This caricature of the prayerful then-Gov. Rick Perry was used in FFRF protests over his 2011 prayer rally.
Rick Perry, to be named secretary of energy in Donald Trump's Alice in Wonderland cabinet, is another fanatically religious nominee who has tussled with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
On behalf of hundreds of members in Texas, FFRF and five of our Houston members sued Perry as Texas governor in July 2011 over Perry's initiation, organization, promotion and participation of a prayer event. Perry not only issued a proclamation that Aug. 6, 2011, was a "Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation's Challenges," but actually initiated the very call for the event. He videotaped an invitation posted at the official gubernatorial website asking citizens to turn to Jesus and ask for God's forgiveness. Perry said, "There is hope for America. It lies in heaven, and we will find it on our knees." FFRF's response was to tell Perry: "Get off your knees and get to work!"
Nobody would have trouble seeing the inappropriateness if a governor aligned himself with a radical Muslim group and used his office to call all citizens to a daylong "Prayer to Allah" rally. But the judge dismissed our lawsuit, ruling (what's new?) that the plaintiffs lacked standing. Perry did not, however, repeat the Texas prayer event.
There were other similar transgressions, though.
Perry as governor intruded into our complaint over cheerleaders at public high school games in the Texan city of Kountze. These cheerleaders had painted paper banners with New Testament bible verses for football players to run through at the start of games. Perry grandstanded in vocally siding with the cheerleaders.
He also delivered a belligerent and ill-informed response to our request to a Dallas-area county to remove a nativity scene.
"We have fought the Freedom from Religion Foundation before and won," Perry said through a spokesperson in a statement that completely misinterpreted the First Amendment. "Our founding principles give citizens freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Faith and freedom helped build this nation, and faith cannot and should not be removed from public life."
And he even issued a gubernatorial prayer proclamation for rain! It was to no avail; the state endured unprecedented wildfires after his decree.
In a very public display of his dogmatism, he signed with a flourish a bogus "Religious Freedoms" bill, announcing, "Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion."
How wrong Perry is, not just about the meaning of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but also about energy issues. It's so obvious that a climate change denier who opposes science education and the need for an Energy Department should not have been nominated to run that very department.
If he is confirmed, we can expect Perry to use his cabinet position to wreak havoc on the environment — and to unabashedly promote religion.
Watch out!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is strenuously objecting to a weekly bible study meeting that a state legislator has been organizing in the Wisconsin Capitol.
Every Wednesday morning from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., Wisconsin state Rep. Paul Tittl convenes a bible study group for legislators and their staff in his office in the Capitol building. Tittl has not only been arranging these unconstitutional gatherings, he has also been resisting FFRF's attempts to obtain details from him about the meetings. He claims that the get-togethers are personal in nature and have nothing to do with official matters.
FFRF contends that Tittl is wrong on a number of counts. First, any business conducted inside the Wisconsin Capitol is state business.
"As you must be aware, the Wisconsin State Capitol is state property, not your personal property," FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor writes to Tittl. "As such, it is regulated by specific rules, including the rule that the Capitol 'shall be used by state employees for state work.'"
And if Tittl wishes to claim that the bible study is indeed official work, then he must confront the fact that he is engaging in unconstitutional activity.
"This presents serious problems under the Wisconsin Constitution because the state is paying employees and legislators to engage in religious activities and because some employees may feel coerced to attend," Gaylor writes. "This also raises concern under the U.S. Constitution. Government employees acting in their official capacities may not proselytize or promote religion."
As a state legislator, Tittl serves a population that consists of not only bible believers but also atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Hindus and others, FFRF reminds him. When Tittl conducts bible study in the Capitol, he sends an official message of endorsement of religion over nonreligion and Christianity over all other religions, excluding the one-fourth of the population that is nonreligious.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a Wisconsin-based organization dedicated to the separation of state and church, with more than 24,000 members, including 1,300-plus in Wisconsin.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting the penalization of two San Diego State University students for refusing to participate in a choir performance at a church service.
A choir course that Patrick Walders teaches at San Diego State University is mandatory for certain degrees. In May, Walders asked his students to perform during a service at College Avenue Baptist Church. Two students demurred. The professor told them he would fail them if they didn't participate. The students stayed away, and Walders did flunk them, offering them no alternatives. The choir members who showed up reportedly had to sit through the sermon after their performance.
"As a state-run institution, San Diego State University is bound by the Constitution's Establishment Clause, which 'mandates government neutrality between religion and religion and between religion and nonreligion,'" as the U.S. Supreme Court has noted, FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler writes to San Diego State University President Elliot Hirshman. "The university's choir violates that constitutional mandate when it requires students to participate in choirs that perform at church services in order to pass a class."
The selection of a Baptist church as the site for a San Diego State choir performance demonstrates the school's preference for religion over nonreligion and for Christianity over other faiths, FFRF asserts. The university's choir should be particularly sensitive to respecting the rights and conscience of the nonreligious, since about 35 percent of millennials (the typical college demographic) are nonreligious. San Diego State is a secular university and should not be mandating religious choir performances. It is obligated to provide its students an advanced education free from religious endorsement.
Moreover, Walders is a professor at a public, secular university and should not blatantly disrespect the freedom of conscience of his students. It is unacceptable behavior for a professor to be failing students in a course because they did not attend an unconstitutional performance.
FFRF is asking San Diego State to select more appropriate, secular locations to hold its concerts and to investigate Walders' actions.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church, with 24,000 members nationwide, including more than 3,000 in California.
The governor of Iowa needs to rescind a recent bible-reading proclamation or face legal action from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Gov. Terry Branstad recently issued an official decree "encouraging all Iowans" to participate in the 99 County Bible Reading Marathon, to take place in front of all 99 Iowa courthouses starting the end of this month. The proclamation also "encourages individuals and families in Iowa to read through the bible on a daily basis until the Lord comes."
The proclamation is problematic on a lot of different levels, FFRF points out.
"By issuing this intensely religious proclamation and encouraging bible-reading, you send a message that Iowa prefers religion over nonreligion, and the Christian religion over any other religion," FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel writes to Gov. Terry Branstad. "The separation between state and church is among the most fundamental principles of our system of government. Our founders valued this principle, and your proclamation betrays their sacrifice."
The decree is filled with troubling explicitly theological declarations, such as that the "bible is recognized as the one true revelation from God, showing the way to salvation, truth and life" and that it is "God's revealed will for mankind." FFRF asserts that such statements violate the government's most sacred obligation—to let citizens worship without fear or coercion. It is therefore an abuse of the governor's office and power.
The proclamation also contains a number of errors. It attributes to Andrew Jackson a quote that quite certainly does not exist. It makes the founding fathers seem like devout Christians, counter to the historical record. And it declares the bible a panacea for our social ills, which is contrary to all real-world evidence.
FFRF is calling for the governor to rescind the unconstitutional proclamation. If Branstad does not, the organization plans to file a legal challenge.
"It's beyond the civil powers of a governor to use his office to promote belief in a god, to single out one religion's so-called holy book, to participate in a marathon bible reading—much less to encourage citizens to read it daily 'until the Lord comes,'" says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Imagine the outcry if the governor signed a proclamation to encourage daily reading of the Koran—or Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion.' Encouraging reading of the Christian bible is equally inappropriate."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church, with 23,800 nonreligious members nationwide, including almost 200 in Iowa.
A fire department in the state of Washington has agreed to stop posting religious messages on its outdoor marquee, following a Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint.
The Oakville Fire Department, Grays Harbor Fire District #1 had put up a sign last holiday season reading: "Unto us a savior is born, Merry Christmas." It was temporarily taken down after a citizen complained, but was then put back up. FFRF pointed out its inappropriateness and unconstitutionality.
"The U.S. Supreme Court has stated: 'The government may acknowledge Christmas as a cultural phenomenon, but under the First Amendment it may not observe it as a Christian holy day by suggesting people praise God for the birth of Jesus,'" FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler wrote to Oakville Fire Chief Kevin Witt back in December. "Furthermore, other federal courts have upheld restrictions on the display of religious materials by government entities because such restrictions exist to avoid violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."
The Constitution must be honored, no matter how many people favor the government's promotion of Christianity, FFRF emphasized. The Constitution requires strict government neutrality on religion to respect the rights of all citizens, including the more than 23 percent who are nonreligious.
The Oakville Fire Department recently responded that it has complied with FFRF's request.
"I am pleased to inform you that at the commission's meeting in January 2016, it is noted in the minutes that there will not be any more religious messages on the Fire Department reader board," replied Deanna Lindholm, secretary of the Oakville Fire Department. "It reads in the minutes that the Fire Department will uphold the laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution of the United States of America."
FFRF is gratified by the response.
"We are glad that the Oakville Fire Department has recognized the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "This time, we trust that there will be no backsliding."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church, with 23,800 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 1,000 and a chapter in Washington.
A national scholarship contest for high school freethinkers of color is open to entries.
The First in the Family Catherine Fahringer Memorial Scholarships, administered by the Black Skeptics Group Los Angeles and underwritten by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, are available to high school youth in the United States who identify as atheist, agnostic, humanist and/or secular and are accepted into two or four-year colleges. Preference is given to students of color. Four $2,500 scholarships are awarded nationally to high school youth to assist with their college tuition, room and board, books and other academic resources. The deadline is June 17.
Students need to write between 400 and 700 words on the following topic: Humanism is based on the belief that every human being should be treated equally regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and disability status. Human beings, not gods, are solely responsible for creating social change. Why do you identify as nonreligious/secular and what issue(s) are you passionate about addressing in your community? How might humanism make a positive difference in creating social change?
Students should also include a letter of recommendation from an adviser or a teacher and a copy of their admission letter to a two- or four-year college. (They can attach a separate page listing their participation in school and/or community-based organizations if this is not mentioned in their letter of recommendation.)
Last year's winners, who were from all regions of the country, offered profound insights on the challenges of being a freethinker.
"Too many religious people insist upon waiting for 'God' to make a change," Mercedes Hawkins wrote. "They fail to realize that the change is in them and it is their duty to cultivate it outwardly. Once more people embrace humanism, we will freely celebrate our differences in beliefs and promote acceptance."
Zera Montemayor hoped for a better future. She ended with, "I want to be able to tell people I am an atheist without it ruining friendships. I believe humanism is the answer."
Catherine Fahringer was a San Antonio-based feminist and freethinking activist who ran a FFRF chapter for a long time and served on FFRF's executive board for many years. She was especially interested in nurturing the next generation of independent thinkers.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is dedicated to the separation of state and church and the promotion of freethought, with 23,800 nonreligious members all over the country. It hosts or underwrites a number of student essay and activist awards.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has once again received a stellar assessment from the country's premier nonprofit charity rating organization.
FFRF has for the sixth consecutive year gotten the highest four-star ranking from Charity Navigator in its just-released annual survey. Four stars indicate that the state/church watchdog organization is collecting and spending donation money in an exemplary way.
FFRF scores very well as compared to its peers in a number of categories. In the Human and Civil Rights category, for instance, it has an overall score of 97.17, much higher than the average. Its revenue growth and program growth are three times the average, as is its net revenue for the year.
Similarly, in the Advocacy and Education category, FFRF's overall score of 97.17 is once more much higher than the average. Its revenue and program growth are again three times the average.
And FFRF does superbly in comparison to other charities based in its home state, since its overall score is way higher than the Wisconsin average. And still again, its revenue growth and program growth are many times that of its peers.
In key areas, its numbers are lower than its fellow nonprofits. Its CEO compensation is tens of thousands of dollars less than that for its counterparts in all three categories. Its fundraising expenses as a portion of its budget are a tiny fraction of the average.
"Charity Navigator issues the gold standard of nonprofit ratings, and so we are delighted that we've been rated 24 karat," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "This sends an important message to all our members and donors that their donations are going to work for intended purposes and not for fundraising bells and whistles."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is the country's largest freethought organization, with 23,800 nonreligious members nationwide.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, with local member Andrew DeFaria, is suing the city of Santa Clara, Calif., to remove a gigantic cross from a local public park.
The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
FFRF, the plaintiff organization, is a national association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) that works to keep religion out of government. It has 23,700 members, including more than 3,100 in California.
The defendants are the city of Santa Clara, Santa Clara City Council, Mayor Lisa Gillmor, Vice Mayor Teresa O'Neill and other members of the city council. Santa Clara, which bills itself as "The Mission City," is about 45 miles southeast of San Francisco.
The 14-foot granite Latin cross at Memorial Cross Park that FFRF and DeFaria are suing about officially commemorates a 1777 Spanish Catholic mission. The prominent Christian edifice was donated by the Santa Clara Lions Club in 1953, with the city maintaining the cross and the park ever since. FFRF contends that the city's decision to accept the cross and its subsequent display and maintenance "amounts to the advancement of religion," specifically Christianity.
FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert first complained in April 2012 to the city's then-mayor, Jamie L. Matthews. The city indicated two months later that it looked forward "to resolving this matter in an expeditious and responsible manner."
In the past three years, on at least 12 occasions, Markert and other FFRF employees have followed up on the status of the cross's removal. But the city's only action to date has been to remove a sign reading "Memorial Cross Park."
DeFaria, who lives in Santa Clara, has encountered the cross at the park. "As a nonbeliever in any religion, he finds the cross on public land objectionable," the lawsuit says. DeFaria now avoids the park, and even the street on which the park is located, so he won't have to encounter his city's endorsement of the Christian religion.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and DeFaria are asking the court to declare the city cross in violation of Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the No Preference Clause of Article I, § 4 of the California Constitution.
"It should not be necessary to sue over such an obvious and blatant establishment of religion," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We waited four years for the city to act in good faith and divest itself of this unconstitutional endorsement of religion, and were left with no recourse but to go to court."
FFRF v. City of Santa Clara is being litigated on behalf of FFRF by David J.P. Kaloyanides, with FFRF attorneys Rebecca Markert and Madeline Ziegler serving as co-counsel.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is joining in a protest this Tuesday against a Christian-organized "Jesus Lunch" at Middleton High School in Middleton, Wis.
For the past couple of years, a parents' group has held weekly lunches at Fireman's Memorial Park, adjacent to the high school, in which organizers have handed out bibles, engaged in proselytization and given out free food—all contrary to the wishes of the Middleton-Cross Plains School District. In doing so, the parents are violating a city agreement that gives the district the right to decide use of the park.
"FFRF strongly supports—and actively fights for—the rights of free speech and free assembly as embodied in the First Amendment," writes FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne in a letter to Don Johnson, superintendent of the Middleton-Cross Plains School District. "However, these basic rights have reasonable limits when applied to school campuses. The district is well within its right to regulate large groups targeting district students, especially when those groups violate district rules and regulations."
FFRF has been invited by a student leading a protest Tuesday against the weekly event and plans to be there to offer some support—and a little fuel—to the protesting students and any students who drop by. FFRF will offer dessert to students: chocolate cookies, brownies and cupcakes.
The organization will have copies of the guidelines for FFRF's essay contest for college-bound seniors (offering more than $7,500 in prizes), its brochure about the top ten state/church violations in public schools, and various FFRF publications, including "What's Wrong with the Ten Commandments" and "Why Women Need Freedom From Religion."
"We don't think any adults, whether missionaries or atheists or those purveying commercial enterprises, should be allowed to move in opportunistically like this upon what is essentially a captive audience of students," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "But if the 'Jesus Lunches' aren't going to be stopped, the Freedom From Religion Foundation plans to be there too, providing some desserts and some freethinking balance."
The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is an organization dedicated to the separation of state and church with 23,700 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 1,300 in Wisconsin.
Statement by Annie Laurie Gaylor
Co-President
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Perhaps our country is turning a corner. A highly conservative, Republican Southern governor has done the right thing, and today vetoed an overtly unconstitutional bill to declare the "Holy Bible" Tennessee's "state book." From the start, Gov. Bill Haslam has indicated his discomfort with this bill. The Attorney General even issued a statement against it. It is just about impossible to imagine a more egregious and obvious violation of the Establishment Clause, even for this Tennessee Legislature to conjure up.
Imagine if, some day as the Muslim population grows, a legislature sought to declare the Koran a state book. Or, as the secular population grows, to declare Richard Dawkins' "God Delusion" a "state book." It's equally inappropriate and coercive to endorse the Christian bible. Government may not take sides on religion.
Bill Haslam not only vetoed the bill, but he issued a strong statement (below) affirming the Establishment Clause and explaining why the bill is unconstitutional. May I say, Governor, "Hallelujah!"
The legislature in Tennessee can override a veto with a mere majority vote. Let's hope it listens to a voice of reason.
Thanks to efforts by local activists and national freethought groups, the Chino Valley Town Council in Arizona voted unanimously Tuesday to drop prayers from governmental meetings.
The Freedom From Religion was the first group to intervene after local activists' protests made news. FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler wrote letters on Jan. 14 and Feb. 10 objecting to the practice.
Last December, a local resident expressed dismay about the councilor-delivered invocations always ending "in Jesus' name." In response to the complaint, Councilmember Lon Turner on Jan. 8 publicly declared he would continue to pray in Jesus' name, claiming that the citizen's request was an attempt to "tread on" his religion and "freedom of expression."
"It is coercive, embarrassing, and intimidating for nonreligious citizens to either make a public showing of their nonbelief by defying the Mayor's call to stand and participate, or else to display deference toward a religious sentiment in which they do not believe," Ziegler pointed out in her January letter.
Although originally promising there would be no invocation while controversy was discussed, Mayor Chris Marley at the following meeting personally conducted the invocation, reading a "disclaimer" that the prayer was his "personal belief." Local Rabbi Adele Plotkin, who had attended the meeting on the understanding that there would be no Christian prayer, audibly protested and was removed from the council chambers. The council decided not to change its practice, with Marley declaring the lack of action was "drawing a line in the sand in defense of freedom of religion and free expression."
Ziegler sent another letter after these antics: "It is alarming that the members of the Chino Valley Town Council do not understand that you are acting as the government at Town Council meetings, and not as private individuals. Town Council members, sitting in the Council chambers at a Town Council meeting, are not private citizens with the right to free exercise of religion. Instead, you are representatives of Chino Valley, Arizona, which has a constitutional duty to remain neutral on religious matters."
Letters from the ACLU and Americans United for Church and State followed.
An attorney for the town wrote to FFRF on Feb. 29, saying, "In light of your letter and letters from other interested groups, the Council is reconsidering the practice and continuing discussions regarding its future invocation policies." At its April 12 meeting, the council voted to have invocations in private (although not before performing one last public invocation.)
Turner reportedly expressed regret at having "to make decisions based on monetary reasons," and the "small community" being "infringed upon" by "the likes of the ACLU, Freedom From Religion." Vice-Mayor Darryl Croft asked "How do we as a council try to make, and allow, these meetings to be for everyone? I think we have to do that, unfortunately, that hurts."
Other councilors were more gracious. Susan Cuka acknowledged that some people had been alienated by the prayers and criticized for their religions, noting, "They don't appreciate the fact that government officials that are in charge of making decisions for a community may specify a specific religion and therefore make them feel uncomfortable."
Marley said he was affected by "an individual coming before council with a request, who was from a different culture and from a different religious background, and to see a member of this legislative body lead the invocation, would give the impression, now not necessarily a reality, but it would give the impression, or the appearance, that the local government was endorsing a specific religion."
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor hailed the change. "As this situation showed, religion in government is innately divisive. It invariably leads to majority believers being treated as insiders, and minorities and nonbelievers as outsiders. We thank the Chino Valley Town Council for doing the right thing, and very much appreciate their thoughtful debate to keep meetings inclusive and welcoming to all citizens."
FFRF is the nation's largest organization of freethinkers with more than 23,500 members, including over 500 members and a chapter in Arizona.
Note: This matter is not to be confused with FFRF's federal lawsuit in Chino Valley, Calif., challenging sectarian prayers before school board meetings there. FFRF has won round one in that case.