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Squad and the rest of these left-wing lunatics” in Congress “that our belief in God, Country and Family are what built the United States of America into the greatest nation the world has ever known.”

MO BROOKS (Alabama’s 5th District), a six-term member of Congress, converted to Mormonism in 1978, but now considers himself a nondenominational Christian, citing his wife and “Jesus Christ” as his greatest influences. Brooks derided last summer’s Supreme Court case ruling that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act extends to LGBTQ citizens. 

He is facing House censure for an incendiary speech at the Jan. 6 Save America rally near the Capitol, where he said: “Today is the day that American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”  

In defending that action, he said: “I make no apology for doing my absolute best to inspire patriotic Americans to not give up on our country and to fight back against anti-Christian socialists in the 2022 and 2024 elections. I encourage EVERY citizen to watch my entire rally speech and decide for themselves what kind of America they want: One based on freedom and liberty or one based on godless dictatorial power.” [Emphasis added.]

FFRF has written him letters, on behalf of complaining nonreligious constituents, over his promotion of religion over social media and participation in a National Day of Prayer event.

MICHAEL BURGESS (Texas’ 26th District), elected in 2002, is a Reformed Episcopalian. He infamously said in 2013 that because the hands of the male fetus sometimes appear to be gripping its genitals, abortion should be banned at least by 15 or 16 weeks.

JERRY CARL (Alabama’s 1st District) was just elected. He is a Southern Baptist whose campaign website describes him as “a devoted Christian and deacon at his church who is saved by God’s grace.” In supporting Israel, Carl said: “It has nothing to do with converting Jews to Christianity. When my Jesus comes back, he’ll come back to where he wants to come back.”

MADISON CAWTHORN (North Carolina’s 11th District), newly elected, identifies as Christian. The part-time preacher has tried to convert Jews and Muslims. In response to a question on state/church separation, he replied: “I always think of that question as just so silly.” “[Religion] is the basis of all of my experience and everything I’ve learned, everything that I believe in, how I’ve formed all of my worldview. My family is a bunch of true frickin’ believers.” Cawthorn maintains that “Life begins at conception.”

He visited “Eagle’s Nest,” Hitler’s holiday home, in 2017, where he took selfies and posted them on Instagram. He stated that Hitler’s retreat had been on his “bucket list.” Cawthorn has reportedly referred to Hitler using the honorific of “Führer,” named a company SPQR, a term popular with white nationalists, and displays an early American flag in his home that has been appropriated by far-right extremists.

After the November election, FFRF sent an educational letter to Cawthorn correcting his constitutional misconceptions. 

MICHAEL CLOUD (Texas’ 27th District), who assumed office in 2018, is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and formerly was communications director at Faith Family Church.

SCOTT DESJARLAIS (Tennessee’s 4th District), who took office in 2011, attends an Episcopal church.

The anti-abortion public official reportedly supported the decision of his first wife to have two abortions and testified that he slept with six women during his first marriage, including two patients. A taped phone call has the doctor reportedly offering to take his patient/mistress to Atlanta to have an abortion. Now remarried, DesJarlais maintains he is “a consistent supporter of pro-life values,” and that God has “forgiven me.” The Tennesssee Board of Medical Examiners fined and reprimanded him for having sex with patients.  

JEFF DUNCAN (South Carolina’s 3rd District) first assumed his House office in 2011 and is a member of the First Baptist Church of Clinton, S.C. He routinely uses social media to promote his religious views: “I’m a Christian, I believe in intelligent design,” he said in support of tapping offshore oil reserves. He gave a “Being thankful to God” speech on the floor in 2011, and stated, “My relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life.”

FFRF sent him a complaint letter last April over an official email he sent out to constituents that read in part: “On this Easter weekend, please take time to reflect on the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ” and promoting the use of a “public prayer line” run by Miracle Hill Ministries.

LOUIE GOHMERT (Texas’ 1st District) first took House office in 2005, and attends Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, where he has served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher for many years. “He now frequently speaks or preaches at churches throughout his district and around the country,” according to his official House bio.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on religious liberty in 2014, Gohmert said: “Either you believe as a Christian that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, or you don’t,” and if you don’t, you go to hell. He reportedly warned of same-sex marriage leading to bestiality marriages, and blamed the 2012 shooting rampage at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on “attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and too few guns.

He gave a House floor speech in 2013 insisting: “No country has ever fallen while it was truly honoring the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob . . . Because when a nation’s leaders honor that God, that nation is protected. It’s only when it turns away that it falls.”

PAUL GOSAR (Arizona’s 4th District), serving his fifth term in Congress, is a Roman Catholic. “As a conservative Republican, a medical provider, and a father, I strongly support the sanctity of human life. Nothing is more precious. I believe that life begins at conception,” according to his official government website. 

He uses social media to promote religion, including this tweet on June 22, 2020: “Shit is gonna get real if you mess with Jesus.” He has reportedly followed several Twitter accounts pushing racism.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (Georgia’s 14th District) was elected in 2020. Her official governmental website puts “Protecting the Unborn” as its first link, even before “About” or “Contact.” “Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s number one policy goal is to end abortion in America.” She reportedly promoted the online QAnon conspiracy theories in a 2017 video, but later backtracked. 

She has expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views, including accusing the liberal Jewish philanthropist George Soros of collaborating with the Nazis. Facebook scrubbed her post on Sept. 4, 2020, where she held a rifle next to images of Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez below the words: “We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart.” Twitter temporarily locked her account on Jan. 17 over continued voter fraud allegations.

Some GOP lawmakers are joining activist groups and several prominent Democrats in urging Greene to resign or be removed from office after videos have surfaced showing her claims that mass shootings have been staged, and a pattern of online activity showing approval for the notion of executing Democratic leaders and federal agents. These include Greene “liking” a Facebook post in January 2019 that said “a bullet to the head” would be a quick way to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After a Facebook commenter referred to hanging President Obama and Hillary Clinton, Greene posted an April 2018 Facebook entry saying: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

Another video surfaced in which Greene films herself leading a group through the halls of congressional office buildings ranting about how Reps. Tlaib and Omar are “not really official” because “they swore in on the Quran.” The group’s plan was “to let them know what our law says, that you can’t swear in on the Quran . . . it has to be the Bible” and to “go ask them to swear in on the bible.” Of course, no law requires anyone to take an oath on the bible, but this kind of disinformation is a cornerstone of Christian Nationalism.

The New Yorker reports that Greene “was baptized at an evangelical church in a suburb just north of Atlanta, in 2011, and speaks frequently about being Christian, has said that she wants to bring ‘my faith and my family values to Washington.’”

Greene commented on the House floor: 

Cancel culture is a real thing. It is very real. And when big tech companies like Twitter, you can scroll through and see where someone may have retweeted porn, this is a problem. This is a terrible, terrible thing, but yet when I say that I absolutely believe with all my heart that God's creation is he created the male and female and that should not be denied, when I am censored for saying those types of things, that is wrong. You see, here is the real situation. I decided to run for congress because I wanted to help our country. I want Americans to have our American dream, I want to protect our freedoms. This is what I ran for congress on.

I never once said during my entire campaign "Qanon." I never once said any of the things I'm being accused of today during my campaign. I never said any of these things since I have been elected for congress. These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values. Here's what I can tell you.

I am beyond grateful for this opportunity, and I'll tell you why. I believe in God with all my heart, and I am so grateful to be humbled, to be reminded that I'm a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross to forgive me for my sins. And this is something that I absolutely rejoice in today to tell you all. And I think it's important for all of us to remember, none of us are perfect. None of us are. And none of us can even come close to earning our way into heaven just by our acts and our works. But it's only through the grace of God.

And this is why I will tell you as a member of this Congress, the 117th Congress, I'm a passionate person, I'm a competitor, I'm a fighter, I will work with you for good things for the people of this country, but the things I will not stand for is abortion. I think it's the worst thing this country has ever committed. And if we are to say "In God we trust," how do we murder God's creation in the womb? Another thing I will say to this body is I want to work for all of you for our people.

JIM JORDAN (Ohio’s 4th District), serving since 2007, is considered an unspecified Protestant.

When the Supreme Court approved marriage equality in 2015, Jordan issued a release saying: “I am also concerned that this ruling opens the door for discrimination against those who believe in traditional marriage.” His House website notes: “I am proud to stand and defend the lives of the unborn” and that he “is committed to the view that life is sacred” and “to defending the sanctity of marriage and the family.” He was the keynote speaker at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Fall Dinner and Rally in 2018 and was the subject of a Rolling Stone article: “Why Jim Jordan denies knowledge of sexual abuse at Ohio State: The Ohio Congressman and former wrestling coach is more concerned with protecting his macho image than the well-being of his former athletes.”

Jordan was one of 67 Congress members to sign an amicus brief against FFRF’s historic challenge of the National Day of Prayer. FFRF called on the IRS to investigate the American Family Association in 2018 after it sought to influence members to support Jordan to run for House speaker in violation of the group’s tax-exempt status.

On Good Friday 2020, Jordan tweeted: “The old hymn says it best: Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” 
He tweeted (on Feb. 5, 2021): “Democrats: -Closed your church -Close your businesses -Closed your kid’s school.”

When Marjorie Tylor Greene (see entry) was entering a House election runoff last year, Jordan, a founding member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, called her “exactly the kind of fighter needed in Washington to stand with me against the radical left.” At a pro-Trump rally last fall, he said, “Next to Jesus, the best thing that has happened to this planet is the United States of America.”

BARRY LOUDERMILK (Georgia’s 11th District), elected in 2017, is a Southern Baptist, who was endorsed by Christian Nationalist propagandist David Barton, whose “scholarship” has been roundly condemned. Loudermilk was part of a group of evangelical Christians who conducted a barnstorming tour of Georgia to promote “biblical citizenship” and “restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles” as part of Georgia’s runoff election for two U.S. Senate seats. “The tour is headlined by Rick Green, founder of the Christian Nationalist Patriot Academy; conservative Christian author and activist David Barton; and his son Tim, a minister who runs the activist group WallBuilders with his father,” the Washington Post reported.

Loudermilk compared the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision to the Dred Scott opinion upholding slavery. And he portrayed the racist massacre of nine black churchgoers by a white man in Charleston in 2015 as motivated by anti-Christian persecution rather than racism.

KEVIN McCARTHY (California’s 23rd District), elected in 2012, is a Baptist. After winning House Majority leadership in 2014, he told Ralph Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition that he’s “proud to be a Christian” and thanked “my Lord and Savior for his grace, his strength and for never leaving me.” McCarthy was accused of “personally twisting arms on the floor,” to defeat a bill to deny contracts to federal contractors who discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

TROY NEHLS (Texas’ 22nd District), just sworn in, is a graduate of Liberty University, founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell. He attends Faith United Methodist Church.

When sheriff of Fort Bend County, he suggested churches should choose some members to “pack a heater” while attending Sunday services, following a massacre in a Texas Church. “I would encourage the church congregation to pack their heaters concealed.”

BARRY MOORE (Alabama’s 2nd District), elected in 2010, is a Southern Baptist and a Sunday school teacher and deacon at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Enterprise. He campaigns as having a “true love for God and country.” He is a “strong supporter of Israel” because “The Bible is very clear — those who bless Israel will be blessed. That’s one of the things that’s fundamental to my faith.”

He posted a meme that appeared to support Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with killing two protesters of police violence against Black Americans in Kenosha, Wis. He deleted his Twitter account after attention was drawn to two comments with racial overtones.

BILL POSEY (Florida’s 8th District), serving his fifth term, is a United Methodist.

Posey released the following statement in recognition of the 2012 National Day of Prayer:

America is rooted in a Judeo-Christian faith. George Washington said, “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible.” We are One Nation Under God — “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.” The Mayflower sailed through uncharted waters to an unknown land – a land that was claimed ‘for the glory of God and the Christian faith.” — Mayflower Compact, November 11, 1620. Today America is once again on uncharted waters. We need to return to America’s roots and founding principles.

STEVE SCALISE (Louisiana’s 1st District), in office since 2008, is Roman Catholic. Scalise gave a speech at a white nationalist convention hosted by a group founded by David Duke, later apologizing. He bills himself as fighting to promote traditional marriage and the right to life.

In a speech before a prayer breakfast in 2019, Scalise credited “faith, heroes and miracles” for surviving after being shot in a 2017 attack against GOP members of Congress practicing for an annual baseball game. He said the United States is based on a “deep belief” in God. “There’s this misconception these days that there is a separation of church and state as if there should be no involvement of God in government,” he stated. “That is a horrible misconception. it goes against the principles that this country was founded on.”

TIM WALBERG (Michigan’s 7th District), elected in 2006, attended Moody Bible Institute, Taylor University, which is evangelical, and Wheaton College. He spent nearly a decade as a pastor, before being elected to the Michigan State House. He attends Element Church. He’s been an outspoken anti-abortion proponent: “And every life deserves a chance to realize their God-given potential, even the most powerless.”

A critic of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency pandemic restrictions, he tested positive for Covid-19.

LEE ZELDIN (New York’s 1st District), first elected in 2014, is Jewish. He joined a friend-of-the-court brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, one of 168 members of the House who signed on. He supports the First Amendment Defense Act, an anti-gay bill, and opposed President Obama’s transgender bathroom directive.

Return to FFRF press release: FFRF: Shame on Christian Nationalist disruptors inside Congress.

View Christian Nationalist sentiments of eight senators voting not to certify.

Christian Nationalist sentiments of eight senators voting not to certify

Although many senators with extremist views ended up voting for Biden’s certification, the eight who voted “Nay” fall squarely in the ranks of Christian Nationalists:

TED CRUZ (Texas) has served in the Senate since 2013 and attends Houston’s First Baptist Church. His father was a Catholic Cuban refugee who became a born-again Christian and a traveling preacher and pastors a Dallas church and directs Purifying Fire Ministries. Cruz attended two private evangelical high schools, and kicked off his Senate campaign at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.

As solicitor general of Texas, Cruz fought for the “constitutionality of the Ten Commandments monument at the Texas Capitol and the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance.” He told Liberty University students “our rights don’t come from man. They come from God Almighty.” “God” and “religious liberty” were primary stump speech themes for Cruz, according to Religion News Service.

Cruz announced a “national prayer team” for his presidential campaign. He has been pictured making a show of kneeling in prayer outside the White House. Cruz has called to amend the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages. He has called for a ban of medical abortion.

After FFRF complained about public school cheerleaders routinely opening games by holding banners with bible verses for football players to run through, Cruz sided with the cheerleaders. FFRF condemned Cruz’s statement on school shootings supposedly being caused by a lack of school prayer. FFRF letters to him include one condemning his climate change denial.

JOSH HAWLEY (Missouri), who was elected in 2018, was raised Methodist, but now identifies as evangelical. He formerly clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He is one of the most overtly Christian Nationalist members of Congress, with his stated goal to “transform our society to reflect the gospel truth and lordship of Jesus Christ.” Journalist Katherine Stewart has thoroughly documented Hawley’s Christian Nationalist views in a recent New York Times op-ed.

At a “Pastors and Pews” event in Kansas City when he was Missouri attorney general (which he referred to as a “form of ministry”), Hawley stated:

There is only one god. That god is Jesus Christ, who is seated on the throne and is lord over all and […] as believers we are charged to take that message — that the lord reigns, that Jesus Christ reigns, that he is risen and is seated on the throne — . . . . our charge [is to] take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm and to seek the obedience of the nations — of our nation… to influence our society, and even more than that, to transform our society to reflect the gospel truth and lordship of Jesus Christ.

FFRF wrote him a letter over this egregious violation. Hawley, as Missouri attorney general, joined an amicus brief against FFRF’s challenge of the IRS’ preferential housing allowance for ministers, as well as FFRF’s litigation against a cross in a Pensacola, Fla., public park.

Hawley notably participated in a “worship protest” on the Mall last October with “prayer, singing and baptisms, but virtually no social distancing or mask-wearing,” where he prayed over the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he said he would not support any SCOTUS nominee unless they had stated on the record prior to their nomination that Roe v. Wade was “wrongly decided.”

CINDY HYDE-SMITH (Mississippi), elected in 2018, is a member of the Macedonia Baptist Church, and reportedly “attended and graduated from a segregation academy that was set up so that white parents could avoid having to send their children to schools with Black students.” She was once photographed in a Confederate army cap and is anti-gay.

“Cindy believes all children, including the unborn, are guaranteed the right to life by our Creator,” her campaign website proclaims. “As senator, Cindy will fight for and vote to confirm pro-life judges who will interpret the law as written, and not legislate from the bench.”

She filed an amicus brief in October supporting a so-called “religious freedom lawsuit” filed by a church against D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser over social distancing guidelines. She signed an amicus brief in support of the Little Sisters of the Poor lawsuit challenging the right of workers to access birth control under the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. She regularly tweets bible quotes. FFRF contacted her a few months ago regarding complaints by constituents over her use of her official governmental Facebook page to promote her religious views.

CYNTHIA LUMMIS (Wyoming), a newly elected senator, is a member of the archconservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod: “I’m a Christian, and I have seen a tremendous rise in anti-Christian activities in the United States and elsewhere.” Her Facebook post on Dec. 8, 2020, began: “Calling All Prayer Warriors!”

She has been endorsed by Concerned Women for America, among other extremist evangelical groups, her campaign website promised to “fight for religious freedom and the rights of the unborn.” As a U.S. representative, she played a key role in attacking Planned Parenthood in 2015 over phony charges that the group profits from selling fetal tissue for research. She has co-sponsored a variety of anti-LGBTQ bills. 

A Wyoming editorialist has called Lummis a “white-privilege, systemic-racism denier.”

SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY (Louisiana), elected in 2016, is described by his campaign website as a founding member of his local Methodist Church. His stated priorities include “defending the unborn” because life “is a gift from God,” and advocating “conscience protections for health care providers, insurers, and business owners.” Among the legislation he has sponsored is a bill to allow a state to exclude from its Medicaid program a provider who performs abortions.

“I am a Christian and believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. That belief informs every decision I make and my commitment to serve the public. . . . It was only by God's divine providence that our founders established the Constitution and the checks and balances that now define our great nation,” Kennedy has said. The American Family Association reported he supports a Judeo-Christian framework of morality and considers religious liberty at risk in the United States.

Following President Trump’s comments that Haiti and Africa were “shithole nations,” Kennedy defended him, saying Trump is “not a racist.” FFRF sent a complaint letter to Kennedy over a religiously exclusionary Thanksgiving tweet in 2019, in which Kennedy quoted from the bible and wrote: “The people of Louisiana are hard-working, fun-loving, and God-fearing.”

ROGER MARSHALL (Kansas), who was elected to the Senate in 2020 after serving in the House since 2016, identifies as a “nondenominational Christian.” “Faith and community continue to be pillars in Dr. Marshall’s life. He taught Sunday school for over 25 years and has served as an elder, deacon and board chairman of his church,” says his Senate website.

He was endorsed by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins for standing “strong for faith, family, and freedom.” He grew up in a strict Christian household with a police chief father who believed in corporal punishment. The OB-GYN earned an A-rating from the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List. He was a major backer of Kyle Duncan, who was confirmed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, despite his anti-LGBTQ rights record.

Marshall has apparently “tried to read the bible every day since I was 10 years of age, so a lot of the wisdom I’ve been given comes from reading the bible,” he told the Kansas City Star. “Ultimately, that’s the issue . . . every decision I make: Is it consistent with my faith both in word and action.”

RICK SCOTT (Florida), elected in 2018, previously the governor of Florida, identifies his religion as “Christian.” Despite getting Covid-19, he supported a resolution saying “there is no pandemic exception to the First Amendment,” condemning governors and mayors for using emergency powers “as a sword to go after churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship.”

As governor, he signed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, spending thousands of tax dollars on a bogus investigation of the organization, and signed into law harassing anti-abortion bills. He also signed into law a so-called religious expression bill requiring public schools to allow students to lead prayers during school-sanctioned events.

FFRF had urged Scott as governor to cancel the Florida Faith Symposium and objected to his involvement in another faith-based conference.

TOMMY TUBERVILLE (Alabama) assumed his Senate seat in January. He cites the Church of Christ as his denomination. As head coach at several college football teams including Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati, Tuberville was a prominent villain in FFRF’s Pray to Play report, which exposed how public university football teams use chaplains to impose Christianity on student athletes in violation of the First Amendment. He was also embroiled in controversies and spoke against nonwhite immigrants, warning that “Shariah law has taken over.”

“A Christian conservative, I will always stand up for those who can’t do so on their own. I will fight to protect the sanctity of every human life because future generations may very well look back at the current wave of infanticide sweeping across our nation as this generation’s holocaust,” says his campaign website. 

“I do believe today that God sent Donald Trump to us,” Tuberville told Alabama Farmers Federation in a campaign speech. “We’re losing Christianity in this country. We’ve got to get it back. But it starts by teaching it. We should teach all religions in our schools. We’ve definitely got to get God back in our schools.”

Return to FFRF press release: Shame on Christian Nationalist disruptors inside Congress.

View Sampling of Christian Nationalist House members who voted not to certify.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling on the Wisconsin Department of Justice to launch a statewide probe into the Roman Catholic clergy’s serial sexual abuse and cover-up.

FFRF is not alone in demanding a statewide inquiry. The nonprofit Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has also requested an investigation in light of recent events, and other groups, such as Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD USA), have been sounding the alarm on this problem for decades alongside FFRF.

In a letter to Attorney General Josh Kaul, FFRF describes a recent, tragic Wisconsin case in which St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, part of the Roman Diocese of Green Bay, reportedly sent a victim annual checks, totaling $400,000, to pay for counseling and medication resulting from abuse by Abbey priests. After the Abbey stopped sending these checks, Nate Lindstrom fell into a deep depression that ultimately led to suicide.

“This widespread abuse, largely unreported to secular authorities, is not limited to St. Norbert Abbey or to the Diocese of Green Bay,” FFRF’s Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker emphasize to Kaul. Twenty-one states, as well as Washington, D.C., have looked into this issue since 2002. “It is time for Wisconsin to follow the lead of these states, and the nations of Ireland and Australia, and investigate this massive and coordinated abuse of minors throughout the country.”

A 2018 1,400-page Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing thousands of instances of sexual abuse by clergy in six of the states’ eight dioceses made major headlines. It also revealed that the Catholic Church’s secretive and imposing structure allowed hundreds of offenders to escape prosecution for decades. This systemic sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church is not confined to Pennsylvania — or even to the United States. The Irish and Australian governments have conducted inquiries of their own. “A multistate investigation is especially fitting because the Church’s ‘musical chairs’ history of deliberately moving offenders to new locations — shielding them from local exposure and outrage, and providing them with fresh victims — creates an interstate crisis that no individual state is equipped to handle,” FFRF writes.

Pope Francis’ failure to provide any meaningful action to correct the problem confirms what FFRF and many victims’ rights groups have asserted for decades: The methodical, organized sexual abuse in the Catholic Church will not stop until secular authorities intervene.

To add to the problem, undue deference has not only been shown by the faithful, but all too often also by police, prosecutors and justices who have turned the other way when confronted with evidence of abuse. Compounding the cover-up is the Catholic hierarchy’s active lobbying to suppress reform of statutes of limitations in many states. The Catholic Church in New York state alone has spent close to $2 million to lobby over civil actions and to fight statute of limitations reforms.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice should not sit idly by while a hyperwealthy, tax-exempt organization facilitates the sexual abuse of thousands of children, cites divine authority to silence victims, and works vigorously to protect both the abusers and the Church’s coffers, FFRF contends. For the sake of national safety and justice for our nation’s children, FFRF is asking Attorney General Josh Kaul to immediately commence an inquiry into the Catholic Church’s crimes.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a Madison-based national nonprofit organization with more than 33,000 members and several chapters across the country, including over 1,500 members and a Kenosha-Racine area chapter in its home state. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

During the much-anticipated Inaugural, kicking off a hopeful new administration, it’s unfortunate that President Biden, while trumpeting a message of unity, remains tone deaf about the divisiveness of religious rhetoric.

U.S. politicians’ often gratuitous use of religion at official events makes us nonbelievers feel like outsiders and second-class citizens. While a diverse and thoughtfully-planned series of events are marking Biden’s hard-fought inauguration, there still has been a whole lot of religion going on.

The inauguration kicked off last night with a moving ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which was lined with 400 lights representing the more than 400,000 Americans who’ve died from Covid-19. The president-elect and his wife, with the vice president-elect and her husband stood in front of the pool. Many communities and buildings, such as the Empire State Building and the Space Needle, also lit up in solidarity and unity around the nation.

But for the nonreligious as well as non-Christian Americans, the unity of that moment was spoiled when it morphed into a religious service. After nominally religious remarks by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we were treated to an invocation by the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and a rendition of the Christian hymn, “Amazing Grace.” (A highlight of the inauguration today was the recitation by 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman.)

There were many brief repeated references to religion in today’s inauguration. Although the Freedom From Religion Foundation had duly requested that Joe Biden follow constitutional dictates and take an entirely secular oath of office as written in the Constitution, as expected he placed his hand on a huge family bible and added the piety, “So help me God.” FFRF had also requested he jettison the invocation and benediction. But the invocation was led by Father Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest, and the benediction by Rev. Silvester Beaman, pastor of Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del., both personal friends, and both, of course Christian.

Biden gave a powerful, gracious and conciliatory speech about being being the president of all, as a “once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country,” as “millions of jobs have been lost . . . businesses closed” and as “a cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making, moves us.” There was much to applaud there.

But he also referred to “one nation, under God,” said “History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity” and mentioned being “sustained by faith.” He quoted St. Augustine and the bible, albeit both passages secular, mentioned a prayerful verse from a song, “American Anthem,” and, no surprise, ended with the inevitable “May God bless America and may God protect our troops.”

But the bit that rankles came when Biden actually himself said and led a prayer: “In my first act as President, I would like to ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer to remember all those we lost this past year to the pandemic. . . . Let us say a silent prayer for those who lost their lives, for those they left behind, and for our country. Amen.”

He compounded it all by the irony of making an oath “before God” to defend our Constitution — a Constitution that is godless, whose only references to religion are exclusionary, which bars a religious test for public office and which separates religion from government.

As the inauguration ended, FFRF immediately began hearing from some of our 33,000 members, who were disappointed by the religious tone deafness, who expected our 46th president to make references to believers and nonbelievers, as President Obama did in his inaugural speech.

We “Nones” have work to do, not only to untangle the union of church and state from the last administration, but to make public officials who serve our Constitution understand that they may have whatever religious beliefs they like, but should stop assuming the rest of us need to hear about those views. Pieties do not make them better leaders. And religion in government is innately divisive and exclusionary.

 A survivor of a horrific Islamist assault who has redoubled her secular activism is interviewed on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s TV talk show this Sunday.

Bonya Ahmed is a Bangladeshi-American secular activist and co-founder of Think, which specializes in short educational videos, many of them directed to her native country of Bangladesh. She has received the Forward Award from FFRF and has given a Ted talk called “Narratives Can Be Deadly — How I Recovered From a Terror Attack.” In an Islamist ambush in Bangladesh in 2015, Ahmed was nearly killed and her husband, Avijit Roy, a well-known atheist and author, was brutally murdered.

“The best part of this is our core team,” she tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor about Think. “The full-time employees are actually the secular bloggers from Bangladesh who were forced to leave the country, flee the country. And they have actually trained themselves, like our editor who makes the videos.”

Tune in to watch excerpts of Think’s beautifully produced and animated videos, which are enlightening Bangladesh and the world about evolution, science, Covid-19, why menstrual periods and the transgendered are not shameful — and so much more!

If you don’t live in the more than one-fourth of the country where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel.

This is the fall season’s 22nd episode of “Freethought Matters,” airing in over a dozen cities on Sunday, Jan. 24.

Shows in the coming year will include interviews with Public Religion Research Institute founder Robert P. Jones, author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity; Atheist Republic founder and former Muslim Armin Navabi; Nate Phelps, the freethinking son of the notorious Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church; and Law Professor Jay Wexler, whose most recent book is Our Non-Christian Nation.

“Freethought Matters” airs in:

• Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
• Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
• Houston, KUBE-IND (Ch. 57), Sundays at 9 a.m.
• Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
• Minneapolis, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45), Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
• New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 10:00 a.m.
• Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
• Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
• San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sundays at 10 a.m.
• Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
• Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 8 a.m.

Previous guests from the fall season include: pundit Eleanor Clift, whose interview you can watch here, actor and FFRF After-Life Member John de Lancie of “Star Trek” “Q” fame, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Linda Greenhouse, the country’s leading analyst of the U.S. Supreme Court, and legislative stalwart and feminist and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. One of the most eminent public intellectuals in the world, Professor Steven Pinker, was interviewed a few episodes ago talking about his new course on rationality. Legendary TV host, actor and singer John Davidson was the guest in early December. Recently, the show featured Ann Druyan, the co-creator of “Cosmos,” possibly the most acclaimed TV series of all time. And just last week, A.C. Grayling, a prominent British philosopher and the author of about 30 books, grappled on the show with philosophy and the pandemic, and discussed how he himself dealt as a nonbeliever with a personal tragedy.

Watch previous seasons here, including interviews with Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney and Ed Asner, as well as U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.

P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers!

The Freedom From Religion Foundation will be dominating the television landscape tonight, with its ads airing on three separate network comedy news programs.

The national state/church watchdog’s iconic endorsement by Ron “Unabashed atheist . . . not afraid of burning in hell” Reagan will make its debut on “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” on TBS tonight, in addition to running on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” The ad is likewise scheduled to play tonight on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS, which starts at 11:30 Eastern, as well as tomorrow night and next week.

Viewers will have two opportunities to catch FFRF’s ad on “Full Frontal” tonight. The show will air at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, with the ad scheduled for 10:46 p.m. The comedy news show repeats at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, with FFRF’s ad slated to air at 11:47 p.m. (Exact air times are subject to change.) The ad will air on the weekend rerun of “Full Frontal” this Saturday, Jan. 23, replay twice next Wednesday during the Jan. 27 episode, and run a final time on Saturday, Jan. 30.

The 30-second spot by the progressive son of President Ronald and Nancy Reagan is also running this week on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” over Comedy Central (11 p.m. Eastern). It will air twice tonight (scheduled for 11:10 p.m. and 11:24 p.m.) and twice tomorrow, Jan, 21, night (slated for 11:10 p.m. and 11:24 p.m.).

In the commercial, Reagan says:

Hi, I’m Ron Reagan, an unabashed atheist, and I’m alarmed by the intrusion of religion into our secular government. That’s why I’m asking you to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest and most effective association of atheists and agnostics, working to keep state and church separate, just like our Founding Fathers intended. Please support the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.

“These ads over national networks are raising consciousness about the growing numbers of Americans, even the son of a conservative president, who are making known their dissent from religion,” says Dan Barker, FFRF co-president.

Nonreligious Americans are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population by religious identification — 35 percent of Americans are non-Christians. This includes the more than one in four Americans who now identifies as religiously unaffiliated. A recent survey found that 21 percent of Americans born after 1999 are atheist or agnostic.

Reagan’s signature line has spawned an interactive digital “billboard”, as well as an “unabashed” T-shirt, cap, a lapel pin and a new handcrafted mug.

FFRF thanks Ron Reagan for his gracious endorsement, as well as FFRF members who contribute to FFRF’s advertising fund, which makes possible the advertisements and has significantly grown FFRF’s membership, now at over 33,000.

A coalition of service and advocacy organizations have filed suit against the Trump administration for rolling back civil rights protections for beneficiaries of federal programs.

The prior federal rules had required faith-based organizations providing critical, taxpayer-funded services (like food and shelter) to inform recipients of their legal rights to be free from discrimination, not to have to attend religious programming, and to have the opportunity to get a referral for an alternative provider. The new rule, effective yesterday, Jan. 19, makes it harder for already marginalized populations to access essential social services as the United States continues to reel from a historic pandemic and economic collapse.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of plaintiffs: MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, SAGE, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, Ark of Freedom Alliance, Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists and the Hindu American Foundation. Filed against the Trump-led Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Education, Homeland Security, Justice and Labor, the suit seeks to reverse the unlawful rollback of these important protections. Democracy Forward, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Lambda Legal represent the plaintiffs.

“On its last day in power, the Trump administration shredded important religious freedom and nondiscrimination protections for many of America’s most vulnerable populations and made it harder for them to access taxpayer-funded services in the midst of a pandemic and severe economic downturn,” the groups say in a joint statement. “The outgoing administration’s new rule unlawfully curtails the religious freedom and nondiscriminatory access to services of people seeking to obtain food, shelter, and other essential, federally funded services from faith-based organizations.”

The organizations add, “We’re taking our fight against the Trump administration’s unlawful rollback to court so that those in need of help can continue to get it without fear of discrimination or unwanted proselytization.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation felt an urgent necessity to join in the lawsuit.

“The Trump administration’s perversion of religious freedom continued till, literally, its last day,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We’re determined to ensure that individuals not believing in the majority creed know their rights and are empowered to protect themselves against discrimination and marginalization while receiving vital social services.”

On Dec. 17, the Trump administration finalized its sweeping rule, which became effective on Jan. 19 and eliminates common-sense requirements that were put in place in 2016. Those requirements were the result of a historic effort to reach consensus on how religion and government should interact in the context of federally funded social services. The Trump administration’s rollback unlawfully puts the interests of religious organizations, which provide a significant slice of federally funded social services, ahead of the rights and needs of the vulnerable populations they serve.

Unfortunately, illegal discrimination against service recipients does occur. For instance, a 2020 survey of LGBTQ people experiencing food insecurity found that, while many experiences at faith-based providers were positive, a substantial percentage were not. In the face of this rejection, many decided to forgo the needed food. The Trump administration’s elimination of these common-sense, “know-your-rights” requirements deprives vulnerable populations of the information they need to fight discrimination.

As a result of the 2020 rule, FFRF plans to spend additional time and resources educating beneficiaries and providers who take part in social service programs about the rights of participants. One of the ways FFRF is doing that is by distributing “know-your-rights” material for program participants.

FFRF is also planning to conduct an education campaign directed at faith-based entities that receive federal financial assistance to remind them of the remaining nondiscrimination requirements under the new Trump rules. FFRF further plans to launch an education campaign aimed at secular organizations that serve vulnerable populations in order to enable those groups to support the people they serve in advocating for themselves when receiving services from faith-based organizations.

FFRF has in the past pursued complaints about faith-based organizations receiving federal financial assistance. It has received such complaints regarding USDA funding for child nutrition programs, HHS funding through various funding streams, including Social Security block grants funding for senior centers, early childhood intervention funding and Older Americans Act funding.

The Trump administration’s rollback is arbitrary and capricious. Among other things, it provided no reasonable explanation for the rule change, failed to account for its harms, and failed to consider obvious alternatives to the changes they finalized — all in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Read it in full here.

With the clock running out on his term, President Trump fired off two more attacks at the wall of separation between state and church and equality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The 1776 Commission’s report seeks to rewrite American history through the lens of the Christian identity and impose that revisionist fabrication on public school students. The National Garden of American Heroes is a vanity project to erect a statuary park to “reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism,” a project that seeks to capitalize on Trump’s defense of Confederate monuments.

Trump’s executive order states that “belief in the greatness and goodness of America has come under attack in recent months and years by a dangerous anti-American extremism that seeks to dismantle our country’s history, institutions, and very identity.”

Garden of Heroes
The Garden of American Heroes appears to include something for everyone. Trump may not realize that many of these dignitaries are secular figures worthy of honor outside of their advocacy of freethought or state/church separation.*

But several of the 250 individuals are deeply divisive religious figures. These include:

• Junípero Serra, a Catholic missionary who persecuted and enslaved indigenous Americans. FFRF has opposed his inclusion on city seals and other government property.
• Rev. Billy Graham, a noted anti-Semite and a figure known entirely for his religious work, whose campaigns inflicted massive damage to the American separation of state and church over six decades. FFRF fought North Carolina’s attempt to honor Graham with a statue in the Capitol.
• Christopher Columbus, already honored with a federal holiday, who enslaved many native inhabitants and treated them with extreme brutality. He was a devout Christian who sought to convert those he conquered to Christianity.
• Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born Roman Catholic “saint,” and Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint.
• Nellie Gray, an anti-abortion activist, who founded March for Life in 1974.
• Fulton J. Sheen, the divisive U.S. bishop, televangelist and Cold War crusader.
• Augustus Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest in the United States publicly known to be black when he was ordained in 1886, and a former slave, and Thomas Merton, a priest and theologian.

Other dubious nominees include Antonin Scalia, an ultraconservative Supreme Court justice who introduced a harmful brand of judicial activism he labeled “originalism.” FFRF frequently criticized his jurisprudence and tendency to put his Roman Catholicism above his oath of office. Similarly, former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist notoriously wrote that the constitutional separation between state and church was “a metaphor based on bad history . . . It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.”

“Individuals whose only contributions were religious, such as Serra, Graham, Seton and Sheen, certainly should not be singled out for this honor by our secular government,” comments Dan Barker, FFRF co-president.

Notably absent from the list is Thomas Paine, who fomented the American Revolution, was first to publicly oppose slavery and who named the United States of America. Making the omission of Paine all the more egregious is the fact that no statue or memorial to Paine exists in Washington, D.C.

The 1776 Commission
Created a few months ago, the 1776 commission has issued an insidious report that is little more than Christian Nationalist propaganda.

“It’s especially distasteful that just days after insurrectionists incited by Trump were chanting ‘1776!’ as they assaulted our Capitol and democracy, Trump would still issue this report,” says Barker. “He’s learned nothing and now wants to taint the education of America’s children.”

As the statuary garden is a jab at removing Confederate statues, so the 1776 Report is a pushback of the New York Times’ 1619 Project. No historians helped author the report and it lacks footnotes, endnotes, or citations to any sources, even for direct quotes. The report condemns not the Founders who enslaved people, but those who criticize slaveholding Founders, charging that doing so “has done enormous damage.”

The report falsely argues that Christianity is responsible for separating state and church (“the sundering of civil from religious law with the advent and widespread adoption of Christianity”). It erroneously seeks to recenter clergy at the heart of the American revolution (“the American Revolution might not have taken place or succeeded without the moral ideas spread through the pulpits, sermons, and publications of Christian instructors”).

Most problematically, the report sets up the constitutional principle of separation between state and church separation as a strawman to fight against: “We often use the phrase ‘the separation of church and state’ to refer to the founders’ practical settlement of these questions, but this phrase is usually misunderstood to mean a complete separation of religion and politics.” Of course, the core message of state/church separation is not that religion cannot be exercised in public, but that the power of the government cannot be wielded to advance one religion over another. or religion over nonreligion.

The report contains an entire appendix on “Faith and America’s Principles” essentially arguing that America's founding principles are based on faith, a central claim of Christian Nationalism. FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel, who debunks this in his book, The Founding Myth notes: “There’s little doubt that this report was meant to push a Christian Nationalist agenda.”

It repeats common Christian Nationalist tropes like “Religious chaplains open every session of Congress, and clergy pray at presidential inaugurals, state funerals, and other official occasions” and even goes so far as to define the religion of American families: “When families pray together, they acknowledge together the providence of the Almighty God who gave them their sacred liberty.”

Amid the Christian Nationalist rewriting of history and law are subtle nods to the QAnon conspiracy: “Progressives instead created what amounts to a fourth branch of government. . .. This shadow government” the report authors claim, “continues to grow around us.” This is the sort of fuel that keeps such conspiracies burning with agitation and controversy for months.

FFRF will be urging the Biden administration to retract this report and undo other Trump administration damage to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

*Individuals nominated for the Garden of Heroines include freethinkers or secularists such as: Ansel Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Lauren Bacall, Clara Barton, Irving Berlin, Andrew Carnegie, Julia Child, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Marquis de Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Madison, Herman Melville, Lucretia Mott, Edgar Allan Poe, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Roger Williams. (See FFRF’s Freethought of the Day site for details on most.)

Photo via The White House Flickr / Public Domain

Andrew L. Seidel, FFRF’s director of strategic response, has written a column for The Progressive magazine urging Joe Biden to stick to the Constitution and drop God from the presidential oath.

Seidel explains in “Leave God Out of the Presidential Oath” that the Constitution doesn’t contain the language “so help me God” for the swearing-in ceremony, and that the first 26 presidents adhered faithfully to the prescribed text. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that it became fashionable to proclaim piety while assuming the presidency:

Where did this presidential tradition come from?

In my recent book, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American, I set out to answer these questions.

Omitting God from the oath, it turns out, was no accident. The Founders deliberated this language at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a deliberation that is mirrored in the first bill Congress passed under the Constitution and the first bill President George Washington signed into law.

As originally drafted, that law proposed Congressional oaths with clauses reading “in the presence of Almighty God” and “So help me GOD.” Both were edited out by the lawmakers.

The spoken words have been as deliberate as the written words. We know that Washington didn’t add the words to the oath. Edward Lengel, former editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington project, concluded, “any attempt to prove that Washington added the words ‘so help me God’ requires mental gymnastics of the sort that would do credit to the finest artist of the flying trapeze.”

Like so much U.S. mythology, including Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman, we owe this Washingtonian myth to Washington Irving.

Seidel clarifies that the relatively recent presidential godly supplement suggests a desire to appear pious rather than actual piety. The explicit language of our Constitution’s presidential oath was good enough for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Seidel concludes. President-elect Joe Biden ought to return to our secular roots and the oath as it is written. Read the whole piece at The Progressive and please share it on your social media.