Freethinker of the Year

1993 - Allen Berger

Prof. Allen Berger, the father of two school-aged children, objected to the 40-year practice of allowing Gideon representatives to distribute bibles to fifth-graders in public classrooms in Rensselaer, Indiana. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the school board on Berger's behalf. Although a lower court ruled against Berger in 1991, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago overturned the lower court in May 1993, ruling in favor of Berger. A three-judge panel noted: "We must continue to view with suspicion governmental forays into religious activity, particularly in the context of public schools. The relationship between the corporation and the Gideons cannot survive this scrutiny." Although the school board appealed, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, thus letting stand the appeals court decision.

"It's not enough for organizations to care. It takes someone willing to stick his or her neck out. . . . I don't regard myself as a hero. I think I'm just a citizen."

For full speech click here.

1993 - Roger Cleveland

Roger Cleveland, director of the Alabama Freethought Association, a chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, filed a complaint in 1989 against official chapels in Alabama state parks. He reached an out-of-court settlement in 1991, with the state in agreeing to correct the violations. When the state did not comply, Roger filed a lawsuit in 1992 in the U.S. District Court for the middle District of Alabama, Northern Division, with co-plaintiffs Ro Ellis, Hank Shiver, and the Alabama Freethought Association. On January 28, 1993, U.S. Dist. Judge Truman Hobbs issued a court order to the state Conservation Department advising it to abide by the Constitution. Hobbs ordered state parks to stop organizing or operating religious services, to remove permanent crosses as well as any endorsements of religion in buildings in Alabama state parks, to charge religious and secular groups the same fees, and to institute equitable access to parks. Any state map, brochure or information on "chapels" in parks must include a statement that the chapel is open for use by any group.

"Godless parks at last, at last!"

For full speech click here.