I received a heartbreaking letter Dec. 20 from Cliff Richards, a member of FFRF from Washington state, informing me that he was naming FFRF as a beneficiary on his Fidelity account, adding that FFRF could expect to receive $100,000. He very wonderfully asked to designate these funds for student activist scholarships.
The news was so welcome, as FFRF has a handful of recurring student scholarships but no major long-term fund. My excitement turned to dismay as I read Cliff’s next paragraph:
“Because of the advanced nature of my cancer, I’m told that my life extension will, at best, be approximately three months. I am going to be using Washington state’s Death With Dignity program that allows me to end my life if I have less than six months to live.”
I quickly replied by mail, expressing FFRF’s gratitude for Cliff’s outstanding generosity in endowing student activist awards, noting how much the bequest would mean to many thousands of deserving students and youth activists. “This is an act of greatness,” I told him.
Cliff phoned after receiving my letter, and we talked once or twice again, the last time on Dec. 29, when he told me his story. He had just retired last summer and was in the middle of relocating to the South when his cancer — Stage 4 colon cancer metastasizing to his spine — was discovered.
He was grateful he discovered it while still living in Washington, one of only five states with death with dignity laws or court rulings. Having sold his home, Cliff was ending his last days in a hotel room in the Sequim area.
His doctors warned him that the cancer could eventually lead to blockage, deadly rupture, blood poisoning and painful death. The cancer that had spread to his spine could also weaken the bone and snap his spine, leading to instant paralysis. Cliff was determined, by making use of death with dignity provisions, to avoid one or both fates.
When the subject changed to his life story, which he authorized me to publish after his death, Cliff’s voice brightened. He was born July 20, 1943, in Milwaukee, grew up there and attended a Catholic grade school, high school and college, graduating with a degree in medical technology from Marquette University in 1966.
“I lost my religion when I reached the age of reason,” he told me. He began questioning the “one true religion” mantra of the Catholic Church. “How can a just god say a Native American living in the woods who never heard of Jesus could go to hell because he was not baptized?”
Cliff told me, “This whole religion thing got me when I would see yet another religion was trying to impose its edicts on the rest of us.” He said he “absolutely enjoyed reading Freethought Today, especially about the students and student essays. It was a breath of fresh air to see kids going out and taking on the system. We need a whole lot more of them.”
• • •
After graduation, Cliff had moved to Minneapolis and got a position as chief lab manager. By age 23, he realized he had gotten as far as he could go with his degree. Hennepin County, he noted, had made Time magazine as one of the best-run county hospitals and he wondered why.
Then he realized, “Its esprit de corps was phenomenal. Administrators would come into the lab and talk to lower echelon employees, chat about family, etc.” He was inspired to go into administration.
He graduated with a master’s in hospital administration at the University of Ottawa in 1974 and worked in Minnesota and Georgia, where at the latter he had to desegregate the blood banks. He wound up at a 100-bed hospital in California.
He belatedly fulfilled a childhood dream to fly and earned a private pilot’s license. He started a chartered airline service in 1989. The enterprising Cliff was hired by US Airways and flew for them for 11 years until being furloughed. He was then hired by a small Nevada hospital to do lab work, commuting from Washington in his own plane until retiring in June 2013.
Although engaged four times, Cliff told me he had never married. He had arranged for a longtime friend to stay with him at the end. He predicted he might last to mid-February.
On Valentine’s Day, our office received a copy of Cliff’s death certificate. He had died Jan. 27 at the age of 70 and was cremated Jan. 29, the birth date of Thomas Paine.
Cliff Richards had seized control of his own life and death.
He split his generous legacy between FFRF and the University of South Dakota Foundation, indicating he hoped his bequest to them would benefit Native American women students. We’re so grateful to him for his generosity to freethinking students.
FFRF is proud and very thankful to be able to administer a variety of ongoing or one-time student activist awards created by other FFRF members. These include the annual $5,000 award newly endowed by Richard and Beverly Hermsen and the annual $1,000 Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award by Len and Karen Eisenberg.
Is state pride considered a deadly sin? If so, I’m going to burn for it.
I became very proud of my home state of Vermont recently when I read the Gallup poll results on religiosity across the U.S. The results, published Feb. 3, paint a portrait of the U.S. that will not be surprising to most, but are fun to read nonetheless.
The grand prize for “least religious state” goes to Vermont, which boasts a whopping 56% nonreligious citizenry! Nearly 30% of those polled nationally identify as nonreligious. Gallup classifies Americans as “nonreligious” if they indicate in their poll response that “religion is not an important part of their daily lives and that they seldom or never attend religious services.”
Respondents are classified as “very religious” if they say “religion is an important part of their daily lives and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week.” “Moderately religious” (a third category) applies to those stating that “religion is important in their lives but that they do not attend services regularly, or that religion is not important but that they still attend services.”
Both coasts fared well in the Gallup poll. East Coast runners-up include New Hampshire (51% nonreligious), Maine (45%), Massachusetts (44%) and Connecticut (41%). On the West Coast, Oregon (43% nonreligious) edged out Washington (41%) and California (37%). Honorable mentions from elsewhere in the U.S. include Nevada (39%), Colorado (39%), Hawaii (36%) and, perhaps surprisingly, Wyoming (39%).
At the other end of the spectrum are the usual suspects. Most religious states include Mississippi (61% very religious), Utah (60%), Alabama (57%), Louisiana (56%) and South Carolina (54%), though notably, 26% of respondents in Utah fall into the nonreligious camp.
How did FFRF’s home state of Wisconsin fare? Our 36-year presence here has undeniably shaped state/church relations and freethought awareness — from our secular “nativity” displays in the statehouse to our recent victory removing bibles from the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s guest rooms. Even so, Wisconsin still only ranks 21st on the list of least religious states. According to Gallup, 38% of Wisconsinites are very religious, 32% are moderately religious and 31% are nonreligious.
Due to growing up in Vermont with parents who did not attempt to indoctrinate me with any religious ideology, it took me a long time to realize how normalized religion is in other parts of the country. It wasn’t until I had graduated from college (in Connecticut, eighth least religious) that I experienced life as an atheist in an aggressively religious state.
I spent a few months in Oklahoma (10th most religious, 49% very religious) and quickly realized that when it came to my nonbelief, I had a choice between being silent-but-accepted or being an outspoken outsider. This was not a difficult choice for me, given the temporary nature of my stay, but the reality that some atheists and agnostics face this choice every day helped solidify my desire to become a freethought advocate.
So now I live in Wisconsin, least religious state in the middle quintile of Gallup’s results. While I may look back fondly at my statistically more secular life in Vermont, FFRF has provided me with an amazing opportunity: to advocate on behalf of fellow freethinkers, many of whom face far more daunting barriers to their freedom of conscience than I ever did.
For that opportunity, I would even move to Mississippi.
To see how your state compares to the nation, search for “least religious” at gallup.com.
Sam Grover first worked for FFRF in 2010 as a legal intern while attending Boston University School of Law. He returned to work as a constitutional consultant for FFRF in the fall of 2013.
Name: Ken Knighton.
Where I live: Bountiful, Utah.
Where and when I was born: Clovis, N.M., 1952, when my father was in the Air Force.
Family: I’m the oldest of eight children, all still living. No, we’re not a polygamist group.
Education: Public schools through high school and various college courses in real estate and business.
Occupation: My wife Shirley and I own and operate K and J Auto Inc. in Bountiful. We’ve operated it for 28 years.
How I got where I am today: I’ve read many books and Internet articles on topics of religion — Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, Russell, Dennett and others. I’ve been a “faithful” listener to FFRF’s broadcasts and other freethinking programs.
Where I’m headed: I will continue my research into early Mormon histories and fact-finding to share and hopefully open some minds.
Person in history I admire: Christopher Hitchens, for his style, persistence and penchant for the truth.
A quotation I like: “All thinking men are atheists.” (Ernest Hemingway)
These are a few of my favorite things: Studying early Mormon history, debunking religious dogma, snowmobiling and quiet Sundays.
These are not: Religious bigotry and dishonest bureaucrats.
My doubts about religion started: By reading and rereading The End of Faith by Sam Harris.
Before I die: A good meal, please.
Ways I promote freethought: I thought becoming the 20,000th member was a cool way to show my support for FFRF’s ongoing work in keeping religion out of our government, schools and public places.
I wish you’d have asked me: When I can co-host the radio show with Dan and Annie Laurie.
Name: Luther G. Weeks. (The “G” stands for Gaylord, long ago translated from the French “Gaillard.” Who knows if a descendant of some common ancestors dropped the “d.”)
Where I live: Glastonbury, Conn., in a condo on the banks of the Connecticut River. Although our state constitution claims “the good providence of God, in having permitted them to enjoy a free government,” at least three of the members of the Connecticut Hall of Fame are atheists: Mark Twain, Paul Newman and Katharine Hepburn, all greatly appreciated and admired here.
Where and when I was born: Bristol, Conn., 1946.
Family: Wife Denise, adult descendants Madeleine and Aaron.
Education: Mathematics B.S., Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y., when computers were huge and their memories were small. A senior course on automata and a seminar on brain theory set me on a path to career and lifelong interests, leading to an M.S. in computer science.
I’m also a master fellow of the Life Management Institute. (That’s life insurance management, no actual life management!) I read voraciously on issues in democracy, history and science, especially evolution, brain science and how we think.
Occupation: Retired computer scientist in business — building, buying and selling software for large companies and startups. Now I’m a full-time volunteer (unpaid) political activist/watchdog for election integrity.
Two or three times a year, I organize voters to observe and independently report on the results of Connecticut’s post-election audits. I organized volunteers in 2010 for a citizen recount of 25,000 ballots in Bridgeport. Every spring, you can find me taking a rational approach to lobbying and testifying to the legislature, promoting better election laws and trashing risky schemes.
In my spare time, I have a large community garden plot and serve as president of my condo board, which keeps me sympathetic in relating to elected officials.
Military service: Drafted. After jungle infantry training, I served as a company clerk in Korea during the Vietnam War. There is no need to thank me for my service; it was all like the movie “MASH,” without the blood.
How I got where I am today: Continually improving by learning something new, jumping carefully, yet quickly, at opportunities and learning from many of my mistakes. I recently took a personality assessment and learned among other things that I am an “activator.” That fits pretty well. I am always looking at things differently, often amusingly.
Where I’m headed: Crematorium, hopefully then to produce some leaves of grass near family and familiar places.
Person in history I admire: Robert Ingersoll. I wish we could hear some of his lectures and speeches. Many are great, but all would be better in person than on paper. I’m currently reading volume 8 of the 12-volume “Works of Robert G. Ingersoll.”
A quotation I like: “Whatever comes, this too shall pass away.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Whatever bugs us, whatever we love, whatever we oppose, whatever we cause, human life, and the Earth, are all temporary. That realization can be depressing or freeing, it is your choice.
These are a few of my favorite things: Walking, reading, thinking, blogging and debating. Cats.
These are not: Rigid, irrational individuals. Robocalls. Most dogs.
My doubts about religion started: I was raised Methodist, yet none of it actually set in. My mother was not pleased when I made jokes about grape juice after my first communion. I chose “no preference” on military dog tags when inducted, so there would be no question, just in case.
In the early ’90s, I started reading more and more books on atheism and decided to really determine if there was any basis for believing any religion, then confirmed myself as atheist. In 2002, I Googled “Freedom from Religion” and guess what link came up on top?
Before I die: I intend to keep living, learning and having fun.
Ways I promote freethought: I do not hesitate to tell people I am atheist. I endeavor to set an example for others, especially children, that it is fine to be an “out” atheist. You never know who might be watching or listening, or when it will make a difference for someone.
When a devout friend learned that I was atheist, he said, “There is still time for you.” That is my attitude toward everyone I know that is not yet atheist, “There is still time for you.” When appropriate, I tell them that. I have it all be friendly and fun. Once, a neighbor said that the priest wanted to talk to me about conversion. I declined. I told her to tell him, given his age and likely pension, that it would be better if he stayed Catholic.
I occasionally attend local or national atheist meetings, it never fails to inspire, educate, and be an opportunity to meet new friends and discover that other friends are also atheist. I save my copies of Freethought Today and give them to atheist friends.
I wish you’d have asked me: My epitaph — “Please join me as one who has lived.”
Oregon officials notified a federal court Feb. 20 that the state will no longer defend a ban on same-sex marriage. Similar switches in Nevada and Virginia were announced recently.
Pennsylvania is still officially defending its ban, but some officials see it as unconstitutional.
The Oregon filing came in one of two consolidated cases challenging the 2004 voter-approved ban that passed by 57% to 43%.
Scotusblog.com reported 17 states and Washington, D.C., now allow same-sex marriage. Federal judges have struck down bans in Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia, but those rulings are on hold pending appeals.
A lawsuit, Wolf v. Walker, was filed Feb. 3 in U.S. District Court in Madison by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the law firm Mayer Brown on behalf of four same-sex couples from Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Madison.
“These families simply want the security and recognition that only marriage provides,” said Larry Dupuis, ACLU of Wisconsin legal director.
The suit also seeks a permanent injunction to block a state law that makes it a criminal offense for a Wisconsin resident to leave the state to obtain a marriage that would be prohibited in Wisconsin. Maximum punishment is nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Also in Wisconsin, Democrats have introduced a bill to repeal the state’s constitutional gay marriage ban. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told WISN that he doesn’t expect it to even get a hearing.
“Unfortunately, I think at the end of the session, people are doing this much more based on a political answer than trying to find anything else,” Vos said.
Wisconsin Family Action, a socially conservative evangelical group, is vigorously lobbying against the bill as an assault on “religious freedom.”
Wash. school benches praying ‘All Pro Dad’
FFRF stopped White Bluffs Elementary School in Richland, Wash., from promoting religion. Meetings in the school sponsored by All Pro Dad, a private group focusing on religious programming, were advertised in fliers sent home with students.
The fliers failed to indicate the event was not school-sponsored. The meetings were also noted in the calendar along with official school events.
“The circumstances surrounding ‘All Pro Dad’ events would lead a reasonable observer to view it as school-sponsored,” wrote Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel in his Jan. 14 letter to Superintendent Rich Schulte. “Because of the religious aspects of the programming, Richland School District must take measures to address parental concerns regarding school involvement in this event.”
The district responded in late January, calling the promotion a clerical error and saying it would be removed from the school calendar. Staff will also be informed on the policy barring distribution of religious materials and announcements.
Teachers’ religious symbols removed
FFRF was informed that a teacher at Southside Elementary School in Pulaski, Tenn., prominently displayed several religious images in her classroom. Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a letter Dec. 17 to Giles County Schools Superintendent Timothy Webb:
“When a teacher puts up crosses and images of Jesus, they have unconstitutionally entangled the school itself with a religious message, specifically a Christian message. To avoid continuing to violate the Establishment Clause, we ask the teacher to remove the crosses and images of Jesus from her classroom.”
Webb responded two days later with a copy of the memo he sent to principals and supervisors: “The situation mentioned in the complaint has been addressed. Please remind your staff of the federal requirements in matters such as this.”
• • •
A teacher in Rusk, Texas, will no longer be displaying religious iconography after FFRF was contacted by a concerned parent of a Rusk High School student. A classroom poster read, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God the salvation of everyone who believes. Romans 1:16.” At the bottom it said, “This poster is illegal in 51 countries.”
Staff Attorney Elizabeth Cavell wrote the district Dec. 13 to note the constitutional violation while adding that a public school teacher has no free speech or free exercise right to proselytize.
Superintendent Scott David replied Jan. 9: “All campus principals and department directors will be reminded of our constitutional duties as public school employees with regard to the separation of state and church.”
• • •
A local complainant alerted FFRF that a classroom in Bernard Campbell Middle School in Lee’s Summit, Mo., displayed a religious poster prominently on the wall facing students. The poster read, “Blessed are the people who know the joyful Sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. Psalm 89:15.”
Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter Feb. 20 to Superintendent David McGehee about the egregious, obvious violation. “When a school teacher places religious posters in the classroom, she unconstitutionally entangles the school with a religious message. It is also a usurpation of parental authority — parents have the right to direct the religious, or nonreligious, upbringing of their children.”
McGehee called FFRF the next day to say he agreed that the poster shouldn’t be allowed in the classroom and that it had been permanently removed.
School Good News Club gets bad reviews
After Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel’s Jan. 24 letter of complaint, FFRF was informed that an elementary school secretary in Sanford, Fla., will no long-er be involved with Good News Club permission slips.
Child Evangelism Fellowship of Central Florida had distributed registration forms to Geneva Elementary students to promote the club. The form told students to return forms to the secretary.
Seidel said, “Despite the appropriate disclaimer, students might presume that Good News Club is sponsored by the school because of the apparent role of school personnel in facilitating the club’s activities by collecting registration forms. While the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Central Florida is entitled to host meetings, there are limitations on adult involvement.”
The Seminole County School Board’s attorney responded Jan. 28 that the district agreed that the club, not public school employees. was responsible for collecting forms,
Charter school’s church graduations end
The Academy for Academic Excellence in Apple Valley, Calif., will no longer hold its graduation ceremony in a church. According to the complainant, AAE, a K-12 public charter school operated by the Lewis Center for Educational Research, held graduation in churches where crosses, bible verses and other religious symbols were displayed.
AAE reportedly held a baccalaureate at a second church, advertising it on AAE’s calendar and listing the school’s vice principal as “coordinator.” Many school officials, including the principal, attended.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a November letter to Superintendent Thomas Hoegerman: “Religious faith and worship are an intensely personal choice. The government cannot make attendance at a secular school’s graduation ceremony contingent on entering the holy ground of a particular religion.” He also lodged objections to mandatory baccalaureate attendance.
Gordon Soholt, chief academic officer, responded Nov. 20: “It is anticipated that both ceremonies will be held in the new gymnasium in the future, thus removing any potential First Amendment issues. The previously named ‘baccalaureate’ has been renamed to reflect its intent, which is issuance of senior awards and scholarships.”
No more forced pledge for Florida student
A student at Southwest Middle School in Orlando, Fla., will no longer be coerced into reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
After refusing to stand for the pledge, the student was taken aside by a teacher and was told by the school’s attendance dean to stand and recite it or face reprimand.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote a letter Nov. 20 to object: “Faced with the choice of either reciting the pledge or being punished by the school, this student has relented, but now only recites the pledge out of fear of being punished. Students should not be singled out, rebuked, told they must stand, or otherwise penalized for following their freedom of conscience. It is illegal to reprimand a student for choosing not to stand during the recitation of the pledge.”
The student sent an email response on Jan. 25, “I am so thankful for your help. Thanks to you, I’m now able to sit during the pledge without punishment!”
FFRF has a lawsuit against the Orange County School District regarding literature discrimination.
Holly Huber and Mitch Kahle at the 2011 FFRF annual convention in Hartford, Conn., where Kahle received the Freethinker of the Year Award.
New Hope Church agreed to pay $775,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Hawaii FFRF members Holly Huber and Mitch Kahle. Three branches of the international megachurch apparently were getting sweetheart deals for years on rentals of school space from the state.
The suit was filed under the state’s False Claims Act, which rewards whistle-blowers for exposing fraudulent billing.
The payments were disclosed in court filings by New Hope’s parent organization, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Hawaii News Now reported in early February.
Most of the money will go to the state Department of Education, but as much as $200,000 will go to the plaintiffs, who allege that New Hope shortchanged the state $4.6 million over six years.
Kahle noted that state rules setting rent amounts were undermined by Board of Education Chairman Donald Horner.
Honolulu Civil Beat reported Feb. 14 that Horner declined to comment except to say the board was not a party to the case. Horner is a licensed pastor with ties to New Hope, the paper reported.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys plan to file an amended suit against One Love Ministries and Calvary Chapel Oahu, alleging that the two churches’ underpayments total about $1.1 million. An earlier claim was dismissed in January.
Attorneys representing the city of Eureka, Calif., and Eureka resident Carole Beaton (an FFRF Lifetime Member) are working on a settlement of Beaton’s prayer lawsuit against the city.
At a case management conference Feb. 18 at the Humboldt County Courthouse, City Attorney Cyndy Day-Wilson told Judge Bruce Watson that she and Beaton’s attorney Peter Martin are “currently negotiating a settlement,” which is expected in about 60 days, the Times-Standard reported.
Martin filed the suit on behalf of Beaton in January 2013, asking the council to stop holding invocations before meetings and for Mayor Frank Jager to stop promoting the annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.
Watson ruled Dec. 24 that nonsectarian invocations at council meetings are legal but said Beaton can still pursue her claim against Jager’s prayer breakfast.
Neither party is discussing potential settlement details. ”I want to say that the lawsuit was not against prayer and was not against religion,” Beaton told a reporter. “It was against the mixing of church and state. A city or any other government entity should not be sponsoring a religious event.”
The suit alleges use of city resour-ces in promoting the breakfast. Jager downplayed the city clerk’s involvement.
The next case management conference is set for April 30.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a federal district court decision approving a shrine to Jesus on public land near Whitefish, Mont.
“A permanent Catholic shrine on public land is prohibited by the Establishment Clause, every bit as much as a Catholic church would be,” asserts FFRF’s appeal brief, filed Jan. 28.
The 6-foot-tall shrine sits on a 7-foot pedestal on Big Mountain in the Flathead National Forest, which is owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Since 1953, the Forest Service has issued a permit at no cost allowing the Knights of Columbus, a conservative Catholic men’s group, to place a “Shrine overlooking the Big Mountain ski run,” whose purpose is “to erect a Statue of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In response to initial objections to the shrine, the Knights of Columbus claimed “that our Lord himself selected this site.”
FFRF wrote the Forest Service in 2011 to object to permit renewal. When Chip Weber, forest supervisor, agreed, determining it was “an inappropriate use of public land,” he faced blistering criticism and renewed the permit in January 2012.
FFRF is suing on behalf of its 100 Montana members, including three who have come into unwelcome contact with the shrine. William Cox, who has long been personally opposed to the shrine, has frequent and unwanted exposure to it when he skis on Big Mountain many times each winter. FFRF member Doug Bonham found the shrine “grossly out of place” when first encountering it, and his 15-year-old daughter, who often skis on the mountain, considers it “ridiculously out of place.”
Likewise, FFRF member Pamela Morris, a third-generation Montanan, first encountered the shrine as a teenager in 1957 at age 15 as part of a ski team, when she found the statue “intrusive” and “startlingly out of place.” She has since avoided the area, choosing to backpack, fish and camp where nature has not been violated.
The record shows a decision by the Forest Service to emphasize the shrine’s “historic” ties to development of the ski hill over its religious nature. The government argues that because the violation is longstanding, the shrine has become “historic.” FFRF counters that if courts followed such logic, segregated public schools and bans on interracial marriage would still prevail.
“The Government’s argument, reduced to its essence, otherwise would mean that religious iconography on public land is acceptable if supported by popular interest groups. The Establishment Clause, in other words, would be subject to majoritarian or popular demand. That, however, is not the lesson of our Constitution — nor a paradigm for historical success, as worldwide religious conflict attests. Religious icons on public land cannot be constitutionally salvaged by local celebrity status.”
Richard L. Bolton, of Boardman and Clark, Madison, Wis., is litigation attorney, with Martin S. King and Reid Perkins of Worden Thane, Missoula, serving as local counsel.
Sign up to receive FFRF news releases and action alerts by request at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Read more about the case at ffrf.org/legal/challenges.
A court decision allowing an obscure Milwaukee-area church to intervene in FFRF’s nationally significant lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over church politicking has placed the litigation “on the front line,” said FFRF’s litigation attorney, Richard L. Bolton.
“This will put everything in play, including the churches’ argument that the politicking restriction violates the First Amendment — using the Citizens United argument,” he added.
Although FFRF and the government defendants opposed the intervention, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee ruled Feb. 3 that Fr. Patrick Malone and the Holy Cross Anglican Church of Wauwatosa, Wis., could intervene. (The congregation left the Episcopal Church in 2008 in reaction to a series of decisions, most prominently the ordination of a gay bishop, and joined the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans of North America.)
“The intervention by the clergyman and church, which openly admit in their brief that they don’t obey the electioneering restrictions applying to tax-exempt organizations, puts all the cards on the table,” said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
The church argues it has a “legal right to participate in political campaigns without forfeiting their tax-exempt status,” and cites the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as the free speech, free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment. Incidentally, FFRF calls RFRA unconstitutional in its amicus brief, written by attorney Marci Hamilton, in the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
FFRF filed its suit in November 2012, taking the IRS to court over its failure to enforce electioneering restrictions that require 501(c) tax-exempt entities to refrain from endorsing political candidates.
FFRF recently prevailed in its federal challenge to an IRS policy that benefits clergy. The government has appealed that ruling on the parish exemption to the 7th Circuit.
FFRF has a third challenge of the IRS in federal court over the fact that churches are exempt from filing the same financial accountability reports, the Form 990, required of all other 501(c)(3) nonprofits.
Building on its success removing bibles from University of Wisconsin hotel rooms in December in Madison, the Freedom From Religion Foundation scored another victory for secularism on an Iowa public college campus.
The Memorial Union at Iowa State University in Ames agreed to remove Gideon bibles from its hotel rooms on March 1.
FFRF received a complaint about the religious propaganda on state property. “If a state-run university has a policy of providing a Christian religious text to guests, that policy facilitates illegal endorsement of Christianity over other religions and over nonreligion,” said Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott in a Jan. 29 letter to the university. “Permitting members of outside religious groups the privilege of placing their religious literature in public university guest rooms also constitutes state endorsement and advancement of religion.”
Elliott added, “Individuals, not the state, must determine what religious texts are worth reading.”
Union Director Richard Reynolds responded Feb. 13: “The concern you raised about the availability of bibles in the guest rooms of the Memorial Union has been taken under advisement and, effective March 1, 2014, the bibles will be removed from the hotel rooms.”
“We’re delighted to see reason and the Constitution prevailing. We can all sleep easier knowing secularism is being honored at our public universities,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
“Many nonbelievers greatly object to its primitive and dangerous instructions to beat children, kill homosexuals, atheists and infidels and that it sanctions the subjugation of women, who are scapegoated for bringing sin and death into the world,” Gaylor added.
“Imagine the uproar if someone found a Quran or atheistic literature such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion in their state-supported hotel room. Government can’t take sides on the religious debate.”
FFRF’s victory received widespread Iowa and national coverage. Elliott appeared on national Fox News coverage and Gaylor was invited to debate Sean Hannity on Fox. (View the video on YouTube with the search terms “Gaylor FFRF Hannity.”)
John McCarroll, executive director of university relations, told WCCI News 8 in Des Moines: “It’s a public institution and we do have certainly responsibilities on the separation of church and state. We thought it was appropriate to put the bibles in the browsing library.”
Gaylor noted that as long as there are a variety of books of varying views, and the library is not solely religious, that is a satisfactory resolution. FFRF, which has more than 20,000 members, represents nearly 150 in Iowa.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is once again calling out an Ohio town for the constitutional violation of putting Christian crosses on public property.
FFRF, a state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., complained April 8 in a letter to village of Stratton attorney Frank Bruzzese about crosses on the Municipal Building.
FFRF, which has 20,000 nationwide members and about 560 in Ohio, successfully got the village to earlier remove crosses from the building and the water tower, but had to threaten to sue to accomplish that.
Mayor John Abdalla recently ordered crosses to be put back on the Municipal Building, which has happened, according to a photo and story in the Steubenville Herald-Star and a local complainant.
In FFRF's April 8 letter, Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert cited legal precedent and took on Abdalla's false claim that it was constitutional to display religious imagery during holidays such as Easter: "While the permanent display of these crosses by the village is indisputably unconstitutional, the seasonal display of the crosses in recognition of Easter, the Christian celebration of Jesus' resurrection, is no less illegal."
FFRF wants immediate removal of the crosses from the front of the building and for village officials to "be reminded of their constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion."
Stratton, an Ohio River town with a population of about 300, already has its name on one U.S. Supreme Court case, Watchtower Society v. Village of Stratton. In 2002, the court ruled 8-1 that the village couldn't make door-to-door canvassers or solicitors get a permit. The ruling applied to religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech and handbill distribution.
Allen Korbel, 82, a Wisconsin member of FFRF since 1991 and later a Lifetime Member, died Dec. 17, 2013.
Born in Milwaukee on April 16, 1931, he was an accomplished race car driver and downhill skier with “a passion for life,” noted his friend Paul Wild. “He was a rare individual, a longtime libertarian, secular humanist and freethinker.”
He is survived by two daughters who have carried on his tradition of independent thought.
Allen most generously included a $5,000 bequest to FFRF in his estate.
His daughter noted that he once told her, “if anything has to be written about me, I’d like it to be this” — “his creed,” which was part of a picture frame hanging on the wall. He felt this exemplifies a moral and cultural attitude not only about entrepreneurship, but about the self determining, fulfilling values in human life”:
My Creed
I do not choose to be a common man
It is my right to be uncommon. . . if I can.
I seek opportunity . . . not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk,
to dream and build, to fail and succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence;
the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
or my dignity for a handout.
I will try to never cower before any master
nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid;
to think and act for myself;
enjoy the benefits of my creations;
and face the world boldly and say;
“This I have done.”
— Dean Alfange (1897-1989)
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is very sorry to report the death last fall of longtime member and former treasurer Kenneth F. Taubert Sr., at Hart Park Square in Wauwatosa, Wis.
Ken was born in Madison, Wis., in 1921, and was raised, along with his sister, in a strict Catholic foster family. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age 20 and spent six years in that service. He married his wife, Virginia, in 1942.
Ken worked for many years as a supervisory custodian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was an avid golfer.
He joined FFRF in 1980. In an October 1990 article, he poignantly detailed his secular awakening:
“I left the Catholic Church when I was about 30 years old. I became disenchanted with religion in general, when we were told by a priest that our third child, whom doctors told us would not live more than one month, would not go to heaven unless he was baptized. I argued that this little fellow had done nothing wrong, and was sure to go straight to heaven. The priest insisted, so we had him baptized, but I never set foot in the Catholic Church again.”
He went on to form the first Wisconsin group to support the rights of the mentally impaired, back in the days when it was not unusual for them to be hidden away.
Ken attended church with his wife for a number of years. “During this period, I read the bible for the first time and became a born-again atheist. From then on, I read every religious book I could get my hands on. I also read every freethought book I could find.”
He served as volunteer treasurer for more than a decade and was known to many convention-goers and readers of Freethought Today. Ken “faithfully” helped prepare Freethought Today mailings for more than a decade back when that work was done in-house. He and professor Michael Hakeem, then-chair of FFRF’s Executive Board, and Helen Hakeem, who was secretary, often engaged in freethought activism together.
Co-President Dan Barker recalls a memorable road trip with Ken and Mike to monitor a “faith-healing” event in Milwaukee featuring Peter Popoff, after Popoff’s exploits had been debunked by James Randi on “The Tonight Show.”
Ken and Mike took in another Milwaukee faith-healing event (“An Evening with W.V. Grant,” June/July 1991), with Ken noting, “I cannot think of a group more loathsome than the faith healers.”
He once turned out at 6:30 a.m. with a few hardy FFRF “non-souls” to picket the appearance of U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard C. Halverson at a prayer breakfast attended by 600 religionists on a snowy morning in Madison.
“Ken was such a good activist and joined us in several other pickets, including in front of University Hospitals to protest Gideon bible distributions,” said Anne Nicol Gaylor, FFRF president emerita.
In the May 1992 issue of Freethought Today, Ken recounted “a sweet victory” — getting his polling place in Monona, Wis., changed from a Catholic church to a public school. He also persuaded the city of Madison to enforce its own ordinance prohibiting anyone from advertising on city property, including a church that was a repeat offender.
When Ken presented his annual treasurer’s report to the convention, including recapping the annual Form 990, he invariably pointed out that churches are uniquely exempted from filling it out by the IRS. “We know Ken was 100% behind our current litigation contesting that inequity,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
She added, “Ken was genuinely the most congenial man I’ve ever met. He had a twinkle in his eye and something cheerful to say to everyone. We’re told he loved debating religion with his mostly Catholic peers at his nursing home, and vice versa. Due to Ken’s genial nature, these debates never became personal.”
Ken was an avid runner who, in retirement, turned to brisk walking. He liked to boast, after having a pacemaker placed, about keeping pace with Annie Laurie and another young woman on a 13-mile walk around a Madison lake in the early 1990s.
More than 500 books in FFRF’s library bear Ken Taubert’s initials from previous donations. FFRF was honored to be given Ken’s remaining personal library upon his death.
He was featured in a major story in The Capital Times (April 3, 1950) for his innovative volunteerism with a neighborhood “tiny tots” group. He continued throughout his life to volunteer and participate in athletic fundraisers. In retirement, he volunteered for Mobile Meals and once wrote, “I get lots of hugs, and I don’t mind that a bit.”
Ken is survived by his son, Bruce, and daughter, Marcia Hochstetter, and their families, plus several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ken and Virginia’s sons Kenneth Taubert Jr. and Carl Taubert are deceased.
FFRF’s staff seconds this summation in Ken’s obituary: “A man who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt and taught compassion and understanding, he will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”
Hemant Mehta, “Friendly Atheist” blogger, Illinois high school math teacher and FFRF member, found that the third time was the charm for his efforts to donate $3,000 he raised from the freethought community for a worthy cause. The Niles Township Food Pantry accepted the $3,000 which had been turned down by the Morton Grove Park District and the Morton Grove Public Library board, the Chicago Tribune reported Jan. 10.
Mehta originally raised the money in October following news that an American Legion post pulled its support from the park district after a board member refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Park officials returned the check, citing a desire to avoid a “First Amendment dispute.”
Then, a library board trustee called Mehta’s blog a “hate group,” and questioned the legality of accepting a donation originally intended for the park district.
“I can’t believe how hard it is to get rid of $3,000,” Mehta said in a YouTube video, announcing plans to give the money to the food pantry.
Niles Township Supervisor Lee Tamraz said it was immaterial to him where the donation came from. “We should be appreciative of the donation and make sure it is used to the benefit of the people of Niles Township. I’m grateful for the $3,000.”
In another recent charitable act, Mehta raised $27,254 from 1,224 contributors to donate to Ryan Bell, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who was asked to resign from his church and from two Christian schools at which he was an adjunct professor. Bell’s “sin” was announcing he was going to spend a year living without God, in effect, giving atheism a try to see where atheists were coming from.
“As an atheist, I want Bell to know that we appreciate what he’s trying to do and that we’ll support him even if his Christian community will not and (more importantly) even if he decides atheism isn’t for him when the year is over,” Mehta said.