Nonbelief Relief, a humanitarian agency for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and their supporters to improve this world — "our only world" — has announced its first donations for 2017.

Its donations to begin off this year are:

• $5,000 to the International African American Museum being built at the site of the Charleston, S.C., wharf where more than 100,000 enslaved Africans were brought through at the main port of entry in North America. The museum, expected to be completed by 2019, will illuminate their lives, history and descendants. "We salute the city, museum board and other donors and visionaries who will make possible this landmark museum of African-American history," says Nonbelief Relief.

• $10,000 to Open Doors for Refugees (via Center for Community Stewardship), which has a $100,000 fundraising goal for 2017 to aid displaced Syrians and other refugees in Madison, Wis. "We hope our gift will send a message of resistance to the ban proclaimed indefinitely by President Trump against Syrian refugees, and the temporary ban against refugees from seven 'Muslim-dominated' nations," announces the secular charity.

• $10,000 to the World Food Program (USA), affiliated with the United Nations, "where needed most to ameliorate starvation, hunger and malnutrition." Many of the starvation "hot spots," such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and Yemen have religion-based terrorism, warfare or disruption contributing to starvation, notes Nonbelief Relief. Last year, the charity gave the agency $20,000 for Syrian relief and $10,000 for relief in Sudan.

• $25,000 to the Women's Medical Fund, co-founded by the late Anne Nicol Gaylor, who was the Freedom From Religion Foundation's principal founder. The Women's Medical Fund is an all-volunteer nonprofit based in Wisconsin and is believed to be the longest continuously operating abortion rights charity in the nation. Last year, it helped 782 women or girls without means in the Wisconsin area pay for abortion care. The average help was $330. Wisconsin is one of more than 30 states where women eligible for medical assistance are denied abortion care due to religious objections. The Women's Medical Fund has helped more than 22,000 women since the late 1970s.

Nonbelief Relief was incorporated in 2015, with the Freedom From Religion Foundation as its sole member. A board was created to carry out the donations. For more details, click here.

Nonbelief Relief seeks "to remediate conditions of human suffering and injustice on a global scale, whether the result of natural disasters, human actions or adherence to religious dogma. Such relief is not limited to but includes assistance for individuals targeted for nonbelief, secular activism or blasphemy." 

(Nonbelief Relief will be challenging the disparate Internal Revenue Service rules that exempt churches and church-related charities from public accountability, since they do not file the Form 990 tax return all other (c)(3) organizations, such as FFRF, must file.)

Wisconsin's statewide school voucher program is now completely religious in nature — a forewarning for the entire country.

Troublingly, all of the 163 schools that have registered for the statewide Wisconsin voucher program for the 2017-18 school year are religious. Nearly each and every one of these is Christian, with the exception of a single Muslim and two Jewish schools.

This reveals yet again that the voucher system in Wisconsin has been primarily intended as a device for the public to fund religious instruction, especially that pertaining to Christianity. "The fact that taxpayers are paying entirely for a religious education at the statewide level demonstrates the fundamentally religious nature of voucher programs," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

The local voucher programs are very similar in character. In Racine, 21 out of 23 schools that registered to participate as voucher schools next year are Christian. In the Milwaukee program, which includes more than 28,000 students, 116 out of 127 schools — 91 percent — are religious.

With the infusions of taxpayer money, Roman Catholic churches in Milwaukee with declining church membership and donations have been propped up. A recent study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research on Catholic parishes in Milwaukee concluded that voucher expansion prevents parish closures and mergers. The study finds that vouchers are the dominant source of funding for many parishes and have greatly reduced closures or mergers.

"This is precisely why the public should not be footing the bill for religious schools," says Gaylor. "The burden to support churches and religiously segregated church schools must be placed on adherents rather than on taxpayers."

Not only do taxpayers prop up Catholic schools, but the study shows voucher support harms and weakens private support for parochial schools and parishes. The typical parish accepting vouchers gets more money from the government than it does in private donations.

In Madison, vouchers have been a boon to Lighthouse Christian School, which has doubled in size in four years and is planning to move to a much larger building. It describes itself as "a ministry of Lighthouse Church ... providing a Christian environment for children" and striving to instill "a love for God." Among grade school offerings is 'bible." The school doesn't teach about evolution.

Vouchers in Wisconsin have grown each year under Gov. Scott Walker, and his budget proposal allows for continued expansion. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling for the voucher program to be ended rather than continue as a drain on public school funding.

With billionaire voucher advocate Betsy DeVos as our new education secretary and President Trump's promise to implement a $20 billion federal school voucher plan, we can ominously expect Wisconsin's model to be replicated on a national level. If the state is any indicator, the results will severely damage our public, secular education system.

*The Freedom From Religion Foundation appreciates that in response to constitutional concerns, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray changed the nature of his talk at the Idris Mosque. While he still spoke there, his speech wasn’t the official State of the City address. This is what FFRF had advised him.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is concerned that the Seattle mayor's upcoming State of the City address (on Feb. 21) is scheduled to be delivered in a mosque.

In a letter to the mayor, FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor commend Mayor Ed Murray's intention to stand against "state-sanctioned discrimination by the Trump administration," and agree with his characterization of the Muslim travel ban. FFRF is preparing an amicus brief against Trump's ban based on a religious test, and has publicly condemned it and urged its membership to oppose it.

However, FFRF believes that "the city should not oppose one violation of the Establishment Clause by committing another." An official address at a religious venue sends a message of endorsement of that venue's beliefs. In this case, this incorporates the Idris Mosque's criteria for couples wishing to get married at the mosque, which include a refusal to marry Muslim women and non-Muslim men, approval of the marriage by the parties' fathers or recognized Muslim guardians, (a condition that "especially applies to the bride)" and an agreement on a dowry between the bride's guardian and the groom.

"The Supreme Court has said time and again that the First Amendment 'mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion,'" Barker and Gaylor write to Murray. "Signaling endorsement of a religious group while acting as a state official is inappropriate and divisive."

Plus, FFRF underscores, placing the State of the City speech inside a mosque will force citizens — who may be of varying faiths or none at all — to enter a house of worship in order to attend an official city event. Certainly, there are ample appropriate secular locations for such occasions, including City Hall.

FFRF suggests to the mayor there are other appropriate ways of reaching out to Muslims or others of minority religious beliefs (or no beliefs) to convey a message of inclusion, and encourages him and the city to use such avenues. For instance, a public official may, of course, address a congregation on civic (not devotional) matters in his or her official capacity to reach out to constituents and answer questions about their concerns.

FRRF asks that the mayor refrain from giving his State of the City address in any place of worship. It is, at best, ironic, FFRF points out, to respond to a breach of the Establishment Clause by violating it in another manner.

FFRF is a national nonprofit organization with more than 27,000 nonreligious members across the country, including nearly 200 members in Seattle and almost 1,200 in the state at large. There is a sizable, growing population of religiously unaffiliated Americans, including 39 percent of Washingtonians.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has successfully dissuaded a Virginia city's Parks and Recreation Department from a trip to the infamous "Ark Park" and a creationist museum.

A concerned local resident informed FFRF that the Christiansburg Parks and Recreation Department was arranging a visit in early April to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum in Kentucky. The excursion was advertised on the city website.

FFRF urged the city to refrain from organizing an outing to such overtly religious sites.

The Ark Encounter is a proudly Christian ministry run by the creationist Ken Ham, who also built the Creation Museum. Ham has been open about the proselytizing nature of his projects right since the beginning.

"We are eagerly approaching what I believe will be a historic moment in Christendom," he stated in a 2016 letter outlining his motive. "It's the opening of the one of the greatest Christian outreaches of our era: the life-size Noah's Ark in Northern Kentucky. ... The [Creation] Museum and the Ark direct people to the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ."

FFRF said that this reveals why it is so problematic for government entities to coordinate outings to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum.

"Advertising and organizing a trip to a Christian ministry constitutes government endorsement of religion and alienates those Christiansburg residents who are not Christian and are nonreligious," FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote to Brad Epperley, director of the Christiansburg Parks and Recreation Department. "It is a fundamental principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence that the government can in no way advance, promote or otherwise endorse religion. Advertising and organizing such an event sends a message that residents are expected to endorse such events."

FFRF's powers of persuasion proved to be very effective.

"Please be advised that the trip has been cancelled and will be removed from the town of Christiansburg's website," the city's legal counsel responded within a couple of days. 

FFRF is pleased that the city took the appropriate response.

"The Ark Encounter and Creation Museum are Christian-themed hoaxes that no one should fall for, let alone a governmental body," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We're glad that we were able to open the eyes of Christiansburg officials."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the separation of state and church, with 27,000 nontheistic members, including more than 200 in Kentucky. When the Ark Encounter opened last summer, FFRF sent a letter to every school board in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio explaining that the First Amendment prohibits public schools from taking students there.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is expressing its strong concern at the heavy infusion of religion into Air National Guard ceremonies at a base in New Hampshire.

A concerned guardsman informed FFRF that ceremonies at the Pease Air National Guard Base regularly have chaplains delivering invocations. These include readings from the bible and references to a Christian god. Attendance at these ceremonies is mandatory for all guardsmen.

FFRF reminds the Air National Guard that such ceremonies are illegal under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

"Federal courts have held that scheduling prayers or other religious exercises at mandatory meetings for government employees constitutes illegal government endorsement of religion," FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover writes to the base's legal department. "Prayers at military events similarly appear to reasonable observers to endorse religion over nonreligion. This is exactly the type of endorsement that is prohibited by the Constitution's Establishment Clause, and also creates a hostile work environment for minority religious and nonreligious guardsmen." 

Besides, FFRF emphasizes, these prayers are unnecessary and divisive. Calling upon soldiers, their families and guests to pray is beyond the scope of a governmental entity such as the Air National Guard. It must refrain from lending its power and prestige to religion, since this amounts to a governmental endorsement that excludes the approximately one-fourth of military personnel who either express no religious preference or are atheists. (Not to mention that such official conduct is insensitive, too.)

"Air National Guard officials are being incredibly presumptuous in asking everyone to join in a Christian ceremony," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Such forced recruitment at mandatory gatherings needs to cease."

FFRF is asking the Air National Guard to protect the rights of conscience of every guardsman and end the practice of including prayers at official ceremonies and other base events.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit organization that works to protect the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. It represents more than 26,000 nonreligious members across the country, including in New Hampshire. The organization is working on this issue both as a state/church watchdog group and on behalf of its more than 6,000 members who are in the military or are veterans.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pleased to announce that its lawsuit against Shelton, Conn., has been successfully settled after the city halted its discriminatory policy.

FFRF, with local member Jerome Bloom, filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Connecticut, in March 2016, after the city refused to allow them to place a nonreligious winter solstice display in Constitution Park. Yet, the city had allowed the American Legion to place a religious display featuring "heralding angels" there every December for at least four years. FFRF sued over impermissible viewpoint discrimination.

The city had even deemed FFRF's proposed display "offensive to many." FFRF's display reads: "At this Season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

The joint settlement agreement indicates the city agrees not to allow private unattended displays in Constitution Park. The city agreed that anywhere it "allows private parties to erect unattended displays . . . it will allow plaintiffs to erect a display in that park, without regard to the content or viewpoint . . . so long as plaintiffs' display complies with any neutral, written city policies regarding such displays."

It also formally stipulates that Huntington Green, an open space in the city, is a "public forum for private unattended displays."

Late last year, the city disallowed displays in Constitution Park, including the American Legion's angel display. It also permitted FFRF to place its winter solstice display in Huntington Park, where the city also permitted a Christian nativity display. Unfortunately, FFRF's sign was mutilated and destroyed.

The city also agreed to pay FFRF its filing fees and other legal costs of $936.50.

"We are pleased the city of Shelton will no longer discriminate against atheists and other nonbelievers in its public forums, and that it has closed the forum at Constitution Park," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. Barker indicated that FFRF and Bloom will continue to erect a winter solstice display in Huntington Green as long as religious displays are put up, and added: "We question that it's truly a public forum if dissenting points of view are vandalized. We'll be back in December, but will be asking for additional protection of our display."

FFRF warmly thanks Jerome Bloom for making possible the legal victory.

FFRF was represented by attorney Laurence J. Cohen, of Springfield, Mass., with FFRF Attorneys Elizabeth Cavell and Ryan Jayne, who is FFRF's Eric Stone Legal Fellow, serving as co-counsel.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is cautioning a school board in W.Va. about hiring a theocratic organization to litigate on its behalf.

FFRF filed its first lawsuit of the year last month against Mercer County Schools, W.Va. to end egregiously unconstitutional "Bible in the Schools" classes in the county. The high-profile challenge was recently featured on "CBS This Morning." The Mercer County Board of Education voted this Tuesday to hire the First Liberty Institute as the defending law firm. 

In spite of its hyped-up claims, the First Liberty Institute has not fared well when it has tried to represent public schools.

In 2013, FFRF and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a lawsuit on the behalf of local plaintiffs to seek removal of a portrait of Jesus from Jackson Middle School in Jackson, Ohio. The school district worked with the Liberty Institute, but to no avail. The court ordered the removal of the portrait, and the parties agreed to a financial settlement requiring the school to pay the plaintiffs a combination of damages and legal fees totaling $95,000. 

Religious Right legal groups may promise to represent offending school districts free of charge, but taxpayers end up paying costs when the cases are lost.

There is strong likelihood that a similar fate awaits Mercer County. The breach of the First Amendment is obvious in the bible classes.

The curriculum is the equivalent of Sunday school instruction. Goals include developing a "positive attitude" toward biblical literature, "understanding the importance of the Ten Commandments," and "harmonizing the four gospel accounts of the last days of Jesus."

The bible instruction, taught by itinerant teachers who possess "a degree in Bible," begins in first grade. Classes are held in 15 elementary schools, one intermediate school and three middle schools. The classes meet weekly and last 30 minutes in elementary schools and 45 minutes in middle schools.

FFRF has won a court victory before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ending similar bible instruction in Rhea County (Dayton), Tenn., schools in 2004. Supreme Court precedent against such instruction dates back to the landmark McCollum v. Board of Education case decided in 1948.

"Mercer County will end up with a losing hand, whomever it hires to defend this indefensible violation," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "A win-win for all of us — including county residents — would be for officials to acknowledge the unconstitutionality of the bible classes and terminate them."

FFRF v. Mercer County Board of Education was filed on Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia, with Marc Schneider serving as primary litigating attorney and FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott as co-counsel. Joining FFRF as primary plaintiffs in the case filed were Jane Doe, an atheist and member of FFRF, and her child, Jamie Doe. The defendants are Mercer County Board of Education, Mercer County Schools, and Superintendent Deborah S. Akers.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a state/church watchdog organization with more than 26,000 nonreligious members all over the country, including in West Virginia.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation insists that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker stay ashore and not be part of an upcoming Christian cruise to Alaska.

Concerned Wisconsinites have contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation (headquartered in the state) to convey their unease that Lifeshape, a Christian organization, has offered Walker and his wife a free religious Alaskan cruise.

"The governor and first lady Tonette Walker are planning to host an 'inspirational' cruise to Alaska on Aug. 12-19 along with a small group of evangelical Christian leaders and musicians," reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Walker recently announced his participation, encouraging others to pay to join him for the cruise, which will include "nightly inspirational messages" such as "faith in the public arena" and "faith-driven entrepreneurship."

FFRF is troubled that the cruise is ramming through the First Amendment, and Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor have written a letter to the governor expressing their concerns. Walker is leveraging his public office in order to promote his personal religion.

In his promotional message, Walker repeats a tired assumption that all Americans "hold dear" religious faith, and Christianity in particular. In fact, nearly 30 percent of Americans are non-Christian. This includes 23 percent of American adults — and 35 percent of Millennials — who are nonreligious. The language that Walker employs in his promo, such as "nightly inspirational messages," "faith in the public arena" and "faith-driven entrepreneurship," sidelines and deprecates the huge portion of Wisconsinites who do not share his Christian zeal.

Walker was offered this gift only because he is the governor of Wisconsin; the gubernatorial office is, however, secular in nature. Walker took an oath, in fact, to uphold the secular and godless U.S. Constitution, as well as the Wisconsin Constitution, which prohibits state officials from giving "any preference" to "any religious establishments or modes of worship."

FFRF also wonders whether accepting this gift and crafting an advertisement for a for-profit religious cruise, signed as "Governor, State of Wisconsin," violate the State of Wisconsin Code of Ethics, which prohibits conflicts of interest and sharply limits gifts that state officers may receive, including "any lodging, transportation, money or other thing . . ." As the state's highest officer, Walker should strive to uphold not only the letter, but also the spirit of the state's ethical guidelines. FFRF is gravely disappointed that Walker and his wife are obtaining a free cruise. If he and his family wish to go on a scenic religious cruise, at the very least they should pay their own way.

FFRF strongly urges Walker to change his mind and reject Lifeshape's offer for him to join in on an overtly Christian expedition.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization based in Wisconsin itself with more than 27,000 members across the country, including more than 1,400 members in Wisconsin. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to represent the views of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and nonbelievers).

<embed src="http://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsnews_video.swf" scale="noscale" salign="lt" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" background="#000000" width="620" height="387" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="pType=embed&si=254&pid=JKGCodA2uuPH&uuid=301f6bb3-36fa-4424-a5c8-de7493f66397&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/west-virginia-public-schools-sued-over-bible-classes" />

A Florida judge says a prayer lawsuit against a high school athletic league should be tossed out. The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed an amicus brief in the case.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Amanda Arnold Sansone issued a Feb. 3 recommendation to dismiss a case brought by Cambridge Christian School against the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA). The First Liberty Institute, a Christian advocacy group, filed the suit in September, arguing that the association was mandated to allow Cambridge Christian to deliver a Christian prayer over the public address system at state championship events in which the school participates. Sansone found that Cambridge Christian's request for a preliminary injunction should be denied and its suit should be dismissed.

FFRF and its chapter, the Central Florida Freethought Community, filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that the school did not have a First Amendment right to commandeer the public address system. "Cambridge Christian wants to force a state agency to promote its Christian message through a mechanism limited to conveying government speech," FFRF stated in its brief.

The judge's recommendation likewise found that the prayer would be viewed as coming from the government. Sansone wrote that she reached "the inescapable conclusion that the nature of the entirety of the speech, including the proposed prayer, throughout the championship game over the loudspeaker is government speech."

Cambridge Christian's free exercise claim was also recommended for dismissal. The report noted that the suit did not include "a single allegation that Cambridge Christian or any of its members were deprived of their right to pray at the championship game. On the contrary, both Cambridge Christian's team and the opposing team were permitted to pray together at the most centrally focused and public area of the stadium — the 50-yard line." Sansone wrote that she "remains at a loss as to how the FHSAA's refusal to permit Cambridge Christian to utilize the FHSAA-controlled loudspeaker to broadcast the teams' pre-game prayer violated Cambridge Christian's or its members' rights under the Free Exercise Clause."

"The Central Florida Freethought Community applauds the magistrate judge's decision to dismiss, since Cambridge Christian was not denied the right to pray at all," says the organization's board member Keith Becher. "The FHSAA, as a state actor, has an appropriate policy in place and should be commended for following it. This is simply a case of a Christian school not being allowed to use the machinery of the government to further its mission of evangelism."

FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor adds, "This case represents an extraordinary sense of entitlement by a Christian school that wants to impose its religion on anyone who is present at a state-sponsored game."

The magistrate judge's report and recommendation was submitted to District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, who may adopt the recommendation or author her own decision.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation wholeheartedly supports a new bill to end immigration discrimination against people of any religious belief — including those with no religious belief.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., a former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, recently introduced in Congress the Freedom of Religion Act of 2017. The bill, which already has more than 100 co-sponsors, has clear language providing nontheists protection from the type of religion-based policies that the Trump administration has put into place. "Notwithstanding any other provision of the immigration laws, an alien may not be denied entry, re-entry, or admission to the United States, or any other immigration benefit, because of the alien's religion or lack of religious beliefs," a provision reads. 

FFRF enthusiastically applauds a bill that not only upholds the Establishment Clause but contains such a clear reference to nonbelievers' rights. It is urging its more than 26,000 members nationwide to actively support the Freedom of Religion Act. (The bill has also drawn support from leading human rights and civil liberties organizations such as Amnesty International and the ACLU.)

"In these troubled times, we're overjoyed that our nation's legislators are keeping in their consciousness the rights of freethinkers worldwide," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Good luck to Rep. Beyer's efforts."

The plight of nonbelievers in other countries is of deep concern to FFRF since the organization has been deeply involved through its charitable arm Nonbelief Relief Inc. to assist and relocate imperiled atheist Bangladeshi activists and bloggers.

Beyer wrote a moving column for Politico explaining his motivation for reintroducing the Freedom of Religion Act (a previous version died last session). The piece tells of the multiple miseries he witnessed during a recent visit to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., as a result of the new immigration rules. 

"The afternoon and early evening were spent with human story after story, some tragic, others sad, all frightened," he wrote. "Last year, worried about the possibility of a situation just like this, I introduced a bill called the Freedom of Religion Act. The bill would make it illegal to deny admission to the U.S. on the basis of religion. I will be reintroducing this legislation this week, and hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support it." 

FFRF also praises Rep. Mark Pocan, the member of Congress representing its hometown of Madison, Wis., for being among the co-sponsors of a bill profoundly inspired by our nation's foundational document.

"Religious freedom is a defining value of the United States, guaranteed by the Founding Fathers in the First Amendment of the Constitution," Beyer said in the press release introducing the Freedom of Religion Act of 2017. "Today's legislation won't erase the pain from President Trump's ban, but it will ensure that this sort of immoral action never happens again and show the world that America still honors its founding principles."

It couldn't be stated better.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a state/church watchdog organization with more than 26,000 nonreligious members nationally and chapters all over the country.

Image from FCNP.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is troubled about a Minnesota city backtracking on its removal of a cross from a public veterans park.

In Veterans Memorial Park in the city of Belle Plaine, there was a display — very recently added and without official approval — of a soldier kneeling before a Latin cross next to the city's own Veterans Memorial Stone. In response to a letter from FFRF's Managing Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert, the cross had been taken down a few weeks ago. Now it seems that the city may be on track to permitting the cross to be put back up. The Belle Plaine City Council seemingly caved in to immense local religious pressure.

"A controversial veterans memorial in Belle Plaine, Minn., will be restored to its original form, after a narrow vote by the city council Monday night," a local TV station reports. "On Monday, the city council voted 3-2 to establish a 'limited public forum' in the Veterans Park, which supporters believe would allow the cross to stay."

FFRF is very concerned by this turn of events. It finds the new policy to be subterfuge to keep the cross at a government veterans memorial. The purpose behind the newly proposed limited public forum is religiously motivated — to keep a Christian cross on government property — and thus calls into question the constitutionality of the policy.

If the proposal goes forward, FFRF will also consider proposing a memorial of its own: to atheists in foxholes. FFRF displays two such monuments — one at its offices in Madison, Wis., the other on campgrounds in Alabama. The full text of its proposed display in Belle Plaine reads: "In honor of atheists in foxholes and the countless freethinkers who have served this country with honor and distinction. With hope that in the future humankind may learn to avoid all war."

FFRF had objected to the cross on city land due to a number of reasons — all of which remain valid.

The cross showed an endorsement of religion over nonreligion. Additionally, FFRF asserted, the memorial sent a message that the government cares only about the death of Christian soldiers and was disdainful of the sacrifices made by non-Christian and nonreligious soldiers, since it excluded the one-third of the population that identifies as such. Putting the cross back up will again be an official violation of the First Amendment.

"There are ample tax-free church grounds to display Christian crosses," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Such sectarian symbols do not belong on public land."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit organization that works to protect the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. It represents more than 26,000 nonreligious members across the country, including almost 600 in Minnesota. The organization is working on this issue both as a state/church watchdog group and on behalf of its more than 6,000 members who are in the military or are veterans.