Action Alert Archive

Oppose state-sanctioned anti-choice fundraising in Michigan

A deeply offensive, unconstitutional bill mandating Michigan to offer a fundraising license plate that reads "Choose Life" will soon land on Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk.

Funds from the plate would go to the Choose Life Michigan Fund, which then must grant the money to nonprofit organizations that promote "life-affirming programs and projects." This specifically includes Crisis Pregnancy Centers, overtly religious anti-choice centers with a history of providing dubious care to pregnant women.

Senate Bill 0163 has passed the final state Senate vote, but fell short of securing enough votes to give the bill immediate effect. It has been reported that the governor is undecided about signing this shameful bill. It isn’t too late to take action and stop it from becoming law.

CONTACT

Please contact Snyder’s office and ask him to veto Senate Bill 0163.

Click here to call the governor’s office. 

Click here to email the governor. 

Let our simple automated contact system contact the governor’s office for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

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The Michigan Senate, on Tuesday, June 6, sent Republican Gov. Rick Snyder Senate Bill 0163, which legislates for a religious fundraiser that would violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The primary goal of Crisis Pregnancy Centers is to scare teens from using contraception or seeking abortions, both of which these centers oppose for purely religious reasons. The government may not signal its endorsement of this religious agenda by holding a statewide fundraiser to support it.

Numerous studies have shown that Crisis Pregnancy Centers often sacrifice sound medical advice and basic ethical standards to spread their religious message. In 2002, the Center for Reproductive Rights found that the centers misinformed their clients about the consequences of abortions, including false claims that abortion causes breast cancer, sterility and psychological damage. In 2006, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman released a study with similar findings, also disclosing that many Crisis Pregnancy Centers incorrectly told clients that abortion would interfere with a woman's ability to bear children in the future. Studies in multiple states have found that the centers incorrectly tell pregnant teens that condoms are ineffective in reducing pregnancy and the transmission of certain STDs, and that abortion causes mental illness. Joanne Rosen, an associate lecturer at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concluded an article about Crisis Pregnancy Centers by writing that "collectively, [their] practices jeopardize the health of women and their children, and a public health response is warranted."

Crisis Pregnancy Centers promote a rabid evangelical Christian agenda and are hostile to nonbelievers and non-Christians, as well as the humanist principle of a woman's right to reproductive self-determination. It is well beyond the scope of a secular government to fund these organizations through license plate sales.

read more 

‘Choose Life’ license plate hits bump on road to Snyder

'Choose life' license plate bill headed to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk 

Tell state Assembly to halt calls for a constitutional convention

Wisconsin may bring the country one step closer to a constitutional convention, which deeply distresses the Freedom From Religion Foundation. We need to tell the state Assembly to oppose calls for bringing the nation one step closer to an unprecedented threat to our republic.
 
Today, June 14, the Wisconsin Assembly plans to consider Assembly Joint Resolution 21, which proposes a convention to amend our Constitution in order for a balanced budget. FFRF is concerned that any call for a constitutional convention, even one supposedly limited in scope, would necessarily open up our Constitution to far-reaching amendments to any number of our cherished rights, including the separation of religion and government.
 
It’s best to leave our Constitution, the spine of American democracy, alone. Please reach out to your state representative now and tell him or her to oppose this reckless proposal. 

CONTACT

Your voice really matters in helping to preserve our Constitution. Please contact your state representative NOW to keep our Constitution safe from this alarming proposal that could have historically unparalleled consequences. Let our simple automated system contact him or her for you. 
 
Click here to call your representative. 
 
Click here to email your representative.  
 
The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.
 
(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the constitutional convention.)

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There are two basic ways to propose amendments to the Constitution. First, two-thirds of each house of Congress can vote for the proposed amendments. This is the only way our Constitution has ever been amended. The other way, which has never been used, is for two-thirds of the state legislatures to call for a convention to propose amendments. Then that convention would propose amendments. In either case, the proposed amendments would require three-quarters of the states to ratify them to become part of the Constitution.
 
It is this second, unused method that Wisconsin is set to vote on. 
 
Because it is untested, there is considerable debate and argument about how the process is governed. For instance, Wisconsin is set to vote on proposing an amendment for a balanced budget. But it is not clear that any constitutional convention would be so limited in the amendments it could propose. Such a convention could easily morph into a runaway convention imperiling the foundational document of the United States — today at 230 years the longest-lived constitution in the world. As Georgetown University law professor David Super has noted, "A constitutional convention is the last thing America needs."
 
For instance, once the convention is convened, it might be able to propose amendments dealing with the right to choose an abortion or the free exercise of religion. The current push to redefine religious freedom, which culminated in the Hobby Lobby decision, has been using legislation to do so. But if we open the Constitution to amendments, what’s to stop the Religious Right from removing the hallowed separation of state and church?
 
State legislatures will be the central players. Thirty-two state legislatures are Republican controlled. That means with two defections, perhaps from one of the seven states with Republican governors but Democratic legislatures, and the Constitution is changed. 
 
Also today, the Wisconsin Assembly is considering a Joint Resolution 20, which would declare Wisconsin’s support for the rules for a constitutional convention proposed by the so-called Assembly of State Legislatures. Perversely, these rules begin with a preamble that declares the delegates are “grateful to Almighty God,” leaving little hope that this group prioritizes the preservation of state / church separation. 
 
Furthermore, the State Assembly is also poised to consider AB 165 today, which would establish that in the event of a constitutional convention, Wisconsin’s delegates would be chosen solely by the majority party in the Assembly and Senate, plus the Governor. Not coincidentally, Republicans currently control all three.

Read more

Wisconsin closer to calling for constitutional convention

Act now to protect Wisconsin public education

Please take action against a state bill to roll back accountability measures that apply to private Wisconsin voucher schools receiving taxpayer dollars.

On Friday, June 9, the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Education voted 4-3 to approve Senate Bill 293. The bill would remove requirements that apply to the state’s voucher schools, more than 90 percent of which are religious. Introduced only last week, the bill is zipping through the state Legislature and must be halted. A full vote is expected in the Wisconsin Senate this week.

Religious schools cannot have state money without complying with accountability standards. Tell your state senator that where public money goes, transparency and public accountability must be certain!

CONTACT

Please take a moment to contact your state senator. Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you. If you have time, use social media to share this information and encourage further action.

Click here to call your state senator.
Click here to email your state senator.

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

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Senate Bill 293 would remove safeguards for the state's four voucher programs: a statewide program, a special needs scholarship program, and programs specific to Racine and Milwaukee.

The bill would weaken the academic standards for private voucher schools, which would no longer have to demonstrate that they are advancing the education of students. Under the current state law, voucher schools have to fulfill one of the following each year: at least 70 percent of students advance one grade level; the school's average attendance is at least 90 percent; at least 80 percent of students demonstrate significant academic progress; or at least 70 percent of the parents meet involvement criteria established by the school. If the bill is passed, voucher schools would be excused from fulfilling any of those requirements measuring the effectiveness of the school.

The bill also reduces financial accountability by only requiring an audit in accordance with general accounting principles if the school receives more than $100,000 in vouchers in a year. Many schools across the state receive less than that amount in vouchers annually, and their audits would not have to meet this minimum accounting standard.

Additionally, the Department of Public Instruction would no longer receive school policies and academic standards each year. Instead, department could request them as needed from individual schools. Because private schools are not subject to public records laws, these policies would no longer be available for the public to review.

The bill does include some measures that allow for the Department of Public Instruction to respond to fraud within the program, which FFRF supports. But this positive component will not make up for the damage SB 293 will cause Wisconsin’s secular public education system. That’s why we are asking you to stand up against this bill by contacting your state senator.

Read more

Changes to voucher program on fast track for Senate vote

Tell city council to keep Missouri park secular for all to enjoy

A Missouri town must remove a massive Latin cross blighting public property and advertising religious belief on behalf of the city.

FFRF wrote to the city of Neosho requesting that a 60-foot-long Latin cross unconstitutionally endorsing Christianity be removed from the city’s Big Spring Park. The city did not respond, but the Neosho mayor wrote an angry letter in a local paper against FFRF’s call. In the published rant, he claimed that the cross was tied to the town’s history and culture. It’s been reported that the city council voted unanimously to ignore FFRF’s warning and keep the cross up.

The religious significance of the Latin cross is unambiguous and indisputable. The cross, which has been maintained using taxpayer funds in the past, unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity. This kind of blatant religious symbolism has an exclusionary effect, making non-Christian and nonbelieving residents of Neosho political outsiders.

Please, take action to keep Big Spring Park a welcoming place for all its residents!

contact

Please take a moment to contact Neosho city officials. Let our simple automated contact system contact the officials for you. If you have time, use social media to share this information and encourage further action.

Click here to call the city manager. 

Click here to email the City Council and city manager. 

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your
message more effective.

READ MORE

‘We won’t remove our historic park cross,’ U.S. city tells secularists 

Help get a "vote no on voucher expansion" referendum on Arizona ballot

We need to halt a harmful new Arizona school voucher program.

A bill to expand Arizona's voucher program was, unfortunately, signed into law last month by Gov. Doug Ducey. The "Empowerment Scholarship Accounts" program sets up education scholarship accounts for students to attend (mostly religious) private schools. It had previously been limited to students from poorly performing schools or with disabilities. The new law would give $5,000 in vouchers to any student in the state.

The program, or SB 1431, harms public education by redirecting between 90 and 100 percent of a student's state school funding from their local school district. That means money meant for public education will be diverted into accounts for parents to fund their child's private school tuition or other educational expenses. It's estimated that up to 30,000 parents could use the new program by 2022.

The public education advocate group, "Save Our Schools Arizona", is initiating a referendum campaign "seeking to refer SB1431 — the ESA voucher expansion bill — to the voters of Arizona in 2018 so they can vote NO on expansion of vouchers." The group is working to gather signatures to get the referendum on the 2018 November ballot.

Public money should not be directed to promote religious agendas through private schools that offer no accountability or control to the public funding them. It has been reported that the Education Department's data tracking the money distributed to private schools and academic improvement at the institutions is extremely murky.

Click here to be directed to Save Our Schools Arizona's website. There you can take action by signing the petition for the referendum or learn how to get involved.

FFRF has recently sent every member a copy of "The Case Against Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits." Read it, or order copies by clicking here.

read more

Parent group will seek to overturn Arizona school-voucher expansion

Will Arizona voucher law face referendum? Grassroots group rallying at Capitol

Resist Trumpian budget to gut secular public education

President Trump’s just-announced education budget proposal drains federal funding for public education to pump tax money into voucher schools in an attempt to “build evidence for the effectiveness of private school choice.” Please take action today to resist this disastrous plot that will primarily benefit religious schools.

The budget will reportedly slash $10.6 billion from public education and funnel up to $370 million into school vouchers. It also creates a $1 billion “school choice” grant program to allow students to take money to the public school of their choice. Once the program is running, it could easily be amended to send students to private (mostly religious) schools, as has happened in state voucher programs.

Protect secular education! Although the budget will be debated for months, there needs to be an immediate public outcry. Please call on your members of Congress to remove any budget provisions that divert taxpayer money to unaccountable religious institutions, harming our public schools.

CONTACT

Please take a moment to contact your U.S. senators and representative. Let our simple automated contact system contact your legislators for you. If you have time, use social media to share this information and encourage further action.

Click here to call your legislators.  
Click here to email your legislators. 

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

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The Washington Post reports that under the proposed budget, funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, loan forgiveness would end for public service and “hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish.” The budget proposal involves a $9.2 billion net cut to the department. Twenty-two programs would be eliminated, such as the $1.2 billion after-school program serving 1.6 million, mostly low-income, children and $2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction.

“Public schools and universal, secular education are cornerstones of America,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “It’s apparent this budget seeks to punish public schools and their students, and use federal dollars to reward and encourage private, mostly religious schools. It’s even more alarming that money is being cut from public programs to go to the pet projects of Education Secretary DeVos.”

As a voucher proponent prior to being named education secretary, Betsy DeVos remarked that education reform should be used to “advance God’s Kingdom.” The proposed education budget is the foot in the door to a much larger voucher program.

The only federally funded voucher program, in the District of Columbia, showed worse outcomes on standardized tests for voucher students compared to students in public schools. 

Once implemented by states, voucher schemes have rapidly expanded. In Indiana, for instance, the number of voucher students grew from zero in 2010 to more than 34,000 this year. A whopping 99 percent of Indiana voucher schools are now religious schools. It is expected that any Trump voucher plan would be greatly expanded, with the ultimate result being school vouchers nationwide. FFRF opposes voucher funds going to private schools, which are mostly religiously exclusionary and proselytizing.

Find out more in FFRF’s online brochure, “The Case Against School Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits.” 

Halt outrageous violation of the First Amendment

A resolution proposing an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution to recognize God as the source of liberties just passed the House. Please take action to stop this ridiculous bill from progressing any further in the Tennessee Legislature.

House Resolution 37 attempts to force the recognition of a god on all Tennessee citizens by unconstitutionally worming religious language into the state constitution. The new language in the state constitution would read: "We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God."

Tell Tennessee lawmakers that liberties come from reason and common sense, not superstition! Writing faith in God into the secular law is an unbelievable failure to recognize the democratic principle of separation between religion and government enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

CONTACT

The bill now sits in the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee. Please contact the chair and any representatives you may have on the committee.

Click here to call the committee. 
Click here to email the committee. 

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

READ MORE

Tennessee considers bill to declare God as source of liberty 

Tennessee bill to declare God as source of liberty advances 

Fight for Texas' secular public education

A school finance bill with a voucher scheme slipped within has been proposed by the state Senate Education Committee. Please take action by contacting your state senator and asking him or her to oppose this plot that could eventually devour the state's public schools.

House Bill 21 would use taxpayer money to provide funding that students with special needs could use to attend private schools by implementing so-called "education savings accounts." These are vouchers that allow parents to use public money on private school tuition and other expenses. However, the Legislature should already be providing public schools with enough money and resources to help students with special needs. Instead it's taking advantage of these students in a political ploy to satisfy voucher lobbyists.

CONTACT

The state Senate will likely vote on this bill early this week, so waste no time! Take action now by contacting your state senator. Let our simple automated system contact him or her for you.

Click here to call your state senator.
Click here to email your state senator.

We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about HB 21.)

BACKGROUND

The Texas Senate Education Committee approved a House proposal to begin revamping the state's school finance system. The committee also posted on a provision to offer $8,300 in taxpayer funds that some special education students could use to attend private schools.

While the voucher proposal may appear modest, the foot-in-the-door tactic could lead to rapid expansion of "school choice" schemes to pump more government money into private schools, most of which are religious. This financially eviscerates the public school system by using government resources to expand private education.

Other states where vouchers began small quickly saw them expand rapidly. While taxpayers cut the checks to fund "education savings accounts," they have no say in what they are paying for and what religious proselytization their money might be used to instill. Where public money goes, public accountability should follow. Using public money to fund private education endangers both our public schools system as well as our secular republic.

READ MORE

What to Watch: Why school vouchers may be back from the dead

Act to keep Ten Commandments out of Alabama public buildings

An absurd proposal to amend the Alabama Constitution to allow Ten Commandments displays on state property and in public schools just passed the state Senate. Please stand against this attempt by theocrats to cement religion onto the public arena.

The Supreme Court has explicitly ruled the display of bible edicts in public schools to be unconstitutional. State legislators and governmental entities have no business exposing Alabama citizens and students to a list of Old Testament orders.

Senate Bill 139 now awaits approval by the Alabama House where it will be voted upon in the next four days. Please contact your state representative today asking him or her to oppose this shameful bill.

CONTACT

Take just a minute of your time now to let our simple automated system contact your state representative for you.

Click here to call your state representative. 
Click here to email your state representative. 

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. (Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

Senate Bill 139 was introduced by state Sen. Gerald Dial. This is Dial's 13th attempt to finagle through legislation to permit public Ten Commandment displays in Alabama. The proposal was approved by the state Senate in a 23-7 vote on Thursday.

SB 139 attempts to circumvent the blatant constitutional violation by including language that requires the public Ten Commandments displays to be "in a manner that complies with constitutional requirements, including, but not limited to, being intermingled with historical or educational items, or both, in a larger display."

There is no manner in which the Ten Commandments could be displayed that would make them permissible under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The First Commandment alone, reading, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is reason enough why it's utterly inappropriate to display it in schools or on state property. Whether or not the biblical symbol is intermeshed with "historical or educational items" does not change it from what it is: a state stamp of approval of Judeo-Christianity over other religions or nonreligion.

"It's dismaying that so many senators would be derelict in their duty to uphold the entirely secular U.S. Constitution," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Alabama is not a theocracy, contrary to the Alabama Senate, and may not endorse or preference one religion over another, or religion over nonreligion."

If the bill passes the state House, the measure would go to Alabama voters for approval.

READ MORE

Ala. Senate hands down Ten Commandments bill to House

Ala. Senate approves Ten Commandments display bill

Take action to help Saudi man sentenced to death for blasphemy

A young Saudi man has been sentenced to death for atheistic social media posts that "insulted" Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Please take action today to help overturn this horrifying ruling.

Ahmad Al-Shamri was arrested on charges of atheism and blasphemy and held in prison before being convicted by a local court and, shockingly, sentenced to death in February 2015. His case was brought before the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court for appeal, which ruled against Al-Shamri on April 25. Typically, these monstrous executions are carried out by shooting or beheading the victim.

Please contact the Saudi Arabian Embassy and the U.S. State Department urging officials to take immediate action and contact Saudi Arabian authorities to overturn the inhuman ruling that will execute Al-Shamri for being an atheist.

CONTACT

Click here to contact the Saudi Arabian Embassy. 

Click here to contact the U.S. State Department.

Click here to let our simple automated contact system call the officials for you with automated talking points. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message.

TALKING POINTS 

Sample email to the U.S. State Department:

As a citizen of the United States I am calling on the State Department to formally object to the death sentence of Saudi citizen Ahmad Al-Shamri for blasphemy. Please urge the Saudi Arabian government to overturn the inhuman ruling to execute Al-Shamri essentially for being an atheist. This is a horrifying human rights violation and the United States must take action to stop this execution.

Sample email to the Saudi Arabia Embassy:

I am writing to urge you to formally object to the death sentence of Saudi Arabian citizen Ahmad Al-Shamri for blasphemy. Please take immediate action and pressure the Saudi Arabian government to overturn the inhuman ruling that will execute Al-Shamri essentially for being an atheist. This is a horrifying human rights violation and any action possible must be taken to stop the execution.

(Keep reading for more information about this human rights violation.)

BACKGROUND

Ahmad Al-Shamri came to the attention of the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2014 after he uploaded material to social media that allegedly trivialized Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. Al-Shamri, who is in his 20s, initially pleaded insanity for his posts, saying that he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he made the comments online. His trial focused on Islamic law and he was sentenced to death for the displays of irreverence.

Leaving Islam, or "apostasy," is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, where religious extremists have total control of the kingdom's judicial system. It is the judges' duty to preserve the Islamic state, resulting in horrendous executions like the one prescribed to Al-Shamri. When a citizen steps out of line, judges crack down with horrifying punishments to protect their vision of God.

This sentence comes around the same time as Stephen Fry's blasphemy investigation. The British actor, comedian and author made critical comments about God during an interview on Ireland's National Television in 2015. He was recently under police investigation for his ridicule of religion. While the investigation has been dropped, it is part of a deeply disturbing trend in increasingly prominent and barbaric blasphemy prosecutions. The latest of these has been the imprisonment of an Indonesian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, after he was found guilty of insulting the Quran. 

Blasphemy laws and the chilling fates for those found guilty of the crime exist not only to punish the blasphemer, but to silence future criticisms of religion. The laws freeze speech and expression of ideas, and enchain the ability of citizens to think freely.

READ MORE

Saudi Arabia to execute atheist for blasphemy 

Man ‘sentenced to death for atheism’ in Saudi Arabia 

In defense of blasphemy and Stephen Fry 

Stand against religious discrimination bill

The Texas House will take a vote on Saturday, May 6, on a proposed bill that would allow child welfare organizations to receive state funds while discriminating based on their religious beliefs.

Potential discriminatory acts approved by House Bill 3859 include denial of foster care or adoption opportunities to LGBTQ families, single mothers, atheists, or any other group marginalized by the religious organization. This bill would allow a religious child welfare organization to use discriminatory assistance or counseling practices — to the detriment of abused LGBTQ children.

The health and care of a child should be the only factor that a child welfare agency and its employees take into consideration — not advancing the bigoted agendas of state contractors promoting dogma at the expense of children in need.

CONTACT

Take action today against this shameful bill sanctioning religiously fueled prejudice against Texas children. Please ask your state representative to vote against this disgraceful piece of legislation.

Click here to email your state representative.
Click here to call your state representative.

Let our simple automated contact system contact each legislator for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

BACKGROUND

House Bill 3859, proposed by state Rep. James Frank, permits child welfare organizations, agencies and employees contracting with the state of Texas to discriminate against LGBTQ families, single mothers, atheists and others when making foster care and adoption decisions.

This bill would permit the religious ideologies of child welfare agencies to take priority over an obligation to care for the state's most in-need children. While HB 3859 preserves legal protections from discrimination based on a person's race or ethnicity, similar protections for gender, sexual orientation, or religious/nonreligious beliefs are conspicuously absent.

Under this bill, the state remains liable for providing foster children with necessary medical care. However, it also requires the state to fund religious organizations that refuse to provide sexually abused young women with potentially lifesaving abortion services or contraception. The state could also refer vulnerable foster children to religious organizations that explicitly aim to indoctrinate them through religious education.

Not only is this bill unconstitutional, it is deeply unethical. Passing HB 3859 would be a moral failure on the part of the Texas House.

READ MORE

Texas' next religious liberty fight could be over foster care

Stand against state-sanctioned, anti-choice fundraising

A deeply offensive, unconstitutional bill to offer a fundraising license plate that reads "Choose Life" is moving through the Michigan Legislature and needs to be stopped.

Funds from the plate would go to the Choose Life Michigan Fund, which then must donate the money to nonprofit organizations that promote "life-affirming programs and projects." This specifically includes Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which are overtly religious anti-choice centers with a history of providing dubious care to pregnant women.

Senate Bill 0163 has already passed the state Senate and is now in the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Please take action NOW to terminate this shameful bill.

CONTACT

Please contact the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure where the bill now awaits approval. Also, take a moment to contact your own representative asking him or her to oppose SB 0163.

Click here to call the committee chair and your representative. 

Click here to email the committee members and your representative. 

Let our simple automated contact system contact each legislator for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

BACKGROUND

Senate Bill 0163 legislates for a religious fundraiser that would violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Crisis Pregnancy Centers' primary goal is to scare teens from using contraception or seeking abortions, both of which these centers oppose for purely religious reasons. The government may not signal its endorsement of this religious agenda by holding a statewide fundraiser to support it.

Numerous studies have shown that Crisis Pregnancy Centers often sacrifice sound medical advice and basic ethical standards to spread their religious message. In 2002, the Center for Reproductive Rights found that the centers misinformed their clients about the consequences of abortions, including false claims that abortion causes breast cancer, sterility and psychological damage. In 2006, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman released a study with similar findings, also disclosing that many Crisis Pregnancy Centers incorrectly told clients that abortion would interfere with a woman's ability to bear children in the future. Studies in multiple states have found that the centers incorrectly tell pregnant teens that condoms are ineffective in reducing pregnancy and the transmission of certain STDs, and that abortion causes mental illness. Joanne Rosen, an associate lecturer at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concluded an article about Crisis Pregnancy Centers by writing that "collectively, [their] practices jeopardize the health of women and their children, and a public health response is warranted."

Crisis Pregnancy Centers promote a rabid evangelical Christian agenda and are hostile to nonbelievers and non-Christians, as well as the humanist principle of a woman's right to reproductive self-determination. It is beyond the scope of a secular government to fund these organizations through license plate sales.

Put the skids on bill to promote religion on Tenn. roads

A bill to put the phrase "In God We Trust" on Tennessee license plates is cruising through the state Legislature. Please take action today to hit the emergency brakes on this unacceptable violation of the Establishment Clause.

We asked you to take action on an earlier version of this bill, which would have required the phrase to be put on all state plates. Senate Bill 1355 / House Bill 0026 has been amended to make the license plate motto optional. However, required or not, putting religious wording on government property violates the Establishment Clause by expressing a religious belief in the existence of God on behalf of the state. The motto fails to represent the beliefs of Tennessee citizens who identify as nonreligious, and it sends the message that the state favors a specific ideological viewpoint of faith in a god over others.

Please take action to stop this collision between state and church in the Tennessee Legislature.

CONTACT

House Bill 0026 is scheduled to come before the full House tomorrow, May 4th. Please take action by contacting your state representative asking him or her to oppose this bill.

Click here to call your state representative.

Click here to email your state representative. 

Let our simple automated contact system contact your legislator for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective. 

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

BACKGROUND

The bill is going through both houses of the Tennessee Legislature concurrently. An amended version of Senate Bill 1355 just passed the full Senate, and House Bill 0026 is currently sitting in the Calendar & Rules Committee.

Almost one-fourth of Americans identify as nonreligious. Tennessee's government officials are charged with representing all residents of the state, including those who do not believe in a monotheistic god or any gods. These citizens should not be made to feel offended, excluded and like political outsiders because the state government that they support with their tax dollars oversteps its power by prominently placing a religious statement on government-issued license plates. The state shows a preference for religion over nonreligion by offering a license plate that proclaims trust in a deity but no nonreligious option, such as "In Reason We Trust" or "There is No God." State-issued license plates are not the place for this debate.

The history of the motto "In God We Trust" evidences no secular purpose; on the contrary, the motto was first adopted during the Cold War as a reaction to the purported "godlessness" of communism. America's original motto, which was selected by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, was purely secular: "E Pluribus Unum" ("out of many, one").

READ MORE

'In God We Trust' license tag bill passes Tennessee Senate 

'In God We Trust' license plate bill constitutionally suspect, attorney general says

Tell California city council to reject ‘In God We Trust’ motto

A California city council member has proposed to install the phrase "In God We Trust" in the council chambers. Please tell the Fresno City Council to oppose this proposal and suggest that it instead mount a motto that better represents the ideals of our secular nation.

"In God We Trust" is a divisive and inappropriate display that betrays the constitutional principle of separation between church and state and wrongly equates patriotism with a belief in God. The Fresno community should be governed by principles that all citizens can believe in, such as reason, logic and enlightened judgement, and not invisible entities that represent religious viewpoints.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Council President Clint Olivier informing the council that statements about God have no place at the seat of city government. The Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics have also objected to the proposed display. The group is asking that the City Council instead install the Great Seal of the United States in place of the "In God We Trust" motto. They have suggested another alternative and inclusive motto: "E Pluribus Unum," as found on the Great Seal.

TAKE ACTION 

Please attend the Fresno City Council meeting on May 11, when it will vote on the proposal, to vocalize your opposition to this unnecessary and polarizing piece of wall decor. Tell council members to either install an alternative motto with no religious message, or nothing at all.

The meeting will be at begin at 8:30 a.m. in the city council chambers.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please ensure your secular voice is heard by taking a moment to contact Council President Clint Olivier here. You can also reach him by phone at (559) 621-8000.

READ MORE

Atheist objects to ‘In God We Trust’ 

Church trustees oppose 'In God We Trust' in Fresno council chambers 

Fresno City Councilmember pushing for "In God We Trust" 

Urge California mayors to stay out of Prayer Luncheon

Please ask mayors representing four California cities in East County to disassociate themselves from an annual upcoming Mayors' Prayer Luncheon. The civic leaders have inappropriately lent their title as mayor for this private religious event scheduled for Thursday, May 4.

Moreover, the event has scheduled a deeply offensive and polarizing individual, David Barton, to speak at the event. Barton is a Christian evangelist who deliberatly distorts American history and law. He has also made wildly insulting remarks regarding the LGBTQ community and non-Christians.

The event has been publicized as a chance to meet "mayors from four different cities" and suggests that it is a chance for religious leaders and citizens to lobby and influence local government. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to the mayors of El Cajon, La Mesa, Santee and Lemon Grove informing them that the mayor's office cannot allow a secular, public title to be used as part of this private, religious event. Nor can the office organize or promote the event.

CONTACT

Join us in urging these four East County mayors not to use their official secular titles to promote divisive beliefs and legitimize the role of religion in government.

Click here to call the mayors'.
Click here to email the mayors'.

Let our simple automated contact system contact each mayor for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

Support the National Day of Reason resolution

Please join the Freedom From Religion Foundation in supporting the National Day of Reason resolution, which aims to reaffirm the separation of church and state and ensure that reason guides public policy and law.

House Resolution 263 has been reintroduced to Congress to serve as an enlightened alternative to the National Day of Prayer, during which government officials may ask their constituents to join them in prayer.

Ask your U.S. representative to support this judicious resolution to govern by the power of reason, not superstition.

CONTACT

Let your representative know that as a secular constituent you support the National Day of Reason resolution and would like them to join you by co-sponsoring the bill.

Click here to email your representative.
Click here to phone your representative.

Let our simple automated contact system contact your representative for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the resolution.)

BACKGROUND

The 2017 National Day of Reason is on May 4. It was created in opposition to the National Day of Prayer to raise awareness of the growing amount of influence the Religious Right has in Congress. Unfortunately, Congress enacted a National Day of Prayer in the 1950s. In 1988, Congress amended the law to make the first Thursday in May the National Day of Prayer. The law directs the president to encourage all citizens join together in churches and other groups to pray. FFRF's gallant federal challenge, which won at the district level in 2010, was thrown out "on standing" by an appeals court. It has never been more crucial for freethinkers, or any U.S. citizen who believes in the principle of separation of church and state, to reaffirm this cornerstone ideal of our democracy.

This is a day to celebrate a concept all Americans can get behind. Click here to learn more about the National Day of Reason.

Support Ala. bill requiring religious child care centers to follow basic standards

A sensible bill that would put a stop to unchecked child abuse and neglect in religious child care centers has passed in the Alabama House. It is now being considered by the state Senate Committee on Education and Youth Affairs, and we're asking for you to vocalize your support.

Currently, faith-based child care centers in Alabama do not have to comply with the basic standards that secular centers must follow. House Bill 277 would remove this dangerous exemption, but some conservative religious groups are vigorously opposing the bill.

CONTACT

Please contact the Alabama Senate Committee on Education and Youth Affairs now asking them to support this common-sense bill to protect Alabama children.

Click here to call the committee.
Click here to email the committee.

We've included the full committee in those links for you to contact, but if you only have time to contact one person, please contact Chairperson Dick Brewbaker.

Let our simple automated contact system contact the committee for you. The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

Alabama allows faith-based child care centers to operate with less oversight than in any other state in the country. This senseless free pass for religious centers has produced a trend of systematic child abuse and neglect. Often, when regulators have identified severe problems at secular centers and shut them down, those dangerous centers have rebranded themselves as faith-based child care centers "just days after" being shut down, according to Reveal News. This loophole has allowed them to continue their old ways without any oversight.

In one twisted case, a woman operated at least a dozen Christian day care centers across Southern Alabama, despite regular complaints of abuse and neglect, as well as arrests for child endangerment and failing to pay employees. But the state is currently unable to stop her, or other individuals, from setting up regulation-free centers in the same way.

Conservative Christian groups are fighting HB 277, arguing that bill "removes religious liberty protections." But religious liberty does not create a right to abuse or neglect children. When Alabama parents sends their children to a day care center, they should be confident that the center will meet at least basic health and safety standards, regardless of who runs the center.

The state's duty to protect its young citizens should not be subject to a recklessly mindless religious exception. Please call or email your representatives and urge them to support HB 277.

READ MORE

Conservative Christian groups gear up for fight over child care bill, religious exemption 

The 'Child Care Safety Act" or HB 277 could hold all child care centers to the same standards 

Please ask Arizona leaders to keep dogma out of Statehouse

The Arizona House of Representatives leadership has assaulted free speech and thought by requiring invocations to call upon a supernatural power. We need your help in standing up for secularism in the state's Legislature.

The Arizona House opens its daily floor sessions with invocations (prayers) that legislators sign up to deliver. This practice unconstitutionally muddles the line between church and state, and should be ended. Invocations are antithetical to secular law as they are inherently religious and polarizing. After state Rep. Athena Salman delivered an inspirational invocation calling on the creation for "a more perfect union" on April 18, without mentioning God, legislative theocrats had the audacity to criticize her wise, humanist words for not calling on a paranormal force. The House Majority leadership declared that all invocations needed to invoke "a higher power."

"Nonreligious individuals can invoke a higher power — the only 'higher power' any governmental official should invoke in an official capacity, the only 'high power' recognized by our secular Constitution: that higher power is 'We, the People,'" says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

The outrageous instance of ostracization in the Arizona Statehouse exemplifies precisely why invocations should not be delivered in the first place. FFRF sent a letter communicating this to the Arizona House of Representatives and urging it to drop prayers altogether. They waste government time, money and energy, and violate the U.S. Constitution by dictating to whom other legislators should address invocations.

Tell leaders in the Arizona House that if representatives don't have something secular to say, they shouldn't be saying an invocation at all.

CONTACT

Please contact House Majority Leader John Allen, House Speaker Javan Mesnard and your state representative to demand that the House put and end to divisive invocations that call on supernatural powers.

Click here to call your representative and the House leadership.

Click here to email your representative and the House leadership.

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

READ MORE

An Arizona legislator gave an invocation that didn't mention God. You won't believe what happened next. 

Arizona House rules: Prayer must invoke a higher power

Ask governor to veto religious indoctrination bill

A bill to foster religious indoctrination in Florida public schools will soon be landing on the governor's desk after passing both the state House and Senate. We've asked you to take action against two versions of this bill, please make your voice heard one last time by asking Gov. Rick Scott to veto this senseless piece of legislation.

Senate Bill 436 supposedly nurtures religious viewpoints in the classroom, but will likely confuse public school employees and lead to avoidable lawsuits. The bill primarily protects conduct that is already legally granted to students, but it also adds new and unsettling obligations for public schools that could lead to constitutional violations. Embedded in the bill is language that will encourage public school educators to violate the law by promoting their personal religious beliefs to students.

CONTACT

Please contact Gov. Scott today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to a public education free from proselytization. Let our simple automated contact system contact the governor for you.

Click here to call the governor's office.
Click here to email the governor.

The automated wording in the comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

SB 436 passed in both of Florida's legislative chambers. It is now up for consolidation prior to going before the governor to be signed into law. The bill spawns confusion by declaring a "new" set of protections for student actions that are already legal and that many students already regularly engage in. It then goes beyond these unnecessary protections and creates new obligations for public schools that will create problems in an attempt to solve a nonexistent issue.

Troublingly, the bill requires public schools to create a "forum" at all events where students are to speak, such as graduation ceremonies. The law is written to encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at these events. If a student does not want to be indoctrinated in another student's religion, the bill suggests the person "be excused" from the event. This would essentially force minority religious and nonreligious students and their families to choose between attending graduation and avoiding a religious ritual with which they disagree.

The bill also encourages teachers to participate "in religious activities on school grounds that are initiated by students." Staff participation in student religious expression violates the Establishment Clause and, in many circumstances, the federal Equal Access Act, which limits staff participation in student-run clubs to a nonparticipatory supervisory role. By foolishly blurring the lines between church and state SB 436 will welcome avoidable lawsuits, costing taxpayers and school districts dearly if signed into law.

READ MORE

Florida religion in school legislation SB 436 advances 

In Theory: Florida bill aims to expand religious expression in schools

Ask city commission to put the kibosh on park nativity display

A city in the state of Washington needs, once again, to be dissuaded from reinstalling a nativity scene in a public park.

Following a letter from FFRF urging Gig Harbor not to restore its holiday nativity display, city leaders agreed to not let private displays in its public parks. Now, the Parks Commission is considering purchasing and erecting a publicly owned nativity as part of the city's annual holiday display.

Please take action and ask the City Council and Parks Commission to respect the separation between church and state and not purchase a nativity display. It is wholly unconstitutional to allow a religiously affiliated display on public property, since it symbolizes government endorsement or support of one religion over others or no religion.

CONTACT

The Council and Parks Commission will meet on May 1 to discuss purchasing the nativity for the park. Please attend the meeting to voice your opposition to the display. Information on the meeting location can be found on the city's website. 

Also, please click here to call and click here to email Parks Commission Chair Terri Reed.

Let our simple automated contact system contact members for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying public policy.

(Keep reading for more background information.)

BACKGROUND

FFRF took action after receiving a complaint last year over a private nativity display in the Gig Harbor Skansie Brothers Park. After receiving a letter from FFRF warning that legal action would be taken if the city allowed the display to be reinstalled or else face legal action, the City Council voted that private displays would not be allowed in public parks.

Absurdly, city leaders are meeting on May 1 to discus whether the city should purchase and put up a publicly owned nativity as an addition to its annual holiday display.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is impermissible to place a nativity scene as the sole focus of a city display. The city's permitting of a nativity display on public property showed a distinct preference for Christianity over other religions. This was inappropriate when it was a private religious display, but it is especially unlawful for the city to use public funds to purchase a religiously affiliated arrangement for government property.

READ MORE

Gig Harbor City Council votes against private displays in city parks 

No baby Jesus this year for Gig Harbor 

Ask board to remove divisive flag displays

Please urge the East Hanover Township Board of Education to remove two religious flags from public schools in New Jersey.

The East Hanover Township School District is flying flags that state "One Nation Under God" on flagpoles at the Frank J. Smith Elementary School and the East Hanover Middle School. The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, reportedly donated the flags.

FFRF has urged the school district to immediately remove the flags in keeping with the school district's constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion. An attorney representing the school district informed FFRF that issue would be discussed at a school board meeting on Monday, April 24. Please take the time to vocalize your opposition to the pair of flags.

CONTACT

Please attend the school board meeting scheduled to take place Monday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. Board of Education meetings are held at the East Hanover Middle School auditorium, 477 Ridgedale Avenue, East Hanover, N.J.

You can also email Board Secretary Deborah Muscara at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or call her at (973) 887-2112, x100 if you can't make it to the meeting.

(Keep reading to learn more about this state/church violation.)

BACKGROUND

By allowing East Hanover Township schools to display religious symbols and messages, the district violates the constitutional principle of separation between church and state. Courts have continually held that public schools may not display religious messages or iconography. Furthermore, such a message is deeply divisive for the nonreligious population of East Hanover. Roughly one-fourth of Americans and one-third of Millennials identify as nonreligious. The flag displays alienate these students, families, teachers and members of the public.

"This is an egregious misuse of public school authority and property," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "To be at these schools as a nonreligious person can't be a pleasant experience."

Ask governor to veto religious indoctrination bill

A bill that will facilitate religious indoctrination in public schools will soon be presented to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to sign into law. We already asked you to take action against House Bill 1024 when it was in the Legislature. Please make your voice heard one last time by asking your governor to veto this bill.

The bill supposedly nurtures religious viewpoints in the classroom, but will likely confuse public school employees and lead to avoidable lawsuits. The bill mostly protects conduct that is already legal for students, but it adds new obligations for public schools that could lead to constitutional violations. Laced into the bill is language that will encourage public school educators and religious students to impose their personal beliefs on others.

CONTACT

HB 1024 has already passed out of the state Legislature. Please contact Holcomb today asking him to veto this bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to a public education free from proselytization. Let our simple automated contact system contact him for you.

Click here to call the governor. 
Click here to email the governor. 

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

HB 1024 sows confusion by declaring a new set of protections for actions by students that are already legal. The bill then goes beyond these unnecessary protections and creates new obligations for public schools that will create problems in an attempt to solve a nonexistent issue. Troublingly, it requires school bodies to create an elective high school course on religions. The bill leaves open what specific content must be taught in the course, which will foreseeably result in teachers using the course as an opportunity to promote their personal religious beliefs to students. Indoctrination by public school teachers is a common state/church separation violation that will undoubtedly proliferate under HB 1024.

The bill also includes other obligations for the state's public schools that go well beyond what is constitutionally required. For instance, under the bill, public schools must create a "forum" at all events where students can speak, such as at graduation ceremonies. The law is written to encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at these events. If a student does not want to be indoctrinated in another student's religion, the bill suggests the person "be excused" from the event. This would essentially force students from minority religions and nonreligious students and their families to choose between attending graduation and avoiding a religious ritual with which they disagree.

Ask Oklahoma Senate to halt Ten Commandments legislation

A bill that could stealthily be used to install Ten Commandments monuments on public property is progressing through the Oklahoma Legislature. We already asked you to take action against House Bill 2177 when it was in the House. Please make your voice heard again by asking the state Senate to kill this bill.

Oklahoma legislators have renewed their quest to put up Christian displays on government grounds. Less than two years after the state lost a case at the Oklahoma Supreme Court
over its display of a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol, state Rep. John Bennett has introduced a bill that would land it back in court over the same violation.

CONTACT

Take just a minute of your time now to contact your state senator asking him or her to reject this bill. Let our simple automated contact system contact your senator for you.

Click here to call your senator.
Click here to email your senator.

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. (Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

House Bill 2177 would embolden local government entities, including "every county, municipality, city, town, school or any other political subdivision" to violate the state Constitution in the same way the Legislature did in 2015. The bill embeds the allowance to display the Ten Commandments within a scheme to display "historically significant documents ... proudly and resolutely in public buildings and on public grounds." However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court specifically rejected the historic purpose argument in its previous decision, noting that, "the Ten Commandments are obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths."

Passing this bill would needlessly waste more taxpayer money on an issue that was already litigated. The Legislature lost in 2015. Oklahomans deserve representatives with longer memories!

Contact your state senator today to voice your opposition to this patently unlawful bid to inject religion into its government structure.

READ MORE

Bill that would allow Ten Commandments back at Oklahoma Capitol passes Senate committee 

Oppose church police force bill in Ala. House

An ominous bill designed to allow a private megachurch to operate its own police force, which we asked you to oppose in the Alabama Senate, unfortunately passed the Senate and is now in the Alabama State House. Please take action against this bill that recklessly undermines the fundamental purpose of public law enforcement by contacting the Alabama House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.

SB 193 would authorize Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Vestavia Hills, Ala., to independently employ full-time police officers "to protect the safety and integrity of the church and its ministries."

This unprecedented bill would have the church take on the role of the government and could lead to crimes being covered up by the congregation. If passed, this bill would invite the creation of a private law enforcement department run by any number of different religious groups, and other private entities, throughout the state.

CONTACT

SB 193 has been approved by the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee and will now go the Alabama House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. Please call and email Allen Treadaway, the Chair of the Alabama House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee today to voice your opposition to this alarming bill. Tell him to kill this bill.

Click here to call the chair.
Click here to email the chair.

Let our simple automated system contact your representative via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading for more information about SB 193.)

BACKGROUND

The Briarwood Presbyterian Church has more than 4,000 members and two private schools. The reason it now wants to employ its own private police force is supposedly due to security concerns. But, the church complex, located between Jefferson and Shelby County, is already policed by sheriff's deputies from both counties. The Vestavia Hills Police Department also patrols the area.

Furthermore, if the church has ongoing security concerns, there's nothing preventing it from hiring private security. Instead of addressing its needs the same way that countless other private entities have done, Briarwood Presbyterian is asking the state for special treatment. According to experts, a congregation with its own police force would be unparalleled in the U.S.

The bill is short on details and it is unclear what level of public accountability this church-run police unit would have. However, given that the church is not subject to records requests, this new police unit would certainly be less publicly accountable than regular state-run police departments. Briarwood would be allowed to hire as many officers as it wants.

If the Alabama Legislature chooses to open this door, it cannot be shut again. The state cannot discriminate between different religious sects or between religious and nonreligious groups. The proposed law offers no criteria for permitting Briarwood Presbyterian to possess its own police unit, which means that any private entity that is denied similar treatment from the Statehouse would have grounds for a lawsuit.

READ MORE

FFRF statement: FFRF vehemently opposes Ala. church police force bill

Alabama Senate Votes to Allow Church to Form Police Dept.

Wisconsin Assembly on a collision course with First Amendment

The Wisconsin State Assembly's Committee on Insurance is considering this week a car wreck of a bill that would exempt members of religious sects from carrying auto insurance. The Committee has scheduled a public hearing for April 20, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation needs your help to ensure that the wheels come off this problematic bill.

Assembly Bill 68 would allow a religious sect whose members register more than 25 vehicles with the Department of Transportation to self-insure those vehicles. Essentially, the church, rather than an insurance company, would be on the hook for any member's vehicle involved in a collision. This bill would grant a unique benefit to religious sects, although churches are in a far worse position to cover the costs of a collision than an insurance company.

CONTACT

Please contact Committee Chair Kevin Petersen, along with any representatives you may have on the Committee, and ask that this bill be killed.

Click here to call the committee. 
Click here to email the committee.  

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about this bill.)

BACKGROUND

Wisconsin has an existing law that allows large companies with more than 25 vehicles to self-insure. But there are only nine companies in the state that elect to do so, and they are all commercial businesses. While this exemption makes economic sense for these companies, a similar provision for religious sects may put churches one large collision away from bankruptcy.

And this bill puts all drivers in the state at financial risk. If a person is involved in a costly collision with a member of a religious sect, he or she could find that the parent organization cannot cover medical costs and the repair bill, leaving the victim without financial compensation.

This scenario isn't pretty for those within qualifying religious sects, either. The bill would effectively turn churches into their own insurance companies. Members who get into a fender bender in the church parking lot may find themselves facing down church elders who pressure them into not repairing their vehicles or not seeking medical treatment, since those costs would come directly out of church coffers.

When you couple this bill with a law the State Assembly passed last year that exempts church-owned Christmas trees from Wisconsin's fire safety regulations, it becomes clear that the Legislature doesn't care whether Wisconsin's parishioners crash and burn. The problem with bills like these should be readily apparent: Churches and their members are not special. They aren't any better at assessing fire safety risks and they're no better positioned to insure against collision. Legislators are adopting nonsensical special exceptions for churches to the laws we're all supposed to follow.

Ask governor to veto bill banning abortions after 20 weeks

A concerned member in Iowa has informed us that a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy has passed the Iowa House and Senate and will soon go before the governor.

The measure does not allow a woman to end her pregnancy if the fetus shows signs of genetic problems, a primary reason many women seek abortions after 20 weeks. We want to inform other members in the state who would like to take action against this piece of anti-choice legislation. If you wish to learn more about this latest attack on women's autonomy, we've included informative links under the "read more" section below.

CONTACT

Please ask Gov. Terry Branstad to veto this bill using our simple automated system.

Click here to call the governor.
Click here to email the governor.

READ MORE

Iowa legislature votes to ban abortions after 20 weeks 

Iowa House OKs 20 week abortion ban 

Iowa House approves 20-week abortion ban, returns to sentate 

Stand up for Texas public education

A bill seeking to gut the funding of the state's public schools by creating private voucher schemes has just passed the state Senate and now waits in the Texas House. It needs to die.

We're asking you again to take action against Senate Bill 3, this time by contacting your state representative. The bill would use taxpayer money to provide funding to private religious schools by implementing so-called "education savings accounts" that allow parents to use public money on private school tuition and other expenses. The bill explicitly allows for funding religion, saying that the "religious nature of a product or service may not be considered in determining whether a payment for the product or service" is allowed.

SB 3 would also create a voucher scholarship program, which allows businesses to contribute to private tuition organizations in lieu of paying insurance premium taxes. This scheme is similar to programs in other states that have been used to work around state constitutional language that prohibits government money going to religious schools.

Tell the Texas House to support secular public education by opposing SB 3!

CONTACT

Take action by contacting your state representative. Let our simple automated system contact him or her for you.

Click here to call your representative. 
Click here to email your representative. 

We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message. This will make your message more effective in swaying your representative.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about Senate Bill 3.)

BACKGROUND

SB 3 is a backdoor means of funneling taxpayer money to religious schools by creating two voucher schemes: pushing education savings accounts and tax credit scholarships to subsidize private school tuition and additional education expenses.

SB 3 allows kindergarten and first grade students attending private schools to receive voucher money. The bill's proposal to establish education savings accounts would give Texas parents public money to spend on private school tuition and education-related expenses.

This is an attempt to subsidize private schools, regardless of wealth and regardless of whether a student previously attended a public school. Voucher programs like SB 3 would lack public accountability. While taxpayers cut the checks to fund "education savings accounts," they have no say in what they are paying for and, in this case, what religious proselytization their money might be used to instill. Where public money goes, public accountability should follow.

If the bill passes, Catholic and other existing church-run schools will see a windfall. SB 3 will benefit religious denominations that have the most private school infrastructure in place. Using public money to fund religious education endangers both our public schools system as well as our secular republic. Gov. Greg Abbott has said that he looks forward to signing the bill if it lands on his desk.

READ MORE

• Texas Senate passes private school choice bill
• The Brief: Texas Senate advances school choice bill
• Senate passes 'school choice' bill

Petition governor to veto unconstitutional prayer bill

A bill that will subject public schools to broadcasted prayers at high school athletic games will soon land on Gov. Doug Burgum's desk.

Please tell the governor to veto House Bill 1275, which schemes to allow prayers at high school events at private schools, even if the events are part of the North Dakota High School Activities Association. This bill would instruct the Activities Association to allow broadcasted prayers at any of its events held at a private school, even a nonreligious private school, and even if the visiting students are from a public school. The association's events are government-sponsored, and the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down broadcasted prayers at government-sponsored high school events.

CONTACT

HB 1275 passed the North Dakota House and Senate and will go to the governor for final approval. We're now asking you to petition Burgum to voice your opposition to a bill that calls for unconstitutional government prayer.

Click here to write an email to the governor.

Click here to call the governor.

Please take the time to call and email. Lighting up the phone lines is an effective way to communicate opposition to the bill. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

HB 1275 will force the North Dakota High School Activities Association to choose between violating state law or violating federal law. It specifically states that "neither the North Dakota High School Activities Association nor any other entity may prohibit a parochial or private school, which is a member of the activities association or another entity, from offering a prayer before an athletic activity held on the premises of the parochial or private school."

Shockingly, some state lawmakers think the bill should go so far as to allow prayer in classrooms.

"Here we are in 2017 dealing with the separation of church and state, which should not exist in the first place," said Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, clearly misguided.

A federal magistrate judge in Florida, considering this same issue, recently recommended that the court rule in favor of the Florida High School Athletic Association, which prohibited prayer at a Florida athletic association event, even though the visiting team was also Christian. North Dakota's SB 1275 would be a step in the wrong direction. It would instruct the association to violate federal law by allowing broadcasted prayers at these events.

Allowing a prayer under these circumstances would put public schools in an impossible position because public schools cannot send students to participate in events if they know there will be prayer. If passed, this bill will force public schools to opt out of athletic contests against any private religious school that chooses to take advantage of the new law. A public school that does not opt out of the contest will invite a lawsuit from any participating student or community member who objects to the prayer. The bill would jeopardize North Dakota taxpayer dollars by inviting preventable lawsuits.

READ MORE

N.D. Senate votes to allow prayer at high school sports games 

Last chance to oppose Gorsuch

Judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court poses a threat to the constitutionally enshrined principle of separation of church and state. The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted to advance his nomination to the Senate for a full and final vote. This is your last chance to contact your U.S. senators urging them to oppose him.

Gorsuch has already proven himself an untrustworthy defendant of our secular Constitution. His record proves that he poses a clear threat to the separation of church and state, contraceptive rights, abortion rights and individual rights.

Please act now by contacting your U.S. senators to oppose Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court!

CONTACT

Let our simple automated contact system contact your senators for you via phone or email. Click here to call your senators and click here to send an email to your senators.

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your senator.

READ MORE

Read the questions FFRF provided the Senate to ask Gorsuch here.

For more information about Gorsuch, click here. 

REMEMBER

For maximum effectiveness, be succinct and polite in messages, and identify yourself as a constituent when relevant (not as a member of FFRF responding to this action alert). For obvious reasons, do not forward this action alert to the targeted officials. You may wish to send blind copies (using bcc: in your email) to FFRF at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Tell state senators to halt calls for a constitutional convention

We need to tell the Wisconsin Senate to oppose calls for a constitutional convention, which would bring the nation one step closer to an unprecedented threat to our Republic.

On March 30, a Wisconsin Senate committee voted along party lines, 3-2, to let the entire Senate vote on the call. A full Wisconsin Senate vote will take place as early as Tuesday on proposing a convention to amend our Constitution to require a balanced budget. However, such a gathering could morph into a full-blown rewrite of the Constitution endangering fundamental rights like freedom of speech and religion.

It is best to leave the Constitution, the spine of American democracy, alone. Please reach out to your state senator now and tell him or her to oppose this reckless proposal.

CONTACT

Your voice really matters in helping to preserve our Republic's Constitution. Please contact your state senator NOW to keep our Constitution safe from this alarming proposal that could have historically unparalleled consequences. Let our simple automated system contact him or her for you.

Click here to call your senator.

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The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the constitutional convention.)

BACKGROUND

The constitutional convention, also called the "con-con," is one of two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution. This would require two-thirds of the state legislatures to call for a convention to modify the U.S. Constitution. Amendments passed at the con-con would then need ratification by three-quarters of the states. If the state Senate votes to join the 29 other states which have passed such legislation, Wisconsin will be the 30th of 34 states needed to call for this convention.

The only way our Constitution has ever been amended is by two-thirds of each house of Congress voting to pass on the proposed amendments. This is the usual method of amendment to the Constitution. There has not been a convention called for this purpose since the four-month convention by the nation's founders in 1787 that adopted the original Constitution.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has called to halt the alarming proposals to add Wisconsin's name to the list of states calling for a constitutional convention expressing concern over the implications of such a convention. 

Such a convention could easily morph into a runaway convention imperiling the foundational document of the United States — today at 230 years the longest-lived constitution in the world. As Georgetown University law professor David Super has noted, "A constitutional convention is the last thing America needs." 

Because it's unprecedented, there's no consensus about how the process is governed or limited. For instance, the full Wisconsin Senate is set to vote on proposing a con-con to amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget. The other 29 states have passed such legislation for a convention for similar reasons. But most legal observers believe "the gathering could undertake a wholesale rewrite of the Constitution, endangering fundamental rights like freedom of speech and of religion and the right to trial by jury," notes Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn.

Once a convention is convened, it could pass a balanced budget amendment, and then move on to write a ban on abortion into the Constitution or rewrite the free exercise clause to exclude Muslims or others deemed "undesirable." A con-con would be the expedient way to impose a redefinition of the concept of "religious freedom" into our Constitution, so as to empower believers to deny other people civil rights based on religious claims. If we open the Constitution to amendments, there is little stopping the Religious Right from removing the hallowed separation of state and church, so notably unpopular with theocrats since the founding.
It is not an overreaction to take alarm — and action to protect our Constitution.

As Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation over our secular and godless Constitution, he was queried as to whether the Constitutional Convention had adopted a monarchy or a republic. Franklin famously replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

To keep our Republic, We the People must quell the call for a con-con.

READ MORE

Wisconsin closer to calling for constitutional convention 

Wisconsin conservatives seek constitutional convention on balanced budget

Constitutional convention chaos

Put the brakes on religious promotion bill

A bill to put the phrase "In God We Trust" on all Tennessee license plates is motoring through the Legislature. Please take action today to put the skids on this unacceptable violation of the Establishment Clause.

Requiring this religious phrase to be put on all plates in the state forces citizens with a registered vehicle to display the ideological message. Since the motto would be visibly displayed on automobiles, its message could be readily associated with the driver's own beliefs. This amounts to the government forcing state citizens to profess belief of God. The bill violates the First Amendment on free speech and freedom of religion grounds and must be killed.

CONTACT

The bill is waiting to pass in the House Transportation Subcommittee and the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee. Please take action by contacting the chairs of the two committees where the bill waits to be voted on. Also contact representatives you may have in the committees. If you do, his or her name should also appear when you click the links below.

Click here to call the committees. 

Click here to email the committees. 

(Keep reading for more information about this bill.)

BACKGROUND

Two versions of the same bill, HB0026 and SB1355, are pending in the Tennessee House and Senate.

Putting religious wording on government property violates the Establishment Clause by expressing a religious belief in the existence of God on behalf of the state, and requiring that state drivers express this belief violates the civil rights of Tennessee citizens.

Tennessee's attorney general released an opinion that the bill would violate the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause, Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public authorities do not have the right "to compel [a person] to utter" a message with which he or she does not agree. Thus, no U.S. citizen can be forced to display an ideological message of the state that he or she objects to.

A vehicle's license plate displaying the phrase "In God We Trust" readily associates that message with the driver's own beliefs. This is a violation of a person's right to express oneself in a way that is in accordance with personal beliefs. Nonbelievers and believers of polytheistic faiths might object to displaying the phrase "In God We Trust" on his [or her] registration plate, and would have to choose between displaying a message that violates personal belief and the ability to lawfully operate a motor vehicle in the state.

The First Amendment rights of Tennessee citizens will be the casualties in this collision between state and church.

READ MORE

Proposed law would require ‘In God We Trust’ on Tenn. license plates 

‘In God We Trust’ license plate bill constitutionally suspect, attorney general says 

Thank village officials for standing up for secular government

Please offer your support to two local public officials in Ohio for standing up for secular government!

The village of Carey's Mayor Armand Getz and Law Director Emily Beckley recently took the initiative to stop the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited at city council meetings. Shockingly, the pair has received so many threats for their admirable actions that they announced they will be resigning effective April 1.

Getz has served our nation with four years of active duty, saying his military background "serves to strengthen my resolve." He said prayer and recitation of the pledge should not be considered proof of patriotism or be used as a religious test. Beckley had wisely given a legal opinion that the council dispense with prayer to avoid any potential lawsuit.

CONTACT

We need more secular public officials. Please offer your support and ask Gertz and Beckley to reconsider and stay on.

Contact Mayor Armand Getz at 419-396-7681, or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Contact Law Director Emily Beckley by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Your email or phone call will send a message of support. A city council should not be reciting the Lord's Prayer, out of the New Testament, to open civil, secular business that affects everyone, not just Christians.

BACKGROUND

During a Carey Council meeting on March 6, Mayor Armand Getz announced that the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord's Prayer would no longer be recited at council meetings. Getz said that the inclusion of the pledge and prayer amounted to social extortion to follow along to people who might feel uncomfortable abstaining.

Getz, an Air Force veteran who served in the Persian Gulf and in the reserves, decided to scrap the prayer after asking himself if another person would feel comfortable refraining from saying the prayer, or if they would feel coerced into participating despite their personal beliefs.

"If I thought for one minute that someone could conscientiously object to one or both the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance and not suffer any adverse consequences, I would have left it alone," he said. 

At Getz's request, Beckley researched the legality of the council reciting the Lord's Prayer during its meetings. Based on her research, Beckley also recommended, as well, that the prayer stop to avoid any potential lawsuit. The wise recommendation was based on research about a Michigan village that had been sued over reciting the prayer during its council meeting.

Since the decision, the pair has received terrorizing threats demanding that both the pledge and the prayer be reinstated at council meetings. At the council's March 20 meeting, Getz and Beckley announced they were resigning due to the "unbelievable" backlash they had been receiving for standing up for secularism in government.

READ MORE

Citing threats, Carey's Getz, Beckley step down 

Carey mayor resigns over prayer controversy 

Mayor resigns after getting threats over plan to stop prayer 

Keep state education free from religion

A bill aimed at discrediting scientific teachings in Oklahoma public schools is proceeding through the state Legislature and must be halted. We need your help to preserve the state's educational standards by stopping this absurd bill.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 393 would permit teachers in the state's public schools to misteach evolution to students in a way that presents it as controversial and up for debate. Evolution, however, is not a controversial topic. It is overwhelmingly accepted in the scientific community due to the vast weight of evidence supporting it.

Between the lines of the bill's text is another stealthy attempt by state theocrats to foist religious beliefs onto vulnerable school children that could result in a costly legal battle for the state.

CONTACT

Please contact your state representative today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to an enriching public education free from proselytization. Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you.

Click here to call your representative.
Click here to email your representative. 

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

Senate Bill 393, or the Oklahoma Science Education Act, passed the Oklahoma Senate and now waits in the House. Under the bill, schools and school districts must allow teachers in Oklahoma public school districts to help "students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught." Furthermore, the schools and districts "shall endeavor to assist teachers to find effective ways to present the science curriculum as it addresses scientific controversies."

The bill is designed to dilute facts surrounding evolution by allowing educators to present cooked-up "weaknesses" of the scientific theory. The text of the legislation, and how it may be carried out by evangelizing teachers, hinges on a misconception of the term "theory" as is applies to science. Evolution is not a "theory" as it meant in everyday language. It is a "scientific theory", which is not a speculation, but a tangible explanation that has repeatedly been confirmed through observation and experiment. This difference is crucial.

There are no weaknesses in evolution, it has been repeatedly confirmed by scientific observation. Rather, the fact that religious dogma disagrees with the science is a weakness of religion. Now theocrats want to project the ignorance of their own ideas about the world onto science, dragging Oklahoma public schools down in the process — and opening an avenue for a dangerous collision between church and state.

Putting creationism, intelligent design, or any other creatively named offspring in public schools is undoubtedly unconstitutional. State school districts have a constitutional obligation to ensure that "teachers do not inculcate religion," to quote the U.S. Supreme Court. Time and again, courts exposed these proposals as a scheme to impose religious doctrine onto susceptible students, often after an expensive legal battle.

READ MORE

Proposed bill would allow Oklahoma science teachers to freely share their opinions on theories 

Anti-evolution legislation in Oklahoma

Support standard secular affirmation in N.J. courts

A proposed rule change in New Jersey courts would replace religious oaths for witnesses with a standard secular declaration. Please back this pioneering reform to make secular affirmations the norm in the state court system!

FFRF enthusiastically backs this reform, even more needed today due to a rapidly increasing segment of America is nonreligious. This will end a requirement from this growing population of "nones" and others who do not wish to swear a religious oath to essentially make a declaration of their nonbelief or minority belief in court.

CONTACT

The New Jersey Supreme Court is soliciting public comments on the recommended reform. Urge the Court to adopt this sensible change to the Rules of Evidence using our simple automated system.

Click here to call the Court.
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The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will be more effective in swaying the Court.

(Keep reading to learn more about the proposed change.)

BACKGROUND

The proposed change to N.J. Rules of Evidence 603 would replace religious oaths for witnesses with the standard secular declaration: "Do you solemnly declare and affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

The recommendation for change arose in New Jersey after a case in which a juror commented to the judge that she was "surprised" when a witness "did not actually touch the Bible before he testified."

Despite the increasing visibility of nonbelievers, many religious people still have intense animus toward this group. An article by two leading researchers noted that atheists "are one of the most despised people in the U.S. today." Atheists also drew the highest disapproval level by far of all groups listed when survey respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement, "This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society," with 39.6 percent of respondents concurring with this sentiment when it came to atheists.

It is therefore not difficult to understand why many nonbelievers are reluctant to make a public showing of their nonbelief by refusing to swear on a Bible in court: It is very likely that at least some of the jurors or judges will perceive them as a nonbeliever and immediately view them negatively as a result.

People have reported to FFRF about feeling coerced into taking a religious oath instead. Freethinkers must necessarily either be forced into making a religious oath or risk biasing jurors who may be hostile to anyone unwilling to swear an oath on a Bible, "so help me God." Both of these options are undesirable for nonreligious people, and neither belongs in a government institution that is obligated to keep state and church separate. Using a secular affirmation as the default disposes of the oath's assumption that all are Christians unless they declare otherwise — an assumption that is increasingly inaccurate and offensive in our progressively more pluralistic society.

Furthermore, it is not only atheists who may be unwilling to swear on the Bible. It is against the beliefs of some Christians, such as Anabaptist groups, to take an oath on the Bible. It is intimidating for nonbelievers or a people of a minority religion to be asked to make their belief—or lack thereof—known in court. An individual should not be compelled to do so in what should be a secular government space. Providing affirmations for all witnesses is a simple solution that avoids all the problems that arise from unnecessarily bringing matters of personal religious belief into the courtroom.

READ MORE

FFRF eagerly supports standard secular affirmation in N.J. courts 

FFRF legal letter to acting administrative director of the N.J. courts 

Ask Florida's Statehouse to halt religious indoctrination bill

A bill to facilitate religious indoctrination in Florida public schools is proceeding through the Legislature and needs to be stopped. Please take action to stop this senseless piece of legislation.

CS/HB 303 supposedly nurtures religious viewpoints in the classroom, but will likely confuse public school employees and lead to avoidable lawsuits. The bill mostly protects conduct that is already legal for students, but it also adds new obligations for public schools that could lead to constitutional violations. Embedded in the bill is language that will encourage public school educators to violate the law by promoting their personal religious beliefs to students.

The bill has a nearly identical twin in the state Senate.

CONTACT

Please contact your state representative today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to a public education free from proselytization. Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you.

Click here to call your representative. 
Click here to email your representative.

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. Please, if you have time, also take action against a nearly identical bill in the Florida Senate. 

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

CS/HB 303 passed the Florida House Education Committee on Thursday, March 23. It is now scheduled to have a vote on the House floor. The bill sows confusion by declaring a new set of protections for actions by students that are already legal and that many students already regularly do. It then goes beyond these unnecessary protections and creates new obligations for public schools that will create problems in an attempt to solve a nonexistent issue.

Troublingly, the bill requires public schools to create a "forum" at all events where students are to speak, such as graduation ceremonies. The law is written to encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at these events. If a student does not want to be indoctrinated in another student's religion, the bill suggests the person "be excused" from the event. This would essentially force minority religious and nonreligious students and their families to choose between attending graduation and avoiding a religious ritual with which they disagree.

The bill also encourages teachers to participate "in religious activities on school grounds that are initiated by students." Staff participation in student religious expression violates the Establishment Clause and, in many circumstances, the federal Equal Access Act, which limits staff participation in student-run clubs to a nonparticipatory supervisory role. If passed, HB 303 will invite avoidable lawsuits, costing taxpayers and school districts dearly.

READ MORE

Jacksonville representative pushes for bill to bolster religious freedom in Florida schools 

'Religion in school' bill moves past House Education Committee 

Oklahoma must keep Christianity off state calendar

A bill to designate Good Friday as an official state holiday passed in the Oklahoma House this week. It is now in the state Senate. Take action against this blatantly unconstitutional government endorsement of Christianity!

House Bill 1444 adds Good Friday, a Christian holiday commemorating the death of Jesus, to the list of state sanctioned holidays. Let state lawmakers know that it is unacceptable for the government to endorse specific religious beliefs over others by writing their chosen "holy days" into secular state policy.

CONTACT

Contact your state Senator using our simple automated system to tell him or her to oppose this ridiculous bill.

Click here to call your senator.
Click here to email your senator.

Let our simple automated system contact your representative for you. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will be more effective in swaying your legislator.

(Keep reading for more information about HB 1444.)

BACKGROUND 

HB 1444 would make Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, a designated state holiday. Good Friday is a specifically Christian holiday commemorating the biblical myth of the crucifixion and death of Jesus—the Christian prophet.

For the state to mark a Christian holiday on its calendar unconstitutionally promotes the beliefs of a specific religion. This is an outrageous violation of the principal of the separation between church and state.

READ MORE

Christian holy day would be paid state holiday in bill passed by Oklahoma House 

Take a stand against disturbing bill in Alabama Statehouse

An absurd bill designed to allow a private megachurch to operate its own police force is flying through the Alabama state Senate. Please help us take action against this bill that recklessly undermines the fundamental purpose of public law enforcement.

SB 193 would authorize Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Vestavia Hills, Ala., to independently employ full-time police officers "to protect the safety and integrity of the church and its ministries."

This unprecedented bill would have the church take on the role of the government and could lead to crimes being covered up by the congregation. If passed, this bill would invite the creation of a private law enforcement department run by any number of different religious groups, and other private entities, throughout the state.

CONTACT

SB 193 has been approved by the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee and will now go the full Senate for a floor vote. Please call and email your state senator today to voice your opposition to this alarming bill.

Let our simple automated system contact your representative via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading for more information about SB 193.)

BACKGROUND

The Briarwood Presbyterian Church has more than 4,000 members and two private schools. The reason it now wants to employ its own private police force is supposedly due to security concerns. But, the church complex, located between Jefferson and Shelby County, is already policed by sheriff's deputies from both counties. The Vestavia Hills Police Department also patrols the area.

Furthermore, if the church has ongoing security concerns, there's nothing preventing it from hiring private security. Instead of addressing its needs the same way that countless other private entities have done, Briarwood Presbyterian is asking the state for special treatment. According to experts, a congregation with its own police force would be unparalleled in the U.S.

The bill is short on details and it is unclear what level of public accountability this church-run police unit would have. However, given that the church is not subject to records requests, this new police unit would certainly be less publicly accountable than regular state-run police departments. Briarwood would be allowed to hire as many officers as it wants.

If the Alabama Legislature chooses to open this door, it cannot be shut again. The state cannot discriminate between different religious sects or between religious and nonreligious groups. The proposed law offers no criteria for permitting Briarwood Presbyterian to possess its own police unit, which means that any private entity that is denied similar treatment from the Statehouse would have grounds for a lawsuit.

READ MORE

Alabama may allow church to form own police force 

Senate committee approves church police force 

Alabama church wants to create its own police force

Church congregation eyes its own unusual police force 

Urge your senators to reject Neil Gorsuch

Judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court poses a threat to the constitutionally enshrined principle of separation of church and state. Please contact your U.S. senators urging them to oppose him.

Gorsuch's record has revealed that he cannot be trusted to abide by well-established legal principles. His decision in Hobby Lobby highlighted his disqualifying misconception on what true "religious freedom" means. Other decisions, such has his opposition to "death-with-dignity" legislation and his dissent against rulings to eliminate religious expressions in public places, reveal that Gorsuch privileges one set of beliefs—those founded on the Christian faith—over others. By protecting certain religious beliefs over nonreligious ones, Gorsuch has already proven himself an untrustworthy defendant of our secular Constitution.

Gorsuch's confirmation hearing begins today, March 20. He first needs to be cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee before the entire Senate will vote on his Supreme Count appointment. Read the questions FFRF provided the Senate to ask Gorsuch here. Please act now by contacting your U.S. senators to oppose Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court!

CONTACT

Let our simple automated contact system contact your senators for you via phone or email. Click here to call your senators and click here to send an email to your senators.

The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about Gorsuch.)

BACKGROUND

Judge Neil Gorsuch, 49 years old, is currently on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If approved, he will be the single Episcopalian on the Supreme Court alongside five Catholic and three Jewish justices. However, he was raised and schooled Roman Catholic, so his background does not signal an addition to diversity on the high court.

Gorsuch joined the now infamous Hobby Lobby decision by the 10th Circuit holding that for-profit companies have religious rights. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling, allowing corporations to trample women employees' contraceptive rights in the process.

Gorsuch bafflingly thinks the cross, the quintessential symbol of Christianity, stamped with state symbols is not a religious endorsement.

According to Eric Citron at the Peabody-winning SCOTUSblog, Gorsuch "is skeptical of efforts to purge religious expression from public spaces (like Scalia)." This antagonism is evident in two of Gorsuch's dissents. In each instance, the 10th Circuit decided not to rehear a case that a three-judge panel had decided. One such dissent was a case that removed roadside crosses as Establishment Cause violations. When the 10th Circuit decided not to rehear the case, Gorsuch wrote that it was a "biased presumption" to assume that roadside crosses erected by the government and bearing government insignia are unconstitutional endorsements of religion.

And when the 10th Circuit decided not to rehear a case that removed a Ten Commandments monument from a county courthouse in Oklahoma, Gorsuch stated in another dissent that he did not think the public display of the Judeo-Christian symbol was a violation of the Establishment clause. Gorsuch wrote, "the Ten Commandments can convey a 'secular moral message' about the primacy and authority of law, as well as the 'history and moral ideals' of our society and legal tradition." He also argued that the influence of the Ten Commandments is "undeniable" and an archetypal symbol for the law itself. Ridiculously, Gorsuch concluded that the monument did not violate the First Amendment.

Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have recognized that the Latin cross is an exclusively Christian symbol. Yet Gorsuch would have upheld Latin crosses and the Ten Commandments — which begin, "I AM the LORD thy God, you shall have no other gods before me" — as not endorsing religion.

In his 2006 book, "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia", Gorsuch makes his legal case for opposing assisted suicide for the terminally ill on moral grounds using Christian history as a precedent.

"With several states adopting death-with-dignity measures, it's inevitable Gorsuch, if confirmed, will be asked to vote on challenges to such legislation. It's clear he would rule against these laws," writes FFRF Co-president Dan Barker in a blog post on the subject. "His confirmation as a judge would give him a vote to retard the adoption of rational and humane regulations honoring the choice of gravely or terminally ill patients."

In short, Gorsuch is no friend to the separation of state and church. FFRF has about a dozen ongoing Establishment Clause lawsuits, several of which may be Supreme Court-bound. We cannot afford to give someone so hostile to FFRF's fundamental purpose a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

READ MORE

FFRF provides Senate tough questions to ask Gorsuch

FFRF highly apprehensive about Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch 

Gorsuch's selective view of 'religious freedom' 

Tell Committee to protect Texas public education

A bill being introduced to the Texas Senate Committee on Education seeks to gut the funding of the state's public schools by creating private voucher schemes. The committee is seeking public comments. Let's make sure our voice of reason is heard!

Senate Bill 3 would use taxpayer money to provide funding to private religious schools by implementing so-called "education savings accounts" that allow parents to use public money on private school tuition and other expenses. The bill explicitly allows for funding religion, saying that the "religious nature of a product or service may not be considered in determining whether a payment for the product or service" is allowed.

SB 3 would also create a voucher scholarship program, which allows businesses to contribute to private tuition organizations in lieu of paying insurance premium taxes. This scheme is similar to programs in other states that have been used to work around state constitutional language that prohibits government money going to religious schools.

Tell State Senate Committee members to support secular public education by opposing SB 3!

CONTACT

Take action by calling the Senate Committee on Education. If you only have time to call one number, call Chair Larry Taylor at 512-463-0111. He can also be reached by E-mail here.

We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator.

Please also testify at the hearing for the bill if you are able to. It starts at 9 a.m., Tuesday March 21, in room E1.028 of the Capitol extension, Austin.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about Senate Bill 3.)

BACKGROUND

SB 3 is a backdoor means of funneling taxpayer money to religious schools by creating two voucher schemes by pushing education savings accounts (ESAs) and tax credit scholarships to subsidize private school tuition and additional education expenses.

SB 3 establishes that kindergarten and first grade students attending private schools may receive voucher money. The bill's proposal to establish ESAs would give Texas parents public money to spend on private school tuition and education-related expenses.

This is an attempt to subsidize private schools, regardless of wealth and regardless of whether a student previously attended a public school. Voucher programs like SB 3 would lack public accountability. While taxpayers cut the checks to fund "education savings accounts," they have no say in what they are paying for and, in this case, what religious proselytization their money might be used to instill. Where public money goes, public accountability should follow.

If the bill passes, Catholic and existing church-run schools will see a windfall. SB 3 will benefit religious denominations that have the most private school infrastructure in place. Using public money to fund religious education endangers both our public schools system as well as our secular republic. Gov. Greg Abbott has said that he looks forward to signing the bill if it lands on his desk.

READ MORE

School choice bill pitches savings accounts, tax credit scholarships

Complex Texas voucher bill would shift funds to families, costs to state, schools unclear 

Support bill to require religious child care centers to follow basic standards

Alabama's House of Representatives is considering a bill that would put a stop to unrestrained child abuse and neglect in religious child care centers.

Currently, faith-based child care centers in Alabama do not have to comply with the basic standards that secular centers must follow. House Bill 277 would remove this dangerous exemption, but some conservative religious groups are vigorously opposing the bill.

Please contact your representatives now to tell them to support this common-sense bill to protect Alabama children.

CONTACT

HB 277 is currently being debated in the House, after receiving favorable treatment in the Committee on Children and Senior Advocacy, and will be voted on soon.

Please call and/or email your state representative today to voice your support to protect Alabama children who are at the mercy of a faith-based child care center. (We also encourage you to applaud the bill on social media or in a letter to your editor.)

Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

Alabama allows faith-based child care centers to operate with less oversight than in any other state in the country. This senseless free pass for religious centers has produced a trend of systematic child abuse and neglect. Often, when regulators have identified severe problems at secular centers and shut them down, those dangerous centers have rebranded themselves as faith-based child care centers "just days after" being shut down, according to Reveal News. This loophole has allowed them to continue their old ways without any oversight.

In one twisted case, a woman operated at least a dozen Christian day care centers across Southern Alabama, despite regular complaints of abuse and neglect, as well as arrests for child endangerment and failing to pay employees. But the state is currently unable to stop her, or other individuals, from setting up regulation-free centers in the same way.

Conservative Christian groups are fighting HB 277, arguing that bill "removes religious liberty protections." But religious liberty does not create a right to abuse or neglect children. When Alabama parents sends their children to a day care center, they should be confident that the center will meet at least basic health and safety standards, regardless of who runs the center.

The state's duty to protect its young citizens should not be subject to a recklessly mindless religious exception. Please call or email your representatives and urge them to support HB 277.

READ MORE

Conservative Christian groups gear up for fight over child care bill, religious exemption 

The 'Child Care Safety Act' or HB 277 could hold all child care centers to the same standards 

Tell Alabama House Committee to kill foolish marriage license bill

Alabama legislators are being absurdly indulgent toward discrimination.

To accommodate Alabama probate judges who don't want to issue marriages licenses to same-sex couples, Alabama legislators are now considering doing away with marriage licenses altogether.

Senate Bill 20 is a massive overreaction to a nonexistent problem. The bill has a discriminatory purpose of appeasing anti-gay religious sentiments. Please take action against this unnecessary bill and tell lawmakers that religious dogma is no excuse for Alabama probate judges to stop doing their jobs.

CONTACT

SB 20 passed the Alabama Senate last week and is currently in the House Judiciary Committee. 

Please call and/or email the committee chair today to voice your opposition to a bill that will senselessly eliminate marriage licenses in Alabama. If you have a representative on the committee, his or her name should also appear when you click the links. If you are a constituent of a representative on the committee, your opinion will really matter, so please make sure you identify as a constituent when you ask him or her to oppose the bill. (We also encourage you to speak out against the bill on social media or in a letter to your editor.)

Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

When the Supreme Court held that same-sex couples have a right to marry in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, the theocratic Moore, who is currently facing his second round of serious ethics charges as Alabama's Chief Justice, ordered probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, à la Kim Davis. SB 20 is an attempt to buttress Roy Moore's religion-based position by stopping Alabama judges from issuing marriage licenses altogether.

The bill's author, state Sen. Greg Albritton, reportedly said the bill will resolve "confusion over marriage licenses." But, really, there is no confusion on this issue. Some probate judges are upset about marriage equality, not confused about it. If they are unwilling to perform their duties because their religious beliefs conflict with the law, they should not work in a secular government.

Similar bills have been advanced in several other states. An Oklahoma legislator, Todd Russ, advocated for this legislation in 2015 by explaining that the point is to "leave marriage in the hands of the clergy." The state should never defer to a church for a legal identification. Marriage has many legal ramifications involving the state, so it makes sense for the state to issue marriage licenses.

At least one Alabama probate judge expressed concern that the bill was not only unnecessary, but could create legal concerns because it weakens the documentation required to make sure a couple is legally eligible to marry. Overall, the bill is unnecessary, gives deference to clergy on a state issue, and may create unexpected legal problems. Instead of abolishing marriage licenses, the solution for Alabama is simple: replace bible-thumping probate judges who are not willing to do their jobs.

READ MORE

Bill to eliminate marriage licenses passes Alabama Senate, moves to House 

Bill to eliminate marriage licenses progresses at Alabama State House 

Alabama committee passes bill to eliminate marriage licenses, nullify federal control in practice 

Scrap anti-medical research bills

Dual bills to advance the agenda of religiously motivated groups to ban research using aborted fetal tissue in the state have been introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature. Please take action now to protect lifesaving research from anti-science theocrats!

Religious groups including Wisconsin Right to Life, Pro-Life Wisconsin, Wisconsin Family Action and Wisconsin Catholic Conference have wrongly claimed that AB 83 and LRB 1754  would promote "ethical research." Research groups such as UW-Madison, UW Health, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and BioForward have spoken out, pointing out that banning fetal tissue would needlessly halt federally regulated lifesaving research.

"The ban would be devastating to the remarkable opportunity we have to develop new, lifesaving vaccines, therapies and cures that will benefit patients across Wisconsin," said Rod Hise, a spokesman for the research coalition Cures for Tomorrow.

CONTACT

Take action against these dangerous bills by contacting Wisconsin lawmakers. Please ask the committee where AB 83 is assigned to kill the bill. You also have the opportunity to ask your state representatives to oppose both bills.

1. Click here to phone and click here to email the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Chair John Spiros), where AB 83 has been referred.
The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying your legislator. (If you have a representative on the committee, his or her name should also appear when you click the links. If you are a constituent of a representative on the committee your opinion will really matter, so please make sure you identify as a constituent when you ask him or her to oppose the bill.)

2. Use our simple automated system to contact your state senator and representative to oppose both AB 83 and LRB 1754.

Click here to phone your legislators.

Click here to email your legislators.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about these bills.)

BACKGROUND

AB 83 was introduced last month by several Republican representatives in the state Assembly. The bill would ban the sale of and put limits on research using fetal tissue from abortions performed since Jan. 1, 2017. Under Wisconsin's current law there are already limits and regulations on the sale of fetal tissue for nonprofit use.

LRB 1754 is a more recent bill being circulated by the state's GOP lawmakers. This bill would ban the use of aborted fetal tissue for research, or any other purpose, regardless of whether money is involved. It would be paired with a companion bill that encourages the donation of research for stillbirth and miscarriage tissue. However, research groups opposed to LRB 1754 note that new fetal tissue is needed for some research, and that the bill would make it harder to conduct research on cancer, developmental disorders and other disease.

Absurdly, LRB 1754 would also require clinics that provide abortions to arrange a burial, cremation, or entombment of aborted remains. Violations could result in civil fines of up to $100,000. This bill is intended to punish abortion clinics and waste their money, or even put them out of business.

"The bill would reach into labs and end ongoing, pioneering research on heart disease, cancer, infectious disease, and neurological and developmental disorders," said Cures for Tomorrow, in a statement against the introduction of this latest bill.

This legislation wrongly attacks medical research beneficial to millions of people in order to cater to religiously motivated abortion opponents. Facts, rather than theocratic views, should determine the future of fetal tissue research. Already fetal tissue donation is done under strict federal laws and regulations. This includes a prohibition on anyone profiting from collecting fetal tissue. Laws regarding fetal tissue research and should be informed by expert, scientific views, not by theocrats pandering to the Religious Right's misinformed beliefs.

READ MORE

Bill Banning Aborted Fetal Tissue Research Resurfaces At State Capitol

Wisconsin Republicans clash over fetal tissue bills 

Wisconsin lawmakers want new limits on fetal tissue research

Republican legislators reintroduce ban on fetal research 

Ask House to oppose GOP attack on women's reproductive rights

As you are aware, the GOP proposed a bill on March 6 to replace "Obamacare" with a health care act containing provisions to gut Planned Parenthood's funding. The bill would also discourage private insurers from offering affordable abortion care. Please take a stand against the Religious Right and its latest attack on women's access to full reproductive rights. The primary organized opposition to reproductive rights in this country has always been religion. Virtually every anti-choice advocate argues against these rights on the basis of "God and scripture."

Portions of the new bill were approved by the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees on March 9. Now that the bill is gaining momentum, we're asking you to vocalize your opposition to it.

CONTACT

The bill will likely be on the House floor by the end of the month. Call and email your U.S. representative NOW to oppose the American Health Care Act on the grounds that it is an attack on women's reproductive rights.

Let our simple automated system contact your representative via phone and/or email . The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying public policy.

Other parts of the bill are beyond FFRF's mission, but you may wish to support or oppose the rest of the American Health Care Act. If you wish to read more about the act to formulate your view, we have included links at the bottom of this alert.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

As has been repeatedly emphasized, Planned Parenthood does not receive any direct funding from the federal government. It gets reimbursed for health care screening and family planning services, which do not include abortion (except in rare instances).

The proposed American Health Care Act targets Planned Parenthood clinics by rendering the women's health organization ineligible for Medicaid reimbursements or federal family planning grants. The money that the GOP wants to drain from the organization is used to fund health services such as birth control or cervical cancer screening. This financial evisceration of the organization has been a key priority for anti-abortion groups acting with religious motivations. Low-income women on Medicaid who receive health care at Planned Parenthood will suffer the most from slashes to its funding, but all patients who use the group's services may suffer if clinics are forced to close.

On March 9, President Trump suggested that Planned Parenthood could keep its funding if it stops offering abortions at any of its clinics. That blackmail ploy would force Planned Parenthood to stop offering women the full spectrum of reproductive health care, which is the core of the women's health organization's mission. Only 3 percent of all Planned Parenthood's health services are abortion services.

"The White House proposal that Planned Parenthood stop providing abortion is the same demand opponents of women's health have been pushing for decades, as part of their long-standing effort to end women's access to safe, legal abortion," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards in a statement. "Planned Parenthood has always stood strong against these attacks on our patients and their ability to access the full range of reproductive care."

The bill could also terminate private insurance coverage of abortion. Under the American Health Care Act, any insurance plans that cover abortion costs won't be eligible for tax credits. This will make insurance plans that cover abortion more expensive, disincentivizing companies from offering that service. Insurance companies will essentially be left with no choice but to stop covering abortions.

If these religiously inspired, draconian provisions become law, the devastating effects will be felt by generations of women.

READ MORE

House Republicans just introduced their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare 

Republicans unveil bill to repeal and replace Obamacare 

The GOP Obamacare replacement defunds Planned Parenthood and restricts abortion coverage 

Obamacare revision clears two House committees as Trump, others tried to tamp down backlash 

Ask Arkansas Assembly to rescind “bible as state book” resolution

An outrageous resolution to designate the bible as the Arkansas state book has been approved by your state Assembly. Please take action against this unconstitutional action by zealous legislators to force Christianity upon Arkansas citizens, regardless of their religious — or nonreligious — preferences.

House Resolution 1047 unconstitutionally "supports the naming of the Bible, published in any recognized version, as the official book of the State of Arkansas." This "book of truth" is rife with violence, misogyny, homophobia, genocide, slavery, bad science and intolerance toward nonbelievers. The state of Arkansas should have no trouble choosing a more appropriate state book that creates no First Amendment conflicts, since it has been the home of renowned authors such as Maya Angelou and Dee Brown.

Please take action asking the Arkansas House to rescind this wholly inappropriate and foolish resolution.

CONTACT

HR 1047 has been approved by the Arkansas House. Please call and/or email your state representative today asking him or her to rescind this offensive resolution, which promotes the views of bible-thumping theocrats. (We also encourage you to speak out against it on social media and in a letter to your editor.)

Let our simple automated contact system contact your representative for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

HR 1047 violates the constitutional separation of church and state by promoting one religious book over others and religion generally over nonreligion. This is not the government's role. Encouraging citizens to read and learn from the bible is not a goal to be pursued by those holding secular public positions.

Religious faith is a matter for private conscience, not state endorsement. In his decision upholding the Freedom From Religion Foundation's challenge of Christian indoctrination in Rhea County public schools in Tennessee, Chief U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar noted: "A state-created orthodoxy puts at grave risk freedom of belief and conscience, which is the sole assurance that religious faith is real, not imposed." 

The Arkansas State Assembly must stop attempting to foist Christianity upon the residents of the state and start working to address their real needs.

READ MORE

Arkansas representative files bill that supports making the bible the state book

Legislative briefs

Speak out now against Nebraska "Choose Life" license plates

Nebraska legislators have approved an outrageous bill designed to put anti-choice wording on state license plates. The bill, LB 46, creates a platform for religiously motivated anti-abortion advocates through a medium traditionally reserved for government speech. 

Please ask the governor to reject this bill for the adoption of a new state license plate that would read "Choose Life". If passed, this would be the first plate offer in the state promoting a theocratic political statement. The state neither offers a pro-choice message on its plates nor does the Legislature have any apparent plans to create one.

CONTACT

LB 46 will soon go before Gov. Pete Ricketts for approval or a veto. FFRF encourages concerned Nebraskans to voice their opposition directly to the governor!

Let our simple automated system contact the governor via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature. This will make your message more effective in swaying public policy.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

Currently, the state of Nebraska offers license plates promoting breast cancer awareness, mountain lion conservation, Cornhusker spirit, Creighton University, and the University of Nebraska Omaha, among others. If adopted into law, LB 46 would require the state to design and manufacture a government-sanctioned "Choose Life" license plate that vehicle owners could purchase directly from the state DMV.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers, a well-known freethinker, has been a consistent voice of opposition to this political and religiously charged stunt. Chambers has said he is opposed to the license plates because they would represent the state choosing a side of a very politically controversial issue. Adoption of the plates would also represent the state government bending to the Religious Right's views on the topic of abortion. The bill has drawn support from religious groups in the state such as the Nebraska Family Alliance, the Nebraska Catholic Conference and Choose Life Nebraska.

Sen. Chambers filed 24 floor amendments with proposed alternatives to the "Choose Life" wording. Among the alternatives were "Choose Life: Abolish The Death Penalty" and "Choose Love And Happiness." Chambers' more tongue-in-cheek suggestions included "Choose Wisdom Over Riches," "This Too Will Pass," and "Choose Honest Officials." The Legislature voted down three of Chambers' proposed replacements, and one from Sen. Adam Morfeld, before voting to end debate over the legislation.

READ MORE

Bill to introduce 'Choose Life' license plates overcomes first-round filibuster 

Lawmakers signal major support for 'Choose Life' license plates in Nebraska 

Vote on "Choose Life" license plates held up by filibuster (AUDIO) 

Tell Pa. DOT it is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to construct crosses

The state of Pennsylvania is unconstitutionally funding Christian symbols on a Catholic campus. Tell the state's Department of Transportation that it must not contribute taxpayer funds for the construction of an overtly Christian bridge on the campus of Villanova University.

The pedestrian bridge will reportedly include four large, metal Latin crosses atop stone pillars. As FFRF has pointed out in a press release, the religious significance of the Latin cross is unambiguous and indisputable. Public dollars must not be used to endorse Christianity.

CONTACT

Click here to email the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation asking it to not use taxpayer money to fund a project that endorses Christianity.

Click here to call the department's executive office secretary using our simple automated system. We encourage you to add your own thoughts to personalize the message. This will make your message more effective in swaying public policy.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the proposed project.)

BACKGROUND

A number of local taxpayers contacted FFRF to report on this violation between the separation between church and state. FFRF has asked the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to reconsider the misguided funding decision and take immediate action either to remove the crosses from the proposed bridge or withdraw the department's offer to fund the project.

"It is illegal for the Department of Transportation to use public funds to construct permanent Latin crosses, even if part of a larger secular project," FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne wrote to Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards. "The Establishment Clause strictly prohibits the government from advancing religion. The Supreme Court has struck down grants to religious schools, even when the funds will not be used to advance religion directly. Providing the funding to erect prominent Christian symbols directly advances Villanova's religious mission."

Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits the government from using taxpayer funds to advance religion, or from giving preference to any religion. Erecting prominent Latin crosses atop stone pillars on a bridge serves no purpose other than to advance Christianity. Pennsylvania taxpayers have a right not to be compelled to fund such a project. To FFRF's knowledge, the state Department of Transportation has never used taxpayer funds to construct permanent religious symbols representing Islam, Hinduism, Satanism, or any other minority faith, nor should it.

"There is a disturbing indulgence toward Catholicism taking place based on the fact that the bridge is located on a Catholic campus," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "But non-Catholic taxpayers may not be forced to subsidize such a bridge. We are not a Christian nation; we live under a secular Constitution."

TALKING POINTS

Feel free to utilize the talking points below in your email, or cut and paste this message:

As a taxpaying resident of Pennsylvania and freethinker, I urge the Department of Transportation not to use taxpayer dollars to construct an overtly Christian bridge on the campus of Villanova University. The bridge will reportedly include four large, metal Latin crosses atop stone pillars. The crosses should either be removed from the proposed bridge or the department must withdraw funding from the project. Using public dollars to endorse Christianity is a violation of the constitutional principle of separation between church and state.

READ MORE

Transforming the Villanova campus along Lancaster Avenue 

Radnor approves Villanova's controversial cross-adorned pedestrian bridge 

Radnor board gives OK to controversial cross design on Villanova pedestrian bridge spanning Lancaster Avenue 

Kill shameful “bible as state book” bill

An outrageous bill to designate "The Holy Bible" as the "official state book" has been introduced in the West Virginia House. Please take action against this unconstitutional attempt by zealous legislators to force Christianity upon West Virginians, regardless of their religious - or nonreligious - preferences.

House Bill 2568 is both illegal and fiscally irresponsible, as it would almost certainly result in a preventable lawsuit that would cost state taxpayers dearly. Moreover, the "good book" is a misnomer. The bible is rife with violence, misogyny, homophobia, genocide, slavery and intolerance of nonbelievers. The state that has been home to authors such as Pearl S. Buck, Booker T. Washington and Henry Louis Gates Jr. should have no trouble choosing a more appropriate state book that creates no First Amendment conflicts. Please take action against this legislative affront. Read FFRF's statement about the bill here, "FFRF calls W.Va. bill to make bible state book an affront". 

CONTACT

HB 2568 is currently pending in the House Judiciary. Please call and/or email your state representative today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of religious freedom by bible-thumping theocrats. (We also encourage you to speak out against it on social media or in a letter to your editor.)

Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

HB 2568 would invite a lawsuit similar to the one filed earlier this year by the Freedom From Religion Foundation against bible classes in Mercer County in the state. In its federal suit, FFRF notes that it is not the government's role to promote one religious book over others or religion generally over nonreligion. Encouraging citizens to read and learn from the bible is not a goal to be pursued by those holding secular government positions. 
Religious faith is a matter for private conscience, not state endorsement. In his decision upholding the Freedom From Religion Foundation's challenge of Christian indoctrination in Rhea County public schools in Tennessee, Chief U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar of Chattanooga noted: "A state-created orthodoxy puts at grave risk freedom of belief and conscience, which is the sole assurance that religious faith is real, not imposed." 

"This level of zealotry among the state legislators sponsoring this bill is shameful," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "They were elected to represent all West Virginians, not just those in the religious majority. An ever-growing portion of the population (almost one-fourth of Americans) identifies as nonreligious. Legislators who take an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution in all its godlessness apparently have never bothered to examine it."

The West Virginia Statehouse must stop attempting to foist Christianity upon the residents of the state and start working to address their real needs.

READ MORE 

Bill would make the Bible the official state book of West Virginia

Bill introduced to make Bible West Virginia's state book 

Ask Florida's Senate to halt religious indoctrination bill

On Monday, March 6, Florida's Senate Education Committee is scheduled to hear testimony on a bill that will facilitate religious indoctrination in public schools.

Senate Bill 436 supposedly nurtures religious viewpoints in the classroom, but will likely confuse public school employees and lead to avoidable lawsuits. The bill mostly protects conduct that is already legal for students, but it also adds new obligations for public schools that could lead to constitutional violations. Embedded in the bill is language that will encourage public school educators to violate the law by promoting their personal religious beliefs to students.

CONTACT

Please call and email your state senator today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to a public education free from proselytization.

Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you via phone and/or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

Additionally, contact the members of the Senate Education Committee to voice your opposition, since they are the ones who will vote on the bill.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

SB 436 sows confusion by declaring a new set of protections for actions by students that are already legal and that many students already regularly do. The bill then goes beyond these unnecessary protections and creates new obligations for public schools that will create problems in an attempt to solve a nonexistent issue.

Troublingly, the bill requires public schools to create a "forum" at all events where students are to speak, such as graduation ceremonies. The law is written to encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at these events. If a student does not want to be indoctrinated in another student's religion, the bill suggests the person "be excused" from the event. This would essentially force minority religious and nonreligious students and their families to choose between attending graduation and avoiding a religious ritual with which they disagree.

The bill also encourages teachers to participate "in religious activities on school grounds that are initiated by students." Staff participation in student religious expression violates the Establishment Clause and, in many circumstances, the federal Equal Access Act, which limits staff participation in student-run clubs to a nonparticipatory supervisory role. If passed, SB 436 will invite avoidable lawsuits, costing taxpayers and school districts dearly.

READ MORE

Florida: Bill filed to insert religion into public schools  

Fla. lawmakers file bill to protect religious expression in schools  

Florida bill purports to protect religious expression in schools 

Ask Indiana statehouse to halt religious indoctrination bill

The Indiana House will soon vote on a bill that will facilitate religious indoctrination in public schools.

House Bill 1024 supposedly nurtures religious viewpoints in the classroom, but will likely confuse public school employees and lead to avoidable lawsuits. The bill mostly protects conduct that is already legal for students, but it adds new obligations for public schools that could lead to constitutional violations. Laced into the bill is language that will encourage public school educators and religious students to impose their personal beliefs on others.

Please take action against this bill, which will require school bodies to create an elective high school course on religions, and encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at school forums such as graduation ceremonies.

CONTACT

HB 1024 has already passed out of the Education Committee and now goes to the full Indiana House for a vote. Please call and email your state representative today to voice your opposition to a bill that will result in preventable lawsuits and the violation of students' rights to a public education free from proselytization.

Let our simple automated contact system contact him or her for you via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

HB 1024 sows confusion by declaring a new set of protections for actions by students that are already legal. The bill then goes beyond these unnecessary protections and creates new obligations for public schools that will create problems in an attempt to solve a nonexistent issue. Troublingly, it requires school bodies to create an elective high school course on religions. The bill leaves open what specific content must be taught in the course, which will foreseeably result in teachers using the course as an opportunity to promote their personal religious beliefs to students. Indoctrination by public school teachers is a common state/church separation violation that will undoubtedly proliferate under HB 1024.

The bill also includes other obligations for the state's public schools that go well beyond what is constitutionally required. For instance, under the bill, public schools must create a "forum" at all events where students can speak, such as at graduation ceremonies. The law is written to encourage student speakers to pray and express their personal religious beliefs at these events. If a student does not want to be indoctrinated in another student's religion, the bill suggests the person "be excused" from the event. This would essentially force minority religious and nonreligious students and their families to choose between attending graduation and avoiding a religious ritual with which they disagree.

READ MORE

Indiana lawmakers debate school prayer bill 

Ask Kentucky lawmakers to kill stealth bible course bill

A mischievous bill in the Kentucky state Senate that would allow for statewide bible elective courses is on a smooth track to becoming law. Please take action against this irresponsible and religiously biased bill.

Senate Bill 138 requires the Kentucky Board of Education to establish an elective high school social studies course or courses on the Old or New Testaments. It would also require the course to provide students with knowledge of biblical content. The bill maintains that knowledge about the bible is "prerequisite to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy [emphasis added]."

CONTACT

SB 138 is now waiting approval by the full state Senate. Please call and email your state senators today to vocalize your opposition to this careless bill.

Let our simple automated system contact your senators via phone or email. The wording in the automated comment section is editable. Please feel free to add your own thoughts to personalize the message text, subject heading or signature.

(Keep reading if you wish to learn more about the bill.)

BACKGROUND

While SB 138 does not require any student to take a course on the bible or require any school to offer such a course, it opens an avenue for public education to intersect with religious proselytization. It is allowable for the bible to be taught in a purely academic fashion, but it is highly doubtful that Kentucky's Board of Education will take the means necessary to ensure that the courses do not slip from education to indoctrination.

"In a nation where upwards of 28 percent believe the bible is the 'literal word of God' and 47 percent believe it to 'be the inspired word of God,' it's unrealistic to imagine the bible will be taught or studied dispassionately in Kentucky public schools," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "How will the Board of Education ensure the course does not become devotional? The bill already shows bias by singling out only one so-called 'holy book' for study."

Moreover, it's alarming for the bill to suggest that the bible be taught as a prerequisite to understanding public policy in a nation established on a secular Constitution. According to our country's founding document, U.S. laws and public policy are supposed to be free from religious dogma.

If the bible is to be taught in public schools for the purpose of education, so should texts that dissect and criticize it, such as Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason."

The Kentucky Council of Churches and the ACLU have both come out against the bill, saying it hurts religious freedom.

READ MORE

UPDATE: Co-sponsor of Ky. bible class bill says it's not required to be offered by schools 

Bible course for high school students advances in Ky. Senate 

(Update) Ky. Senate committee approves bills standardizing bible course, student civics test