FFRF has awarded $35,000 in First in the Family Humanist Forward Freethought scholarships to eight students, thanks to the incredible generosity of FFRF benefactor Lance Bredvold. The students were selected by Black Skeptics Los Angeles (BSLA), an African American humanist-atheist-based organization.
Dulcinea Villareal
The main thing I try to do to instill these morals is accept everyone. But beyond that, I try to tell other people to accept everyone. In my town, there are a lot of conservatives with some very not nice things to say about queer people and those who aren’t Christian. It is a human right to belong, be loved, and not be alone. I always remind them that God said “love thy neighbor.” I tie these values back to their religious texts because I want to remind them that they don’t get to just pick and choose what ideas they follow and what ones they don’t. I’ve always seen a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to choosing what is right and wrong based on words in a book rather than what you feel is the right thing to do as a human being.
I’ve always followed the idea that you can control your own life based on your religion, but you cannot control my life based on your religion. I live by the notion that under all the layers of what makes us individuals, there is a base — human.
BSLA is the first secular humanist atheist organization to specifically address college pipelining for youth of color through its ongoing scholarship and college and K-12 youth leadership partnerships. FFRF has proudly partnered with BSLA for 11 years to provide tuition grants, gradually increasing the funding and number of scholarships.
FFRF member Lance Bredvold, who is not wealthy but is very generous, suggested the Forward Freethought College Fund, a needs-based tuition scholarship, and has contributed the bulk of the $200,000-plus received to date. Since 2018, more than $100,000 has been disbursed to help freethinking students who might not otherwise be able to attend college.
Those who would like to donate toward the Forward Freethought Fund, a needs-based scholarship dedicated to helping freethinking students who might otherwise be unable to attend college, may designate “tuition scholarships” in the ffrf.org/donate dropdown or earmark checks for “Forward Freethought Fund” or “tuition scholarships.” All donations to FFRF remain deductible for income-tax purposes.
“This initiative helps those who are really in need and are the generational vanguard of freethinkers,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “All the contributions we receive assist a truly worthy cause.”
