The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Metropolitan Chicago Chapter has set up a display at the Chicago Daley Center Plaza to counter Easter activities there.
Each year, the chapter erects a banner display to protest a Catholic prayer shrine and worship service taking place annually on the city plaza during the Christian “holy week.” The Catholic organization responsible for the service has insisted on using taxpayer property as a platform to proselytize its religion and convert others to its belief system. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has long disagreed with and fought to prevent such public forums, which serve mainly to provide a voice to religion. Proving that point is the fact that the FFRF banner was stolen last year in broad daylight, showing that such so-called public forums are viewed as belonging to the dominant religion.
The banner proclaims quotes supportive of the separation of state and church by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and reads:
Keep religion in a place of worship — Not on secular government property
“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”
John F. Kennedy, Sept. 12, 1960
“We establish no religion in this country. … Church and state are and must remain separate.”
Ronald Reagan, Oct. 26, 1984
The display is available for public viewing until Wednesday, April 23. Today, 29 percent of the population, including that of Illinois, have no religious affiliation, and another 8 percent of Illinoisans practice non-Christian beliefs.
FFRF thanks chapter members for their work in setting up the display, pictured from left to right: Brian Emerick, Bob Hunter, Bob Elmore and Jeff Kramer. FFRF also thanks chapter Executive Director Steve Foulkes for working to transport the display from his home to the Daley Central Plaza.
“We at the Metropolitan Chicago Chapter are proud to work with the national Freedom From Religion Foundation in providing a secular voice at public forums where religious institutions insist on imposing their sectarian beliefs on others who do not share those beliefs,” FFRF Metropolitan Chicago Chapter Associate Executive Director Tom Cara says. “As research continues to show that it is becoming more and more difficult for religious organizations to entice people into their places of worship to participate in nonsensical superstitious rituals, they now seek to proselytize on government property, which should never serve as a platform for promoting either religion or nonreligion. But, wherever religious imagery and messaging intrude on secular taxpayer property, we nontheists will be there as well to present a counter point-of-view.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 1,400 members and a chapter in Illinois. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
