Sgt. Tobin Atkinson (left) and members of his Army unit at Kandahar Airport on New Year’s Day 2003.

Name: Tobin Atkinson.
Where I live: Salt Lake City, Utah, where I was born and raised.
Family: I’ve been married to northern Virginia native Marynell Hinton since 2008.
Education: B.S. in theater and history, Southern Utah University; master’s in directing, University of Utah; MBA in entrepreneurship, American Military University.
Occupation: Education specialist, Veterans Administration; artistic director, Meat & Potato Theatre (meatandpotato.org). The name Meat & Potato stems from the meaning “of fundamental importance: basic; also: concerned with or emphasizing the basic aspects of something.”
Military service: U.S. Army Infantry, 2000-04 (special assignment to Army Entertainment, where I was tasked to take a play to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and Japan). I was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Belvoir, Virginia. One month before my separation from the Army, I joined the Atheists in Foxholes march on D.C., a small, but fun-loving group. We had a great time.
How I got where I am today: Hard work, clean living, pure heart and a winsome smile. LOL! But seriously, it’s good people that kept (and keep) me honest. This includes parents, NCOs, theater directors, teachers and an incredible wife.
A quotation I like: “There is nothing more satisfying than watching the self-righteous fall.” (My mother after watching a news story on Ted Haggard)
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
“You put your hand on the bible and swore to uphold the Constitution; you didn’t put your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the bible.” (Maryland lawyer/now-state Sen. Jamie Raskin, testifying on a same-sex marriage bill in 2006)
These are a few of my favorite things: I’ve always loved the theater, on which most of my education has focused. I’m a member of the actors’ union, and I co-founded Plan B Theatre and Meat & Potato Theatre in Salt Lake City.
These are not: Religious hypocrisy (seriously, if you’re going to look down your nose at me, you had better be living a better life than I am, but most aren’t).
My doubts about religion started: I grew up in a nonreligious family, so doubt started very, very early. Being a freethinker in the theocracy of the Beehive State forces you to start defending your nonbeliefs at a very early age.
Early high school was my first encounter with “I don’t have to explain why I don’t believe in god. You’re the one saying there’s an invisible man up in the sky. Explain that, Jack.”
Why I’m a freethinker: I was raised as one. My father quit the Mormons at about age 16. My mother quit even earlier. She started asking questions in Mormon Sunday school, and the next week she was ushered into the nursery to take care of babies while mothers were in sacrament meeting. It was the last time she went to church.
I grew up being taught to rely on my own cognitive abilities, so that’s the way I lived life. People have always accomplished more than god. Hard, intelligent work has done more good than a billion prayers ever will do. (“No supernatural ingredients were used in the making of this life.”) 
Ways I promote freethought: Over the years, I’ve adopted a much more subtle, almost subversive, approach to promoting freethought. Gone are the days of the toe-to-toe arguments. I let characters in the plays I write have those rants. Instead, I will usually have an exchange in private with someone. I’ve found that it gives them the opportunity to open up and really say what they’re thinking.
I try to use humor to call attention to religious hypocrisy, an illogical religious assumption or a lie. I’m surprised at how many closeted liberals there are in Utah, and when I find one, I always remind them that no one knows whom they vote for when they go into that booth.
Most of the plays we produce with Meat & Potato promote freethinking. We did a “1984” in which party members’ armbands had a Christian cross in a white circle on a field of red (akin to the Nazi armband). In a recent adaptation of “The Odyssey,” we purposely never mentioned any of the Greek gods from the original text. Odysseus and the others created and solved their problems without being able to blame them on some supernatural power.
There’s also an incredibly subtle thing we do with plays to promote freethinking. We always admit that the thing we are creating and you are watching is a play. It even states in our mission that we will create plays that are overtly theatrical: farces, musicals, dumbshows (pantomime), puppets, masks, etc. Why? Because doing so invites the audience to participate in the event on stage.
We take as our cue the idea that thousands of years ago, theater evolved from one person of the tribe sitting on that side of the fire telling a story to people sitting on this side of the fire. There is no “fourth wall” (the imaginary boundary between a fictional work and its audience).
We never ask audiences to “suspend their disbelief,” because that’s religion’s job, not ours. (Suspension of disbelief is when people know that those are actors on stage, they know it’s not real, and yet they are willing to accept that what is happening is real.) Our job in the theater has always been to entertain, to tell a good story, to watch a hero struggle so that we don’t have to. And when the play is over, we know what we saw was fantasy.
Our audiences never walk out of our theater thinking that that really, actually happened — unlike those who read certain religious texts.

This essay by longtime Charleston [W.V.] Gazette Editor James Haught, a FFRF member, is part of an upcoming book edited by John W. Loftus titled “Christianity Is Not Great.”

The worst aspect of Christianity is that it makes no sense, and most of its 2.2 billion believers around the planet cannot see the illogic. Let me explain:

More than any other faith, Christianity teaches that an all-loving, all-merciful, all-powerful, benevolent father-creator made the universe and everything it contains. Ministers focus on God’s special fatherly love for his favorites: people.

But if a supernatural spirit made everything, he also made breast cancer that kills women, leukemia that ravages children, brain tumors, malaria, tapeworms, spina bifida, Down syndrome, flesh-eating bacteria and many other torments that sicken or kill his human offspring. Further, he must have made tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, floods and sundry disasters that mangle and maim great masses of people. Remember the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that drowned 200,000, mostly children? Did “our father which art in heaven” just watch as a spectator?

How many desperate parents pray fervently for God to save their cancer-stricken children — to no avail? Their anguished hopes find only silence.

In addition to this cruelty toward people, the animal kingdom that the loving creator supposedly made — “every living creature that moveth” — is a hell of killing and eating. Tennyson wrote of “nature, red in tooth and claw.” Did you know that rabbits scream when ripped by a fox’s fangs? I heard it once, and I still feel my shudder. Also, with my grandchildren, I put corn in trees for squirrels, until a hawk swooped away with a muncher.

Mark Twain wrote: “The spider kills the fly, and eats it; the bird kills the spider, and eats it; the wildcat kills the goose; the — well, they all kill each other. It is murder all along the line.”

Charles Templeton, a brilliant Canadian evangelist who toured with Billy Graham, later lost his faith and denounced the absurdity of believing in a kindly father-creator. Here’s his observation:

“All life is predicated on death. Every carnivorous creature must kill and devour another creature. It has no option. . . . Why does God’s grand design require creatures with teeth designed to crush spines and rend flesh, claws fashioned to seize and tear, venom to paralyze, mouths to suck blood, coils to constrict and smother — even expandable jaws so that prey may be swallowed whole and alive? . . . Life is a carnival of blood. . . . How could a loving and omnipotent god create such horrors?”

Some insects even plant their eggs inside others, so the hatching offspring can devour the hosts alive, from within. If a mighty Intelligent Designer devised all these things, he’s a monster, not a merciful father. No human would be so cruel. Why would anyone worship such a vicious creator, and insist that the heavenly father is Pure Love? See what I mean about illogic?

Rationality doesn’t rule out a malicious, sadistic creator-god, but it definitely scuttles the possibility of a merciful one. In philosophy, this inescapable conclusion is called the “problem of evil.” It was first articulated 24 centuries ago by Epicurus in ancient Greece.

Ever since, holy men have twisted themselves into pretzels trying to concoct rebuttals that hold water, but they all leak. A successful rebuttal is impossible. Instead of trying to warp reality to fit theology, a wise person concludes that there is only one believable answer: An all-loving, all-powerful father-creator cannot exist. Nature alone wrought the world’s evils.

Freud explains religion

Christianity is illogical in various other ways. Consider these:

• The bewildering dogma of the Trinity says father, son and holy ghost are separate, yet the same being, and all three have existed eternally. Does this mean that Jesus impregnated his own virgin mother, causing himself to be born?

• Homo sapiens sapiens has existed in fully modern form for perhaps 100,000 years, more than 3,000 generations. But Christianity has existed only 2,000 years. Some churches say Jesus is the only conduit to heaven. So what happened to the 2,940 generations of people who died in the preceding 98,000 years? Posthumously, were the “saved” among them declared retroactive Christians?

• Hundreds of past gods and religions have vanished, such as the Aztec faith, whose priests sacrificed victims to an invisible feathered serpent. Are Christianity’s three gods (or one) less perishable?

• Many Christian end-of-the-world predictions, including one in 2011 by an American evangelist, proved false. New predictions undoubtedly will emerge, and be just as silly.

• No scientific evidence supports any of the church’s miracle claims. The only supposed proofs are ancient writings similar to mythology tales.

• It’s often asserted that Christianity makes people better. If so, why do hundreds of priests and evangelists molest children and commit other “black-collar crimes”? And why did believers inflict centuries of faith-based killings in Crusades, witch hunts, the Inquisition, Reformation wars, pogroms against Jews, drowning of Anabaptists, etc.?

• Most of the brightest thinkers throughout Western history — philosophers, scientists, writers, democracy reformers and other “greats” — have doubted the church’s supernatural claims. Current skeptics stand alongside those towering minds.

In the face of such evidence, why does much of humanity still believe in a father-god? Sigmund Freud saw a clear explanation, as follows:

Tiny tots see a huge father looming over them, loving them, punishing them, protecting them. The image embeds in the infantile subconscious. Years later, when their biological father has lost his awesome majesty, they’re told that an invisible, divine father looms over them, loving them, punishing them, protecting them. Bingo — the buried subconscious image makes the god claim seems true.

“The god-creator is openly called Father,” Freud wrote. “Psychoanalysis concludes that he really is the father, clothed in the grandeur in which he once appeared to the small child. The religious man. . . looks back on the memory-image of the overrated father of his childhood, exalts it into a deity, and brings it into the present and into reality. The emotional strength of this memory-image and the lasting nature of his need for protection are the two supports for his belief in God.”

When all evidence and knowledge are tallied, thinking people should reach the inevitable conclusion that all gods, devils, heavens, hells, angels, demons, miracles, saviors and other supernatural entities are just fairy tales — fantasies that grew in the fertile human imagination.

Evangelist-turned-skeptic Charles Templeton ended his book, Farewell to God:

“I believe there is no supreme being with human attributes — no god in the biblical sense — but that all life is the result of timeless evolutionary forces. . . . I believe that, in common with all living creatures, we die and cease to exist.”

An honest person can reach no other conclusion.

Name: John Senter Compere.
Where I live: Chandler, Ariz.
Where and when I was born: Ellisville, Miss., Oct. 17, 1934. When I tell people I grew up in Mississippi, I usually add, “Please don’t hold that against me. I left as soon as I found out you could!”
Family: Joyce Compere, wife; Layne Starling, daughter; Virginia Starling, granddaughter; LouAnn Vaughn, daughter (husband Scott Vaughn); Padgett, Rachael and Sydney Vaughn, granddaughters; Lee Compere, son; Shelly Baldenegro, daughter (husband Art Baldenegro); Ashley and Lindsey Baldenegro, granddaughters.
Education: Central High School, Jackson, Miss., 1952; Mississippi College, Clinton, Miss., B.A. in English and history, 1956; Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C., bachelor of divinity, 1961; School of Pastoral Care, Baptist Hospital, Winston-Salem, N.C., certificate in pastoral counseling, 1963; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, M.A. in psychology, 1969; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ph.D. in clinical psychology, 1972; Jung Analytic Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, post-doctoral training in psychology, 1977.
Occupation: Clinical psychologist and professional speaker (retired).
Military service: During graduate school, I was a civilian auxiliary chaplain at a North Carolina Air Force radar station.
How I got where I am today: I was ordained at 18 and served as a student summer missionary in Alaska (1952, 1955). I was pastor at rural Baptist churches during college and youth minister at a campus church during seminary, then full-time pastor at two Baptist churches. I left the ministry in 1967 at age 32 and went back to graduate school.
After receiving my Ph.D., I taught psychology at Wake Forest University, 1972-77 and maintained a private practice from 1972-89. I started speaking professionally in 1981 and still speak occasionally on my journey from fifth-generation Southern Baptist minister to atheist.
Where I’m headed: I’m clearly headed where we all are headed, to the oblivion of death, for me, sooner than later. I do not fear it, though I cannot imagine not existing. Until then, I will continue trying to live each day to the fullest, with honesty and kindness to people and animals.
Person in history I admire: Nelson Mandela, a true statesman if ever there was one, and American Revolution-era writer Thomas Paine.
A quotation I like: “The world is my country. To do good is my religion.” (Thomas Paine)
These are a few of my favorite things: Classical music (including good religious music), babies and young children, Yorkshire terriers, cats, well-written editorials, tennis, raquetball, cycling, seeing (or helping) someone live up to his/her potential, Low Country barbecue (vinegar-based sauce), well-delivered oratory, a poignant story, serious programs about cosmology.
These are not: Violence in movies or on TV, people talking loudly on cell phones in public, rap music, auto races, most conservative politicians.
My doubts about religion started: In my freshman year in college. I was already an ordained minister and was preparing to deliver a sermon in a large “First Baptist” church. Out of the blue, I found myself asking if there could possibly be such a thing as eternal punishment for finite “sins.” I had not met or read or talked to anyone who challenged religion and had always taken what I learned in church as the absolute truth.
Once the questions began, I couldn’t stop them. I continued in the ministry and the faith for 14 more years, before I admitted to myself that I no longer believed any of the dogma I had been taught and had been preaching. I knew many of my liberal minister friends had asked some of the same questions I was asking, but they had somehow been able to stay in the ministry, while casting doubt and joking in private about many of the faith-based tenets they were professing in public.
I had to leave the ministry to avoid doing that and becoming what I call “publicly phony and privately cynical.”
Why I’m a freethinker: I’m basically a scientist at heart and believe in evaluating evidence. Once the blinders were off, my study of the bible made it clear to me that this book was anything but a “holy” book. In fact, it’s a horrible book, with a few inspiring passages in it. It’s a collection of myths and suspicious “history” from Bronze Age ignorant people and has little, if any, relevance to the real world of today.
Ways I promote freethought: I’m vice president of the Valley of the Sun FFRF chapter and a member of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix. I’ve published a book, Towards the Light: A Fifth-generation Baptist Minister’s Journey from Religion to Reason, and I am asked fairly often to speak on subjects of the various chapters in my book. I’m also one of the early members of the Clergy Project and coordinate the screening process we use with new applicants to our private online site.

Each Good Friday, the Miles City Ministerial Association sponsors “Walk With the Cross,” during which Christians gather at a church at one end of Main Street and march a large wooden cross to Riverside Park at the other end of the street. A service is held and the cross is planted in the public park for Easter weekend. FFRF member Kelly Thibault has protested with an FFRF banner in the past, and this year was no different. Thank you, Kelly!

Yahoo! Answers lets readers online ask questions which other readers respond to.
Q. What is the best way to stop your child from becoming an athiest [sic]? I don’t want any of my children to be punished by God.
A. David M.:
Do not educate them, or expose them to critical thinking, logic or science. Lie to them constantly about how the world works. Feed them a steady diet of mumbo-jumbo dressed up like real knowledge — the [creationist] jumbo jet in the whirlwind, for example — and pretend that it is deep wisdom.
Make them loathe their own natural bodies and functions. Convince them they are small and weak and worthless and need redemption. Tell them everything enjoyable is grievously wrong to even think about, and that their only fun should be in grovelling to an invisible friend.
Ensure that they resent anyone who is not like them in every way — skin color, nationality, political opinion but especially creed. Make such people out to be evil and vile and give them — impotent minorities all — the fictional power to somehow oppress and persecute the vast majority who do think like you.
Teach them to laugh at and dismiss out of hand any faith but their own. Early — early mind you — make sure they are taught the difference between superstitious deadly error — that one raving lunatic in the desert told the truth about a vicious god who killed people, and divine eternal truth — that another raving lunatic in the desert told the truth about a vicious god who killed people.
Instruct them with all severity and import to never question for themselves — to never think for themselves — to never live for themselves — but to seek answers only in one — just one — particular set of semi-literate Bronze Age folk tales.
Above all, and this cannot be overemphasized, make sure they cannot spell, use correct grammar or understand basic English words.
That should do the trick.

Colin Mueller, a junior at Walton High School, Marietta, Ga., was denied approval from his school in April to start a new student group titled Freethinkers for Cooperation Acceptance and Trust (FACT). The school has more than 70 approved student groups, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Muslim Student Association.

Proposals for creating new groups were heard April 18 by a school committee. FACT was one of several groups denied approval for the next school year. After receiving a letter from FFRF, the school reversed its earlier decision and granted FACT student group status.

The application for FACT included information on the group’s purpose, activities, a list of 10 prospective members and a faculty supervisor. The application described the club this way:

“The purpose of the club is to bring freethinking students together who are surrounded by a predominantly religious society; together the students will be able to find a support group and help each other with problems associated with being a freethinker (such as ‘coming out’ to your parents that you are not religious, or seeing the meaning in life). The mission of the club is to show the Walton community that freethinkers (atheist, agnostics, Unitarians or other non-mainstream religious affiliates) can very well live a life of high morals and be genuinely good people without reporting to a higher power.”

Colin received a rejection letter that said:

“There are so many clubs existing at Walton that part of the decision-making process includes making sure that clubs do not compete for the same members. Additionally, we cannot accept a club that holds or espouses any particular religious, political or philosophical beliefs, is physical in nature or does not have a service or curriculum component.”

Colin appealed but was told that the denial was final and that the committee only approved the “best” of the proposed groups.

After the denial, FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter of complaint to the Cobb County School District. Elliott wrote that the denial was a violation of both the federal Equal Access Act and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The Equal Access Act provides that schools receiving federal funds cannot deny equal treatment to noncurriculum student groups on the basis of their religious, political or philosophical views.

Elliott said, “If FCA [Fellowship of Christian Athletes] is allowed club status, then the school may not censor FACT. . . . Minority views are protected under the First Amendment. It is not permissible for a committee to vote on group approval based on which views will be the most popular. The school should train any persons who make approval decisions, whether staff or students, on how to make decisions in a viewpoint neutral manner.”

On April 29, Colin was informed that his group was approved. Ironically, his initial application focused on the mistreatment of atheists: “This club would not be formed if it were not for the lack of acceptance of freethinkers in the USA. In this day, there are still 50% of Americans who say that they would not vote for a well-qualified atheist candidate solely based on the grounds that said candidate is an atheist.”

Florida school ends adult-led prayers

After receiving a complaint from a student and FFRF, Highlands County Schools, Sebring, Fla., took action to limit the reach of a Christian group that was interacting with Lake Placid Middle School students before school.

A student reported that an adult from a group called Youth for Christ was regularly in the gym playing Christian music and leading students in prayer. All students were subject to the music and prayers because students who arrive early to school are required to be in the gym.

In March, FFRF sent a complaint stating that the school’s grant of access to a minister to proselytize a captive audience violated the Establishment Clause. Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott also wrote, “This predatory conduct is inappropriate and should raise many red flags.”

John McClure, Highlands County Schools general counsel, replied, saying that use of the gym for prayers has been stopped. But his letter also said that the school will allow the meetings to continue if the group is operated as a student club not run by adults.

McClure said, “Upon becoming aware of the circumstances, the school principal has changed the meeting place and reinforced with the club the requirement that the club be student led.

“Further, the Deputy Superintendent of Schools is publishing the issues at the monthly principal’s meeting so that the requirements can be reinforced throughout all schools in the school district, which I think was one of your primary concerns.”

‘9 Commandments’ judge loses robes

FFRF started fighting a proposed Ten Commandments display and the judge pushing it in July 2010 at the Hawkins County Justice Center in Rogersville, Tenn. It was a pet project of Juvenile Judge James “Jay” Taylor, whose personal website was plastered with piety. As it turns out, all that piety blew up horrendously in his face after FFRF took an interest in the case.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Hawkins agreed to resign May 1 in an agreement with the Tennessee Court of Judiciary, which charged him with taking $9,000 from clients for personal gain. “He is a charlatan, and his charlatanry is about to come to an end,” said Morristown lawyer Paul Whetstone, who represents two clients who have filed civil suits.

The Court of the Judiciary earlier sanctioned Taylor for lobbying the County Commission to support the “Foundations of American Law and Government” display and fundraising for it.

A county committee had approved the display, heavily weighted with religious elements, including the Ten Commandments, all obviously meant to show that America is a Christian nation. Besides the constitutional violations, as FFRF noted in a follow-up complaint, shouldn’t a decalogue that’s supposed to be historical at least have ten commandments? Taylor’s proposed plaque listed only nine (omitting adultery — hmm — see below), and mixed up the Roman numeral XI for IX. Local media neglected to pick up on the errors, which Taylor corrected after FFRF’s letter pointed them out. The display, which has never been put up, also contained numerous historical inaccuracies.

A petition for discipline filed in February by the Board of Personal Responsibility alleged Taylor used about $6,000 of display donations for his personal use.

Taylor is also the subject of a $3 million lawsuit by a former employee alleging he violated her civil rights, made “unwelcome and unwanted” sexual advances and unlawfully fired her.

FFRF starves out N.C. church discount

An FFRF complaint put an end to an illegal church bulletin discount at the Fisherman’s Quarters II in Asheville, N.C. The restaurant regularly offered a 10% discount to church-going patrons. The promotion was at the top the list of discounts on its website.

Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt first wrote to the owners in October 2011: “Fisherman’s Quarters II’s restrictive promotional practice favors religious customers and denies customers who do not attend church as well as nonbelievers the right to ‘full and equal’ enjoyment of Fisherman’s Quarters II.”

After Schmitt sent two follow-up letters, a restaurant representative said in late March that the discriminatory practice had ended.

Religion stripped from Ala. sheriff’s sleeve

Chilton County, Ala., Sheriff Kevin Davis will no longer send his constituents an overtly sectarian Christmas card, thanks to FFRF’s action. Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt first wrote Jan. 20 to Davis that his card was “grossly inappropriate.”

It showed Davis and his family in front of a Christmas tree and was signed “Sheriff Davis and Family.” The card also contained a religious poem ending with “The Christmas gift given to us is Jesus Christ’s gift of love.”

Schmidt added, “We strongly urge you to consider your status as one of the highest elected officials in Chilton County and the importance of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state before you send out holiday cards promoting your personal religious beliefs and viewpoints.”

Davis spoke with Schmitt on March 19 and assured her that the card will be changed for the upcoming holiday season. He said he had “no intentions of offending anyone.”

FFRF opens Nevada libraries on Easter

The Washoe County Library System in Reno, Nev., will be open during Easter next year.

FFRF and a local complainant took issue with the library’s holiday closure policy. Before FFRF’s involvement, all county libraries were closed each Easter Sunday, even libraries that had typical Sunday hours.

Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert wrote to Library Director Arnie Maurins on Feb. 16: “Easter is neither a federal holiday nor a Nevada state holiday. It is unconstitutional and inappropriate for a public library system to close on Easter.”

FFRF learned that library employees are forced to make up the hours they missed for the mandatory Easter shutdown by working at another branch unless they took vacation time. “Government employees should not be inconvenienced or punished so that Christian employees can celebrate a holy day,” asserted Markert.

Maurins replied March 12 and said the policy will change in the future, and staff would be directed to “take the necessary steps to enable libraries with Sunday hours to be open on Easter.”

FFRF letter muffles Christian rock band

Lewis County Schools in Weston, W.Va., canceled a Christian concert after receiving an FFRF letter of complaint. Both the Lewis County middle school and high school were scheduled to interrupt instructional time to host the Jason Lovins Band, a Christian rock group with a clear mission to “take the focus off themselves and point it to the One they sing about.”

Lovins is known to “testify” at performances and frequently insists “life begins at conception.” He claims he was conceived as the result of rape and warns students against abortion. The event was sponsored by Youth Alive a student Christian club.

“We are concerned that this assembly will be utilized by the Youth Alive club and their guest to push their religious agenda and religious values on a captive audience of students,” wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt.

A school representative confirmed March 9 that the middle school assembly was canceled. While the high school assembly took place, “no religion was brought into the assembly,” the school said, assuring Schmitt that it will “stay within the proper guidelines of separation of church and state.”

FFRF hunts down Tenn. Easter event

FFRF persuaded the city of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., to stop promoting “the Great Easter Bash,” a Christian event set to take place on April 7 in a public park. The city Parks and Recreation Department was the designated host, with Friendship Community Church as a co-sponsor.

The city advertised the event on the department’s website and on mass-distributed postcards. Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt wrote April 4 to Parks Director Jay Cameli to protest city sponsorship of a religious event.

Schmitt received confirmation April 6 that the city removed all information about the event: “[The Parks Department] removed the city logo, as well as all references to the ‘City of Mt. Juliet’ on the printed materials that will be distributed at the event.” Employees were instructed to treat the event as they would any other.

Bible-pushers banished at UW Hospital

The University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, Wis., will no longer allow Gideons International to unlawfully distribute bibles on public property, thanks to FFRF’s vigilance.

Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt sent an advisory letter March 22 to UW Hospital President and CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky: “Permitting members of the Gideons or other bible distribution organizations the privilege of passing out their religious literature in the entrance of a state-run hospital constitutes blatant state endorsement of these Christian publications.”

A local complainant noted that security officers regulated the area in question, but claimed they were unable to take any action because it was in “a public space,” even though it was by the main hospital entrance. Many of the security officers stated that “they were getting a lot of complaints” and admitted being upset about the situation.

Katen-Bahensky sent a positive reply April 9: “In reeducating our Security Department on the nonsolicitation policy earlier this year, we did discover that there had been some confusion with respect to the Gideons, but that confusion has been clarified. All solicitors, including members of the Gideons, will be asked to leave the area if they are soliciting there.”

FFRF had protested the practice on behalf of patients, families and staff for many years.

FFRF to Ga. judge: Send aid, not bibles

A judge in Douglasville, Ga., was ordered to stop using county resources to promote Christianity after Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt sent a complaint letter April 13. Magistrate Court Judge Barbara Caldwell was soliciting donations of new and used bibles in the county newsletter and collecting bibles at the courthouse.

An aide to the chief magistrate promptly responded to Schmitt and confirmed that bibles will no longer be accepted at or delivered to the courthouse. She added that there will be no more newsletter bible ads.

‘Homeboy’ Jesus loses N. Carolina homeroom

An eighth-grade teacher at Starmount Middle School in Booneville, N.C., will no longer proselytize to her students. The teacher said in class that “God is the only creator of the universe,” and “Evolution is not allowed to be considered.” She also used skeletons adorned with T-shirts as teaching aids, including shirts that said “Jesus is my Homeboy” and “Mary is my Homegirl.”

The Secular Student Alliance sent two emails to the teacher, asking for the removal of the offensive shirts. A third email went out to the school principal but garnered no response. FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert intervened on Feb. 28: “Public schools are prohibited from teaching creationism or ‘intelligent design.’ Courts have routinely found that such teachings are religious and unconstitutional.”

In a March 8 reply, Superintendent L. Stewart Hobbs confirmed that the shirts had been removed.

FFRF ‘deletes’ biblical emails in Georgia

Inappropriate use of employee email at the Harris County School District in Hamilton, Ga., ended after FFRF’s involvement. The school district allowed “principals and other leadership staff to send emails to their subordinates which include bible passages.”

One correspondence took place between an elementary school principal and the district’s director of transportation. The emails contained “relevant” bible passages intended to “guide” the recipient.

Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt wrote to Superintendent Craig Dowling on March 15: “No public school employee may urge religious points of view on students, parents, or employees. This includes bible verses and talking about ‘following God.’ ”

Dowling responded March 23: “The Harris County School District will take such action as it deems appropriate regarding such communications to fulfill its responsibilities to avoid the advancement of religion and remain neutral in respect thereto.”

Mandatory school staff prayer is stopped

The Wichita Falls [Texas] Independent School District has barred sectarian prayer at mandatory staff events. The district held its August convocation at the First Baptist Church. Local complainants told FFRF that School Board President Reginald Blow delivered the sectarian prayer “in Jesus’ name” at the mandatory meeting.

FFRF Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt wrote three complaint letters, starting last August, before Superintendent George Kazanas answered March 7 that “future convocations will not include a prayer.”

‘Faith & Family Day’ ousted at Ohio college

FFRF informed a Cleveland university that faith does not mean family Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, sponsored “Faith & Family Day” on Jan. 7 during a men’s basketball game. It was promoted with a logo featuring several Christian crosses.

Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert wrote to CSU President Ronald Berkman on March 13 about the inappropriate religious endorsement. The school responded March 26:

“Immediately upon being notified of this, all posters, fliers and marquee messages within the Wolstein Center were removed [and] appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that there will not be any future advertisements or promotional events sponsored by the university that will in any way suggest that the university endorses religion or any religious preference.”

‘Pagans’ remove Gideon bibles from Hagan

Hagan Elementary School in Williston, N.D., will no longer permit representatives of Gideons International to distribute bibles to students.

In a letter of complaint to Superintendent Viola LaFontaine, Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt took issue with fifth-grade students getting bibles. Students returning one day from music class found bibles on each of their desks. The teacher then led the class in a discussion of the bible.

Schmitt wrote that Williston Schools may not allow Gideons or any other religious group to enter school property to distribute religious literature, or to engage in bible discussions.

In an April 9 response, LaFontaine wrote, “Please be assured this will not happen again and bibles will not be distributed in any of the Williston Public School District #1 Schools.”

FFRF stills Kentucky loudspeaker prayer

FFRF stopped a preacher from delivering pregame basketball prayer over the loudspeaker March 6 at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School in Madisonville, Ky. A local complainant informed FFRF about the pastor’s Christian prayer, which was allowed even though the school was warned last fall about it.

FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor sent a statewide memorandum to all Kentucky superintendents prior to the 2011 athletic season. Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert followed up with Superintendent James Stevens in a March 12 letter: “As was made clear last fall, it is illegal for a public school to organize, sponsor and lead prayers at public high school athletic events.”

A school district attorney responded March 20: “We appreciate your reiterating [the law] and we have taken steps to ensure compliance with federal law on this issue.” The district directed Stevens to address the issue with all principals and administrators to ensure compliance.

Pious mayors, governors and other public officials prayed in record numbers in early May across the land for national and state Day of Prayer events and local prayer breakfasts.

FFRF’s legal staff headed by Senior Attorney Rebecca Markert sent letters of objection to Govs. Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Steve Beshear (Kentucky), Mike Beebe (Arizona), Jerry Brown (California), and Rick Scott (Florida). Letters were sent to mayors in Carmel, Ind., Biddeford, Maine; Zephryrhillis, Fla.; Bentonville, Ark.; Tampa, Fla.; and Florence, Ala. A complaint also went to the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Other letters went to:

• Mayor Larry Melton, Odessa, Texas. An open records request showed the city’s public information coordinator promoted the mayor’s prayer event with a press release and scheduled many interviews promoting it. The city secretary, Norma Aguilar, coordinated the prayer logistics, signed the contracts, etc. This year’s keynote speaker, Rev. Don Piper, author of “90 Minutes in Heaven” and “Heaven is Real,” charged a $2,500 honorarium plus expenses. The city actively solicited sponsorships, apparently during the business day.

• Rogers, Ark. Mayor Greg Hines’ Prayer Breakfast was organized and sponsored by the Mayor’s Office with tickets sold at City Hall.

• Springdale, Ark. Tickets for the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast could be purchased at the Mayor’s Office. Markert noted that while Greg Sprouse could attend a privately sponsored event in his personal capacity, “It is absolutely unlawful, inappropriate and unseemly, under the First Amendment to host such an event or work in tandem with event organizers to put on the breakfast.”

FFRF received some editorial support for its view, including from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 14:

“The cities should not be seen as contributing in any way to the organization of these prayer breakfasts which, while open to everyone, are obviously Christian-oriented events (the one in Rogers was held at Cross Church). A city employee using time on the clock to sell tickets or perform other work related to the breakfasts is crossing the line. Someone else can do this kind of work strictly on a volunteer basis without using resources bought by the taxpayers. That might satisfy the group from Wisconsin, but more importantly, it’s the right thing to do.”

FFRF keeps fighting nativity nonsense

The Ellwood City, Pa., nativity saga in response to an FFRF complaint continues. In April, the Citizens Nativity Location Committee submitted a plan to create a public forum in front of the Municipal Building.

The forum, consisting of one lot, would only allow displays from Dec. 5 through Jan. 15 and be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Nonresidents would have to wait 30 days before submitting applications. Borough Councilman John Todorich admitted to the Ellwood City Ledger that the purpose of the policy is to keep out FFRF: “We need to make it tight enough that we don’t have off-the-wall groups come in here and force our hand.”

Nativity Committee Vice Chairman Mike Parisi’s Facebook comments were illuminating: “This proposal will allow us to keep the Nativity Display right where its [sic] at.”

Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott, with research and drafting assistance from Andrew Seidel, FFRF constitutional consultant, sent a follow-up letter to the borough’s solicitor explaining the pitfalls of the open forum policy:

“Other local governments have opened forums to encourage nativities with disastrous results. Santa Monica, Calif., was swamped with controversial displays and a cumbersome lottery system after opening a public forum. Loudoun County, Va., opened a forum, and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Jedis, and atheists raised displays next to a crèche. Both Loudon County and Santa Monica are considering closing the forums they opened less than three years ago.”

Citing Supreme Court precedent, the letter hammered home the fact that “government may not grant the use of a forum to people whose views it finds acceptable, but deny use to those wishing to express less favored or more controversial views.”

The letter also cited a string of court precedents to show that ”freedom of speech cannot be burdened, inhibited, or contingent upon residency.”

The Borough Council has not voted on the proposal and no vote is scheduled.

Town welcomes signs of biblical proportions

FFRF is working to cement what looked like a victory in Sylvania, Ala., but has stalled after the cooperative mayor was forced to resign in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct.

The town of about 2,000 features four “Welcome” signs which include bible verses, erected at public expense in various locations. A week after FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott’s letter of complaint April 17, Mayor Mitchell Dendy agreed to paint over the unconstitutional endorsements of religion.

Then, a few days later, Dendy got a pink slip from DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris, who fired him as the county’s chief jail administrator, the Fort Payne Times-Journal reported. The Town Council accepted Dendy’s resignation as mayor May 1. Citizens have also petitioned to rename Dendy Road.

Harris said Dendy was fired for repeated violations of departmental policy and procedure directives related to alleged sexual misconduct, improprieties and harassment.

The council called a special meeting May 8 and, without discussion, voted 5-0 to put the verses back on the signs. Council member Tony Goolesby claimed that Dendy never told the council about FFRF’s letter or his decision to blot out the verses because the town couldn’t afford a legal battle.

“The council doesn’t feel like it is a violation,” Goolesby said. The quotations are now back on signs.

FFRF would like to sue if the quotes aren’t removed, said Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Legally, this is sort of a slam dunk.”

FFRF requests probe of Illinois bishop

FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert sent a letter April 20 to the Internal Revenue Service to alert the agency to political comments by Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky in his April 14 sermon at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Ill.

Jenky sharply criticized President Barack Obama and referred to the 2012 presidential election, stating, “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care. In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama, with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

“Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgment seat of Almighty God, this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral. This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries — only excepting our church buildings — could easily be shut down.”

Markert’s letter to the IRS Exempt Organizations Examination Office in Dallas noted that such speech is illegal campaign intervention for a tax-exempt organization, according to IRS regulations which ban participation in “any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

While leaders of religious groups may express opinions on political matters as individuals, they are precluded from making “partisan comments in official organization publications or at official functions of the organization.”

The letter identified key factors the IRS uses to determine if advocacy is political campaign intervention. Whether the statement:

• Identifies one or more candidates for a given public office.

• Expresses approval or disapproval for one or more candidates’ positions and/or actions.

• Is delivered close to the election.

• Makes reference to voting or an election.

• Addresses an issue distinguishing candidates for a given office.

• Is part of an ongoing series of communications on the same issue that are made independent of any election.

• Is related to a nonelectoral event such as a scheduled vote on specific legislation by an officeholder who also happens to be a candidate for public office.

The letter added, “Despite not saying specifically ‘Vote against Barack Obama,’ the bishop’s comments make it abundantly clear that he is opposed to Barack Obama as a candidate. Given that he gave these partisan comments at an official church function — the ‘Call to Catholic Men of Faith’ service — Bishop Jenky violated the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt rules, which prohibit electioneering.”

The letter requested an immediate investigation and action to remedy any violations.

FFRF announces fund to aid nonbelieving clergy

FFRF has announced a fund to help “save a preacher,” in coordination with the Clergy Project, created to help clergy who have become nonbelievers and are looking for an exit strategy to a secular life.

The project has grown in one year to more than 223 participants, the majority former clergy who act as a support system for about 60 members who are still in active ministry. There are more than 60 pending applications, indicating many secret unbelievers in the pulpits of the world.

Funds donated to the Clergy Project will be used for:

• Scholarships for educational retraining. It’s hard for someone with a divinity degree and a history of preaching to find new employment, especially in today’s economy.

• Temporary hardship grants. Some of the clergy in the project tell heartbreaking stories of being unceremoniously thrown out into the street (literally, in one case!) and locked out when their nonbelief became known.

• Maintenance of the forum. The Clergy Project forum is a secret, invitation-only online sanctuary where former and active nonbelieving clergy can talk freely, comparing stories, suggesting resources, sharing concerns, asking for help and finding a sympathetic nonjudgmental community of others who have wrestled with this unique situation.

The initial funding came mainly from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, with many hours donated by former clergy, including forum facilitator Dan Barker, FFRF co-president, and other FFRF members who are former clergy. Many have contacted Dan after reading his books, Godless and Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, which relate his personal experiences.

Members currently come from the U.S., Ireland, Australia, South Africa, England and Canada, as well as a few non-English-speaking countries.

“It is hard to think of any other profession which it is so near to impossible to leave,” writes Dawkins. “If a farmer tires of the outdoor life and wants to become an accountant or a teacher or a shopkeeper, he faces difficulties, to be sure. He must learn new skills, raise money, move to another area perhaps. But he doesn’t risk losing all his friends, being cast out by his family, being ostracized by his whole community. Clergy who lose their faith suffer double jeopardy. It’s as though they lose their job and their marriage and their children on the same day. It is an aspect of the vicious intolerance of religion that a mere change of mind can redound so cruelly on those honest enough to acknowledge it.”

The Clergy Project arose from discussions between Dawkins, Barker and Tufts University philosophy professor Daniel Dennett. Dennett, best-selling author of Breaking the Spell, and researcher Linda LaScola, published a preliminary study of “Preachers Who Are Not Believers,” in March 2010 in Evolutionary Psychology and The Washington Post. They are currently working on a broader follow-up study.

Teresa MacBain, whose recent dramatic “coming out” from the ministry made headline news (including positive interviews on NPR and CNN) has volunteered to be project acting director. Forum administrator is “Adam,” still a conservative minister in the South, and “Chris,” who started as an active clergy but recently made his escape from the pulpit. “Catherine,” a minister from Canada, is acting secretary, under the acting board members, including Barker. FFRF members and former clergy John Compere and Stephen Uhl, recent clergy “graduate” Jerry DeWitt and other former clergy help screen new applicants.

To donate to FFRF’s “Clergy Project” fund, select it from the drop-down list at ffrf.org/donate/ or earmark checks, with donations deductible for tax purposes, to FFRF, P.O. Box 750, Madison WI 53701.

FFRF’s routine letter of complaint April 13 to Mayor Leo Fontaine, Woonsocket, R.I., over a Latin cross at city Fire Station No. 2 has provoked near-hysteria.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin publicly “applauded” the mayor and City Council for “preparing to fight the attack by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”

State Rep. James McLaughlin, D-Cumberland, introduced an overtly unconstitutional bill, H8143, to classify any “traditional, cultural or community” memorial as “secular property” even if it’s religious. Mayor Fontaine called FFRF “a couple of knuckleheads out of Wisconsin,” and on a local radio show said “I pray for people like this.”

Although FFRF has not sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening to sue, the city of Woonsocket has raised $15,000 for a fund to defend against a potential lawsuit. On May 2, more than 600 noisy protesters, carrying flags, crosses, godly signs and “Save the Cross” buttons rallied next to the cross, as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” played, including many from the American Legion. The Legion mission statement ties “God and country.”

Former state Adjutant General Reginald Centraccio said he was drawing a “line in the sand,” saying the Legion is “going to battle against these atheists all the way back to Wisconsin.” (The “battling” seems to be a plethora of late-afternoon phone calls laced with profanity to FFRF’s office.)

Despite denials by city officials that the Latin cross has a Christian meaning, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin addressed the rally, saying: “This is about presence of God in our lives and in our society. These are attempts to render our society bereft of moral values. If we don’t stand up we are complicit in the death of God in our society. I’m proud to stand here with you today to defend the presence of Christ in our lives.”

The cross was a gathering point for local observations of the National Day of Prayer on May 3.

A cross was erected in 1921 as part of a monument in memory of a local soldier killed in France in World War I. In 1952, the cross monument was apparently replaced with a new cross and rededicated both to the WWI soldier and three local brothers who died in World War II.

FFRF also complained about the Fire Station’s website whose rudimentary “memorial” page shows a guardian angel comforting a firefighter. The site also has a poem entitled “The FireFighters Prayer.”

Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Market noted in her letter that “The Latin cross at the fire station demonstrates Woonsocket’s preference for Christianity over other religions and nonreligion. Such government endorsements of religion runs afoul of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.”

The mayor initially opined it may be necessary to move the monument to private property. City Council President John Ward said the city, which is in dire financial straits, couldn’t afford a costly legal battle. “I would not vote to pay to defend it,” Ward said.

The claim is also made in an April local news story that no local person complained and that FFRF routinely patrols the whole country looking for such violations.

“That charge is absurd,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, noting that a Woonsocket resident who regularly drives past the Christian display found it offensive and contacted FFRF for help.

“Our small staff is besieged with requests from members of the public who are upset about state-church violations,” Gaylor said. “We only wish public officials who knowingly violate the Constitution could be held personally responsible for flouting the law. Nearly 30% of Americans are non-Christians and 15% are not religious. Firefighters should be there to serve everyone, regardless of religious views.”

She added, “Of course we have no objection to war memorials, but they cannot be used as a subterfuge to post large permanent Latin crosses on government land. Cities can’t host monuments that appear to say, ‘We only care about your service if you are a Christian. Jewish, atheist or other non-Christians killed in U.S. wars don’t deserve recognition.’ There are many atheists in foxholes, and 24% of FFRF membership are vets or in the military, which is consistent with the number of nontheists in the military generally.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski, Western District of Virginia in Roan­oke, heard oral arguments May 7 in a case brought by a student and parent over a school Ten Commandments display. In an unexpected move, the judge referred the case to mediation. If no settlement is reached, he’ll rule on both parties’ motions for summary judgment.

FFRF and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sued the School Board of Giles County, Va., last September for unconstitutionally endorsing religion by displaying the Ten Commandments in a hallway at Narrows High School in Narrows.

FFRF originally objected to the display in December 2010 when the commandments were posted in all six county schools. The Superintendent responded by taking the displays down, then the school board put them back up after the public pressured the board. On advice of legal counsel, they were again later removed.

Last June the board voted 3-2 to put the Commandments up along with other documents in the misguided belief that the documents would put the display on stronger legal footing. Included were a depiction of Lady Justice, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Mayflower Compact and the Magna Carta.

At the hearing, Urbanski commented on how he viewed the board’s vote: “It’s clear to me that when the school board voted, there was one thing on their mind. And that was God.”

Urbanski suggested compromising by omitting the first four commandments, which have explicitly religious references. He asked both sides if the commandments could be edited and reportedly said, “If indeed this issue is not about God, why wouldn’t it make sense for Giles County to say, ‘Let’s go back and just post the bottom six?’ ”

FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said she doesn’t buy the suggested compromise and referred to the Supreme Court’s McCreary ruling on the commandments:

“They proclaim the existence of a monotheistic god (no other gods). They regulate details of religious obligation (no graven images, no sabbath breaking, no vain oath swearing). And they unmistakably rest even the universally accepted prohibitions (as against murder, theft, and the like) on the sanction of the divinity proclaimed at the beginning of the text.”

Plaintiffs’ briefs highlighted the religious fervor that led to the display and to statements made by board members. In one deposition, board member Joseph Gollehon said he voted for the display because “I am a Christian” and felt that the commandments “was a great thing if you can live by it.”

Liberty Counsel, associated with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, represents the board and helped craft the current display. In briefs, Liberty Counsel argued that the board opened up a forum for private displays and that the school has a secular purpose for the commandments because they’re integrated into the history curriculum.

ACLU Attorney Rebecca Glenberg noted at the May 7 hearing that there are no cases that have allowed the commandments in a public school. Walt Hopkins, a professor who studies First Amendment law at Virginia Tech, observed the argument and told the Roanoke Times, “It was not a good day for Giles County.”

Mediation with Magistrate Judge Robert Ballou is expected to occur sometime in the next few weeks.

FFRF Co-President Dan Barker was one of the performers March 31 at Rock Beyond Belief, the first-ever nontheist festival on a U.S. military base. “We’re sending a message,” said Justin Griffith, an Army sergeant and former evangelical Christian stationed at Fort Bragg who organized event. Griffith, an FFRF member, told Reuters that “Foxhole atheists are out there fighting for your rights. Please return the favor.” FFRF and its Raleigh chapter, the Triangle Freethought Society, also hosted a booth.

FFRF’s full-page ad, “It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church,” ran in The Washington Post (A5, main section) and on the back page of the Washington Express on May 8. The Express is free to Metro riders and D.C. residents. Express distributors wore the ad on their vests (see photo).

The provocative ad, couched as an open letter to “liberal and nominal” Catholics, asks, “Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to the Dark Ages? Do you choose women and their rights, or Bishops and their wrongs?”

The ad was similar to the full-page ad that appeared in The New York Times in March, which is still creating shockwaves among conservative religionists.

“It’s a disgrace that U.S. health care reform is being held hostage to your church’s irrational opposition to medically prescribed contraception,” the ad states. “No political candidate should have to genuflect before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

“Join those of us who put humanity above dogma,” FFRF’s ad urges.

The Washington Post ad features a cartoon by the late Don Addis, a longtime FFRF member, showing a priest under a “Family Planning” banner counseling a woman: “Plan on a family.” It also includes the line, “Life begins at excommunication.”

The ad blasts the church’s “pernicious doctrine that birth control is a sin” and the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act” introduced into Congress to impose church dogma on employees. FFRF warns the liberal Catholic that the church is “launching a ruthless political Inquisition in your name.”

FFRF placed its second “Nobody died for our ‘sins.’ Jesus Christ is a myth” banner April 11 in a city park in Streator, Ill. The replacement banner featured a postscript, “Thou shalt not steal.” FFRF’s first banner was erected April 5 and was stolen April 7.

FFRF Attorney Patrick Elliott and student intern Ryan Hettinger made the 6-hour roundtrip drive from Madison, Wis., to Streator to personally rehang the banner.

The 8-foot by 3-foot banner, which was up until mid-April, was placed on behalf of a local resident with city permission to counter a religious cross display that had sat on city property since early March. This is the fifth straight year that park-goers and passersby have been told via a prominent sign that “Jesus died for your sins.”

Last December, Elliott had written Mayor Jimme Lansford to protest a nativity scene at the same location, with a sign saying. “Unto you is born the Savior Jesus Christ the Lord,” also a recurring violation. The city responded by claiming the park was a “public forum” and other viewpoints could be offered.

“In reality, as this crime reveals, the only viewpoint that is going to be permitted in Streator is the dominant religion,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “There are tax-exempt churches throughout Streator where it is appropriate to place Christian crosses and displays. A public park is not one of them.”

FFRF offered a $1,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s). The theft and vandalism to the banner’s supporting posts are classified as misdemeanors. Since FFRF’s nonreligious message was targeted, the act also qualifies as a Class 4 felony under Illinois’ hate crime law.

FFRF is a national state/church watchdog with over 18,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including nearly 700 in Illinois.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled May 10 in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s challenge, originally filed in 2008, against gubernatorial proclamations of a Colorado Day of Prayer.

Judge Steve Bernard, with concurrences by Judges Alan Loeb and Nancy Lichtenstein, overturning a lower court decision, ruled in favor of FFRF’s lawsuit: “A reasonable observer would conclude that these proclamations send the message that those who pray are favored members of Colorado’s political community, and that those who do not pray do not enjoy that favored status.”

Bernard wrote that the six litigated Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations (from 2004-09) violate the Preference Clause of the Religious Freedom section of Colorado’s Constitution because the content is “predominantly religious; they lack a secular context; and their effect is government endorsement of religion as preferred over nonreligion.”

The proclamations “have the primary or principal effect of endorsing religious beliefs” and “convey a message that religion or a particular religious belief is favored or preferred.” The 74-page decision noted that the “inclusion of biblical verses and religious themes,” statements urging “that individuals will unite in prayer” and the governor’s signature, imprimatur and seal make “no doubt here that the religious message is attributed to the Governor.”

Bernard wrote, “The proclamations serve an exclusively religious purpose,” and are “addressed to the public generally . . . extend[ing] beyond the walls of the legislative assembly, or the boundaries of the graduation hall, to the borders of the State.” He noted that they “reflect an official belief in a God who answers prayer. At the same time, for those who do not believe in such a God, the proclamations tend to indicate that their nonbelief is not shared by the government that rules the State. In so doing, they undermine the premise that the government serves believers and nonbelievers equally.”

The decision continued, “They are not a small part of something larger that serves a secular purpose. Rather, they stand, individually and collectively, as a call to ‘actual worship or prayer’. . . . Indeed, the proclamations, by themselves, are reasonably viewed as exhortations to participate in ‘official prayers’ that have been composed as ‘part of a religious program carried on by the government.’ This effect is amplified by the biblical verses and religious themes.”

The appeals court noted that Gov. Bob Ritter even spoke at a private Colorado Day of Prayer celebration on the steps of the Capitol in 2007.

The judges said that “religious liberty is “abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer.” The individual has the “right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority.”

Bernard pointed out that all the proclamations were issued in response to annual demands from the National Day of Prayer Task Force, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., which was seeking gubernatorial support for its overtly theocratic mission.

FFRF won a historic federal district court ruling, FFRF v. Obama, in 2010, when U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb declared the federal National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. FFRF demonstrated the religious origins of the 1952 and 1988 acts of Congress, introduced by Rev. Billy Graham and other evangelists. The evangelical National Day of Prayer Task Force — based at Focus on the Family headquarters — has essentially served as an arm of the government since 1988 by organizing government prayer day events that exclude non-evangelical Christians.

In 2011, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals threw out FFRF’s standing, but the Colorado appeals court affirmed standing to sue, without offering a legal judgment on the National Day of Prayer itself. No court has ever upheld the day of prayer on its merits under the Establishment Clause.

The appeals court is remanding the case to the trial court to consider whether a permanent injunction should be entered.

“We’re exulting over the fact that reason has prevailed and constitutional rights have been affirmed,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.

FFRF thanks its local plaintiffs and members Mike Smith, David Habecker, Timothy G. Bailey and Jeff Baysinger, who made the challenge possible. FFRF congratulates its litigation attorney Richard L. Bolton.

FFRF, with Arizona members and pro bono help from attorneys Richard Morris and Marc Victor, is also in state court in Arizona challenging the Arizona Day of Prayer.

Read the Colorado appeals court decision at ffrf.org/news/ (scroll to May 10, 2012).

The Associated Press reported May 14 that seven people are plaintiffs in an appeal of a federal judge’s decision ordering removal of the prayer banner from Cranston West High School in Rhode Island. Three are Cranston West students, three are graduates and one is from North Providence.

The Cranston School Committee has agreed to pay half the $150,000 legal costs the city was ordered to pay the ACLU, which represented Jessica Ahlquist, the student who contested the banner in her school auditorium. She’s received a student activist award and $10,000 from FFRF.

Superintendent Peter Nero said the banner, which was glued to the wall, was removed March 3 at a cost of about $2,500 and is stored in an undisclosed location. It took 11 hours to sandwich it between two plywood boards and carve around the boards to extract a 4-foot by 8-foot slab of sheetrock.

Jessica and her family are still being threatened. She made public a letter she received in April:

“The cops will not watch you forever. We will get you good. Tell your little asshole sister to watch her back. There are many of us, ‘Crusaders,’ we have a better [sic] pool going to see who gets you first! Your fuckin old man better move or keep you locked up if you know whats good for you. We know where he works, what kind of cars you have + the plate numbers of the cars. Get the fuck out of R.I. you bitchin whore. You are nothing more than a sex-toy of a slut. Maybe you will gang-banged before we throw you out of one of our cars. WE WILL GET YOU — LOOK OUT!”

Arizona religious bills signed into law

Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill May 11 to let religiously affiliated employers exempt contraceptive services from employees’ health insurance plans. The new law will apply exclusively to those entities whose religious beliefs are central to their operating principles, and for whom providing coverage for contraception could pose a moral conflict or religious objection.

The law expands the definition of a “religiously affiliated employer” to include any organization whose articles of incorporation explicitly state a religious purpose, and whose religious beliefs play a fundamental role in its function.

Brewer also announced she has signed a bill that expands the “conscience clause” so that pharmacists, physicians and other health care workers won’t lose their professional licenses for denying services on religious grounds.

The Associated Press reported that proponents admit there are no known incidents of “faith-based discipline” in Arizona. Republican Sen. Steve Yarbrough, bill sponsor, said it’s “fundamentally wrong” that if “you don’t affirm the particular lifestyle, then your license is going to be at risk.”

[Editor’s note: Yarbrough must believe that women having reproductive choice, even in cases of rape or incest, is a “lifestyle.”]

Brewer signed a bill into law April 17 to let public high schools offer an elective bible course called “The Bible and Its Influence on Western Culture.” Guidelines say the course must address the influence of the bible on laws, history, government, literature, art, music, customs, morals, values and culture.

Arizona is the sixth state to allow such a course.

Georgians can choose plates praising God

Nontheists will subsidize believers starting July 1 in Georgia, when new license plates with an “In God We Trust” option become available.

All plates are being replaced by a new design. The free “In God We Trust” sticker replaces the county of residence designation.

Kansas board shies from sectarian prayer

The Reno County Commission, Hutchinson, Kan., directed legal staff to draft a new prayer policy despite pleas to continue a long tradition of mostly Christian prayer to open meeting, the Hutchinson News reported May 8.

The board agreed to seek clergy to offer nonsectarian prayers, but if no one is available, to ask for a moment of silence of have a commissioner lead the prayer.

Florida board allows adult-led prayer

The Clay County School Board, Green Cove Springs, Fla., voted 3-2 on April 19 to allow prayer on school grounds by outside groups. First Coast News reported that all adults must give name, address and birth date 10 days in advance so a background check can be done. Prayers have to end 30 minutes before the school bell. The organizer has to provide insurance coverage for every person attending.

Pastor Ron Baker’s insistence on praying on school grounds drove the new policy. Baker said he will hold prayer events one foot off school property every morning. FFRF had complained, prompting the school district to shoo Baker away. Then the district reneged.

“I was convinced from the beginning we’d find some unity in this to protect the rights of our students, who always have the right to have prayer at the school,” said Superintendent Ben Wortham.

Noted FFRF Co-President Dan Barker: “This is predatory conduct involving adults praying at school as small children arrive.”

Parents ‘privatize’ so graduates can pray

Students and parents at Lakeview Public High School in Columbus, Neb., thumbed their noses at the Constitution again this year by opening and closing the May 13 graduation ceremony in the school gym with prayer.

ACLU of Nebraska has been contesting the prayers since 2001. To get around the law, graduations are organized and sponsored by parents, who rent the gym ($150 this year). The printed program and an announcement said the graduation was “private” and “not sponsored by Lakeview Community Schools.” Attendees were asked to stand for prayers.

“People who don’t have religion, we respect them by not making them pray, and then they can respect us by just sitting there in silence and they don’t have to pray,” senior Aysha Janssen told KTPM News.

Mojave cross allowed back on mountain

The latest decision in an 11-year court battle over a Latin cross called the Mojave cross on federal land in the desert near Baker, Calif., came April 23. U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin signed an order allowing the cross to return to Sunrise Rock, where it was first placed in 1934 and branded as a war memorial.

The ACLU sued in 2001. After Congress in 2003 approved a sham “public for private” land swap with the pretense that the cross would no longer be on public land, the legal wrangling continued. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, when a 5-4 decision said the cross could stay but sent it back to lower courts to review the land swap.

Timlin’s order said the National Park Service will transfer the title for the one-acre public parcel the Barstow Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in exchange for five acres of donated land near Cima.

The Park Service will fence the site, with visitor access, and post signs saying it’s private land. A plaque will say it’s a veterans memorial.

Gideons get booted by Ontario school

Christian bibles and materials from all religious groups are banned in the Bluewater School District in Chesley, Ontario. The 8-3 vote by district trustees April 17 ended more 60 years of free bibles distributed by Gideons International to fifth-graders.

“We cannot include everyone’s God, so we should not allow any,” trustee Fran Morgan told the Owen Sound Sun Times.

“This is a secular school system,” said trustee Marg Gaviller. “There are lots of other opportunities for people to get their bibles.”