Associate Counsel Liz Cavell will be speaking at the virtual "Life Behind Bars: Compassion and Reform" Second Annual Southern California Secular Coalition Conference, in Goleta, CA held from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., PST. Cavell will deliver a lecture entitled Imagine No Religion: Towards a More Secular Criminal Justice System, at approximately 5PM PST. The event is being cosponsored by the American Humanist Association and The Freethought Society. Click here for more information.
The 2022 Secular Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Secular festivities begin at 6:45 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Nov. 2, via Zoom. Click here to register.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, Freethought Society, Center For Inquiry, Hispanic American Freethinkers and the American Ethical Union are co-sponsors of the event. Event organizer Freethought Society President Margaret Downey will welcome participants during this bilingual event. To reserve a three-to-five minute time slot to celebrate a deceased loved one, please email [email protected] as soon as possible. Participants include actor Jon Huertas, comedian Luis Alberto Torres Castro and performances will be by Salvador Leon, Daniel Zepeda, Kaneko Leyva and Juan Antonio Garcia Hernandez. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the honoring ceremony. Prizes will be awarded to the best Zoom box decor, face painting, honoring table, and hair/hat adornment.
The Metropolitan Chicago Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation will be hosting a free speaking engagement by FFRF Co-Founder and Co-President, Annie Laurie Gaylor. It will take place on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 1PM in Skokie, IL. Ms. Gaylor’s presentation will focus on the rise of Christian nationalism in the U.S. and its impact on the Supreme Court; including the court’s recent decision to overturn Roe V. Wade. She will also offer tips on how to get involved in the battle against encroaching patriarchal and totalitarian theocracy. A Q&A session will immediately follow. No RSVP is necessary. For more information, including the events address, please contact chapter board member, Brian McCaskill by clicking here.
Dan Barker will speak about "Losing Faith in Faith" in Knoxville, Tennessee, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 18, at Pellissippi State Community College. Please note that since this is an indoor event, masks will be required. Contact chapter leader Aleta Ledendecker at [email protected] for further details.
The Greater Sacramento Chapter of FFRF will be hosting FFRF's Co-President Dan Barker who will be speaking about his new book "The End of Worship," on Sunday, Sept. 11 in Roseville, CA. Doors will open to the public at 1:30 p.m. for a social with snacks. The program will begin at 2 p.m. with a Q&A and book signing to follow. No RSVP is needed. Please click here to contact The Greater Sacramento Chapter of FFRF for location and details.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will be speaking at the San Francisco Bay Chapter's inaugural event in San Francisco, Calif. on Sept. 10. Barker will discuss the "Battle of Church and State;" a timely topic as we adjust to a post-Roe world. The meeting will be held at the San Francisco Public library. Space is limited, and you can sign up by clicking here. For further information, email Bay Area Chapter Leader Walt Bilofsky by clicking here.
Join FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker at Kentucky Freethought Convention in Louisville, Kentucky on September 4, 2022. Learn more here.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation will be co-sponsoring an event with FFRF member Chris Sweeny to celebrate Constitution Day, in Bentonville, Arkansas. FFRF members are invited to explore the Crystal Bridges Museum to witness an exhibition titled “We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy.” Members will meet at the Eleven Restaurant in the Crystal Bridges Museum at 11 a.m. and, after viewing the exhibit, will join in marching to Bentonville Square. The event is free, and attendees are encouraged to wear clothes that support FFRF’s mission. If you are interested in this event, or in joining the soon to be affiliated FFRF Members of the Ozarks Chapter, please click here to contact chapter leader Chris Sweeny.
We invite everyone to join us at our inaugural conference – BAHACON. Bluewater Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics (BAHA) is a Non-Profit Organization dedicated to improving the image of Freethinkers and Atheists and to give back to our communities. All profits from our conference are returned back to the communities. We come from an area known as Bluewater Country with members from both sides of the river separating Michigan and Ontario.
With a great lineup of well known speakers, including FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, this is an event you won’t want to miss.
FFRF will be co-sponsering Celebrating Dissent 2022, which will be held in Cologne, Germany on August 21 & 22. Dan Barker and Annie Lauire Gaylor will be speaking at this event which includes over 50 speakers from 30 countries in the largest gathering of exMuslims, atheists and freethinkers. The two-day event is organized by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Freethought Lebanon and in partnership with Atheist Refugee Relief, Center for Inquiry, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Giordano Bruno Stiftung, National Secular Society and Volkshochschule Köln.
For further information, or to purchase tickets for this event, click here.
The Supreme Court dealt several blows to the separation of church and state this summer. What exactly did they decide, and how will these decisions impact the nation? To break it all down for you, OnlySky is hosting an all-female virtual panel of secular attorneys from the new We Dissent podcast, including FFRF Legal Director, Rebecca Markert and FFRF Staff Attorney, Elizabeth Cavell. The online event will be held July 18, at 6 p.m.
FFRF is cosponsoring the festival, which will include the grand opening of the Thomas Paine New Rochelle Center, historic reenactments and music from the period, family-centered entertainment, a symposium with scholarly presentations and panels and a one-man play by Ian Ruskin. FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor will be among the panelists.
For information on registering and attending, click here.
Freedom From Religion Foundation's Senior Counsel Patrick Elliot will be speaking at the Lake Superior Freethinkers meeting, located at the College of St. Scholastica on Sunday, June 5th.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will be speaking at the Religious Trauma Conference on April 29 - May 1, 2022. CORT speakers this year represent a variety of fundamentalist religious backgrounds including Amish, Evangelical, Mormon, Muslim, and Hasidic Orthodox Judaism. They will be covering a vast array of topics from cultural genocide to coercive control, fear of Hell to post-religious sexuality, and religious schooling to racism. In addition to presentations by psychologists, social workers, authors, and former clergy, survivors of religious fundamentalism are eager to share their own personal stories of trauma, recovery, and hope with you.
Join FFRF co-president Dan Barker along with hundreds of humanists, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and scientific skeptics at FreeFlo 2022, March 4th through 6th, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. This three day event at the Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside hotel features informative presentations, networking opportunities, exhibitors, and entertainment from start to finish.
Proceeds support the Florida Humanist Association Scholarship Fund in coordination with the Secular Student Alliance. Register here.
Secular government is under attack in the Iowa legislature. Christian nationalists control both the Iowa Senate and House and Governor Reynolds. They are busy filing bills threatening religious freedom, voting rights, LGBTQ lives, reproductive healthcare, teachers, public education, and science. Help us defend Jefferson's wall of separation between religion and government.
Please join us on March 3rd from 2:00-4:00 PM at the rotunda of the Capitol Building in Des Moines. Help us preserve our great experiment in secular government.
Our speakers include: Robert Cook, Activism Chair, Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. Jason Bennell, Secretary and Press Officer with IAF. Thomas Harvey, long-time member of IAF. Ryan Jayne, Constitutional Lawyer with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Visit the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers website here.
A major report (crafted by an unlikely pair) on Christian nationalism’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol assault will be made public at a virtual event next Wednesday — to which you’re duly invited.
On Feb. 9, 2022 at 12:00 PM Easter Time, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) will be releasing the hard-hitting exposé, “Christian Nationalism at the January 6, 2021, Insurrection.” This report will be the most complete accounting to date of how Christian nationalism permeated and intensified the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Feb. 9 release event — which will start at noon Eastern and last for an hour — will have analysis and commentary from the contributors.
The extensive 100-page document begins with a sociological explanation of Christian nationalism in America and the demographics that underlie this ideology. The report provides a brief history of Christian nationalism in the United States, which is followed by a thorough unmasking of the networks of power and money that prop up the ideology. The bulk of the report exposes the role this ideology played in fomenting the insurrection. The confirmed speakers (many of them contributors to the report) at the release event include:
During the live event, there will be time for members of the media to ask questions. When you register, be sure to list your media outlet. You will have a chance to submit a question in the Q&A feature during the live event. Members of the media will receive a copy of the report via email that morning if they list their media outlet when they register.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will be speaking to the Bay Area Humanists on February 5, 2022 at 3:00 PM PST.
Humanism is a philosophy which is based on a naturalistic understanding of reality. Many Humanists were raised in religious homes and may have been religious themselves but found naturalism to be more sensible and life affirming. Each of us who made this journey have a story to tell about how we came to be nontheists. Dan Barker will tell us about his journey in this presentation based in his book, Godless.
Dan became a teenage evangelist at age 15. He received a degree in Religion and was ordained to the ministry. He served as associate pastor in three California churches and was a missionary in Mexico for a total of two years. Dan preached for 19 years and maintained an ongoing touring musical ministry, including eight years of full-time, cross-country evangelism.
Following five years of reading, Dan gradually outgrew his religious beliefs. “If I had limited myself to Christian authors, I’d still be a Christian today,” Dan says. “I just lost faith in faith.” He announced his atheism publicly in January, 1984.
Dan is currently a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) along with Annie Laurie Gaylor. The purposes of the FFRF are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism. Dan regularly travels the country and the world giving lectures, performing concerts, and participating in debates with theists, many at college and university campuses.
