A California city council nixed a multimillion-dollar grant to a private religious school after the Freedom From Religion Foundation objected.

The Santa Ana City Council was considering a $2.5 million grant to Mater Dei High School, a Catholic institution, for construction of a new building and parking garage. FFRF called attention to the fact that the funding would have been a violation of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the California Constitution.

"The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from supporting religious activities with public funds," FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne wrote to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and City Council members. "The city of Santa Ana violates this principle when it funds the expansion of a private parochial school."

Jayne additionally detailed how the California Constitution prohibits such funding and urged the Santa Ana City Council not to disburse any money to the Mater Dei High School.

After receiving FFRF's missive, the Santa Ana City Council had second thoughts.

"Please be aware that the City Council agenda item referenced in the letter from Mr. Ryan Jayne has been removed," Daniel Soto from the city manager's office responded in an email. "City staff has not suggested that the item be placed back on any future City Council meeting agenda for consideration."

A city council member thanked FFRF for reporting the problem and expressed support for its position.

FFRF is elated at the city's about-face.

"We were dismayed that Santa Ana was possibly going to channel millions of taxpayer dollars to a sectarian religious entity," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We're glad that it saw the light."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church, with nearly 24,000 nonreligious members all over the country, including more than 3,000 in California.

Photo under CC 3.0 by Gzamora1

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is sending an important election-year message to the good people of Mississippi. A highway billboard in Tupelo stresses to Mississippians: "God Fixation Won't Fix This Nation."

The message is going up on July 1 on a digital billboard at the intersection of Main and Gloster in the city and will remain there for a month. FFRF is a state/church watchdog group with 24,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including almost 100 in Mississippi.

FFRF's billboard message is very appropriate for Mississippi. The state is the most religious in the country (tied with Alabama), with 77 percent of adult Mississippians saying that they are "very religious," according to the Pew Research Center. At the same time, it consistently ranks at or near the bottom in quality of life. A recent survey found it to be the worst state in the country to live in, with "the lowest annual median household income and the highest poverty rate in the nation," as well as the lowest life expectancy. 

"We lose sight of human needs when we fixate on gods," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "When we have faith in ourselves, we won't need faith in gods."

This is FFRF's first billboard in Mississippi, underwritten by a lifetime member of the organization who resides in Tupelo, but prefers not to be identified. Even though Mississippi has a pattern of violations of the constitutional separation of state and church, FFRF membership has been low, and the organization hopes with its Mississippi billboard to also draw the attention of freethinkers living in the state.

"We welcome with open arms any nontheists living in Mississippi," adds Gaylor. "Groups like ours provide comfort and solace to folks whose nonbelief can make them feel like outsiders in their own communities."

A religious public school marquee was quickly taken down after a Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint.

Morristown Jr./Sr. High School in Morristown, Ind., posted "MAY GOD BLESS YOU" as part of its 2016 congratulatory message for its graduating students. Public schools may not endorse a religious message, FFRF reminded the Shelby Eastern Schools Corporation.

"The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits government sponsorship of religious messages," FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne wrote to Shelby Eastern Schools Superintendent Robert Evans. "The U.S. Supreme Court has said time and again that the 'First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.'" 

FFRF asked that the "MAY GOD BLESS YOU" message be removed from the school marquee.

The school district responded immediately to FFRF's request.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," Evans emailed the day after receiving Jayne's letter. "The marquee will be changed promptly."

FFRF hails the quick turnaround.

"It's nice to see a school district rectifying its misstep so quickly," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "However, public schools should know from the get-go that religious display signs are never appropriate."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to separation of state and church, with 24,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 300 in Indiana.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its Cleveland chapter are mounting an impressive 14-by-48-foot message to the Republican National Convention: Keep church and state separate.

That message on a highway billboard comes from an unexpected source: President Ronald Reagan. "We establish no religion in this country . . . Church and state are, and must remain, separate," he said in the quote featured on the billboard.

The board is going up this week in Cleveland on Interstate Highway 71 north of 480 and will remain up for a month. FFRF is a state/church watchdog group with 24,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 600 in Ohio.

Reagan made the remarks in a speech on Oct. 26, 1984, to the Temple Hillel leaders in Valley Stream, N.Y.

The quote, in full, reads:

"We in the United States, above all, must remember that lesson, for we were founded as a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. And so we must remain. Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism. We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief."

FFRF, a nonpartisan nonprofit, will also be taking a message to the Democratic National Convention.

"The RNC needs to be reminded that our nation is predicated on a godless and entirely secular Constitution," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "The fate of our Establishment Clause hangs in the balance of the election. We're not voting for the next president—we're voting for the next Supreme Court justice."

Marni Huebner-Tiborsky, the director of the Northern Ohio Freethought Society, a chapter of FFRF, agrees. "This billboard couldn't be any more timely, and is definitely needed to remind our political leaders and the public that political campaigns should stick to a secular platform, where real change can happen," she says.

FFRF wishes to thank Loren Miller, a chapter member, for suggesting the Reagan quote.

A Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint about a creationist movie has made sure that it will not be shown again in a Colorado public school.

Carl Christianssen, a science teacher at Dakota Ridge High School, showed a video in class called "Unlocking the Mysteries of Life" that has been endorsed by the Campus Crusade for Christ. The video unequivocally endorses the false opinion that the natural universe "can only be explained by intelligent design."

Teaching creationism or any of its offshoots, such as intelligent design, in a public school is unlawful, because creationism is not based in fact, FFRF reminded the Jeffco Public Schools system. Courts have routinely found that such teachings are religious, despite new and imaginative labels given to these alternatives to evolution.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the teaching of 'scientific creationism' in public schools," FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote to Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Dan McMinimee. "Federal courts consistently reject creationism and its ilk in public schools."

FFRF emphasized that evolution, like gravity, is a scientific fact and that teaching intelligent design alongside it is like teaching astrology with astronomy or alchemy with chemistry. FFRF asked the school district to conduct an immediate investigation.

Jeffco Public Schools proved to be responsive to FFRF's concerns. School officials confirmed FFRF's account and stated that they're making certain the video is removed from the classroom.

"The district staff members develop approved list of videos for curriculum content," McMinimee replied to Seidel. "The video was not on our approved list, and, therefore, we have taken remedial actions designed to ensure that this video is not shown again." 

FFRF welcomes the assurance.

"Unscientific mumbo-jumbo like intelligent design has no place in a public school classroom," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "It doesn't even bear a passing resemblance to reality, and so should not be taught to our students."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church, with nearly 24,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including almost 700 in Colorado.

Photo via Shutterstock by Hxdbzxy

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking for an end to an unconstitutional tie-up between a Wisconsin school district and a parochial preschool.

In Beaver Dam Unified School District, 3-year-old public school students with developmental delays are often sent to private preschools. FFRF's complainant, who has an eligible child, was offered only one choice: a Catholic school, St. Katherine's, whose preschool is named God's Little Miracles. To quote the school itself, its "program is based on the theme 'Thank you, God.'" Materials the complainant received from a Beaver Dam Unified School District teacher contained many religious references and images, such as goals that include "Learn about a loving and caring God" and "Develop Christian attitudes." The materials also depict a "Birthday Blessing" in action.

"It is wildly inappropriate for the School District to send 3-year-old public school students to private schools for religious instruction," FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne writes to Stephen Vessey, superintendent of the Beaver Dam Unified School District. "Court have repeatedly struck down public school practices that affiliate public schools with religious groups and religious instruction. By sending students to receive religious instruction at St. Katherine's, the district is violating this constitutional principle." 

The teacher reportedly assured the FFRF complainant that the God's Little Miracles program does not involve religious instruction. But the materials show that this is not the case.

From the name itself to the pervasive nature of religion in its goals and teachings, God's Little Miracles is not an appropriate place for a public school to send children for learning. The current policy is especially egregious, with a captive audience of impressionable 3-year-olds with developmental delays.

"With a Christian god permeating everything in the curriculum of this preschool, it's absurd for the Beaver Dam Unified School District to send preschoolers to God's Little Miracles," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Public schools can't excuse such overt religiosity."

FFRF is requesting that the Beaver Dam Unified School District cease any partnership with St. Katherine's, unless and until it completely revamps its program to make it totally secular.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a Wisconsin-based organization dedicated to the separation of state and church, with almost 24,000 members, including more than 1,300 in Wisconsin.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is objecting to gender discrimination at a New York public pool.

At the Metropolitan Pool, owned and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, there are women-only hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The hours were temporarily eliminated but were brought back under pressure from N.Y. Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Hikind claims that the Parks Department is being "culturally sensitive" in allowing women-only swimming sessions. But in actuality, it is catering to a tiny segment of the population whose religious tenets require separation of the genders for such activities: the Orthodox Jews. By being "culturally sensitive" to one group, the Parks Department is being culturally insensitive to everyone else, and is depriving men access to the pool at certain times. This sends a message to all non-Orthodox Jews that they are outsiders.

"New York may not allow particular religious views to affect public property rules, and the intent of the women-only hours at the Metropolitan Pool is clearly only to benefit a small religious community," FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert writes to New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mitchell Silver. "Furthermore, the government cannot promote one religion over another or nonreligion over religion, since, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, the First Amendment 'requires the state to be neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and nonbelievers.'"

FFRF is asking that the women-only hours at the Metropolitan Pool be discontinued to end an unconstitutional policy.

"In catering to the religious desires of a portion of the population, New York City is ignoring the U.S. Constitution," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "The city cannot bend and twist the law to accede to the political clout of one group."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 24,000 nonreligious members all over the country, including almost 1,300 in the state of New York.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting religious decals on patrol vehicles in Kansas.

The Harper Police Department has placed a decal on the back of patrol cars reading "Romans 13:4." The New Testament verse in question reads as follows: "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (King James Version).

Displaying a decal referencing this ominous Christian threat violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, FFRF contends.

"The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the First Amendment 'mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion,'" FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel writes to Harper Police Chief Doug Murphy. "Placing decals referencing biblical quotes on the back of a law enforcement vehicle fails to respect either constitutional mandate of neutrality." 

It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for a government entity to display such a decal on its property because it conveys a preference by the Harper Police Department—and by extension, the city of Harper—for religion over nonreligion and Christianity over all minority faiths, Seidel adds. Citizens interact with and rely on law enforcement officers during some of the most urgent and vulnerable times of their lives. When law enforcement mandates the display of a symbol from a preferred religion on county property, not only does it unconstitutionally endorse religion, but also alienates the nearly 30 percent of Americans who are non-Christian, including the almost one-fourth of the U.S. population that is religiously unaffiliated.

The Harper Police Department's choice of verse to display is particularly disturbing. Romans 13 begins by claiming, "There is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God." This statement directly conflicts with the U.S. Constitution's source of power: "We, the People." There is also something perverse about referring to "revengers," "bearing swords" and "executing wrath," when the job of the Harper Police Department is to protect and serve, not to mete out biblical punishments or divine wrath.

"It's bizarre for the Harper Police Department to go down this road," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "It is inappropriate at every level for a government agency to reference intimidating biblical verses on official property."

Spending taxpayer time and money placing religious symbols on patrol cars is beyond the scope of secular government, FFRF reminds the Harper Police Department. It requests that the Romans 13:4 decals be removed from police vehicles, and that the department inform FFRF in writing of the steps it intends to take to remedy this constitutional violation. FFRF recently settled a lawsuit with nearly identical facts against the Brewster County Sheriff Department in Texas. That sheriff put crosses on vehicles, ignored FFRF's letters of complaint, and ended up losing a lawsuit, costing the county about $20,000 in attorney fees. 

FFRF is a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to the separation of state and church, with almost 24,000 nonreligious members across the country, including nearly 150 members in Kansas.