Name: Alexis Palmer. I go by Lexi.
Where and when I was born: Burnsville, Minn., May 1992.
Family: My parents still live in the house that I grew up in back in cold Minnesota. I have a sister, Payton, who is a year younger than I am. She goes to school in a much warmer state, Arizona.
Education: I’m a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (and could not be prouder to be a Badger). I’m completing my legal studies and political science majors.
My religious upbringing was: I grew up as a Lutheran, so working for FFRF has really opened my eyes to an entirely different side of law and different way of helping people.
How I came to work as an FFRF legal intern: Naturally, I was looking for some legal experience, and I became interested in the work that FFRF does.
What I do here: My day-to-day work usually differs depending on the week; generally I assist the staff attorneys with drafting letters of complaint or help research specific issues involving religion.
What I like best about it: Assisting people who turn to this organization as a source of hope when they feel discriminated against. The first day I truly realized the impact of the work that FFRF does was the day a complainant responded to one of my emails thanking me over and over again for the work that we do and the difference that we make for people like him.
My legal interests are: I don’t dream of becoming famous. I just want to become a lawyer so I can help people who can’t help themselves and truly see the difference that I am making for them.
These three words sum me up: Charismatic, compassionate and determined.
Things I like: My favorite thing in the world is my cat, Gucci, who lives with my parents. I am definitely a cat person. I also really love trying new and authentic food. Every member of my family is definitely a “foodie,” and we love to go out and try all types of restaurants.
Things I smite: Shopping of any sort, unless it’s shopping for other people’s gifts. I don’t make decisions very quickly, so shopping is not an easy task for me. Another thing that I smite is the show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” for hopefully obvious reasons.
My loftiest goal: To travel to every country in the world and spend at least a week in each one before I die. I have traveled throughout much of Europe and spent my last spring semester in Spain studying Spanish. The next continent on my list is South America.
I strongly believe that everyone should travel and see the rest of the world!
Name: Christine Eldridge.
Where I live: East Providence, R.I.
Where and when I was born: Woonsocket, R.I., 1969.
Family: My husband, Darryl, and I share our home with a cat, Lola, and two dogs, Isabella and Kirk. I am child-free by choice and love being an auntie to my nieces and nephews.
Education: B.S. in music education, Rhode Island College. Clarinet is my main instrument, and I play with a chamber music ensemble. I also study piano, having resumed lessons two years ago after about a 20-year hiatus, and started playing the ukulele this year.
Occupation: Nonprofit arts administration.
Volunteer work: Humanists of Rhode Island (vice president), Secular Coalition for Rhode Island (co-chair), active in community service as well as secular, social justice, arts advocacy and animal welfare causes.
How I got where I am today: Help and support from family and friends, random luck, various personal choices and hard work.
Where I’m headed: I plan to continue to learn, to help others and to enjoy the journey.
Person in history I admire: Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, for his staunch convictions about and advocacy for freedom of conscience and separation of church and state.
A quotation I like: “I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other.” (Katharine Hepburn).
“Heresy makes for progress.” (Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner). “We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.” (Gene Roddenberry). “The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” (Robert Ingersoll).
These are a few of my favorite things: “Star Trek” (I’m a costume-wearing, convention-attending, lifelong Trekkie), octopuses (they’re such fascinating animals!), music, reading, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking.
These are not: Cruelty, bigotry, pseudoscience.
My doubts about religion started: I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school. My first doubts came as a child, when I tried to reconcile a loving God with the wrathful being portrayed in the bible, the problem of evil and the concept of hell.
Ways I promote freethought: With the Humanists of Rhode Island and the Secular Coalition for Rhode Island, I am active in working to keep religion out of government and to raise visibility for atheists, humanists and other nonbelievers.
I identify openly as an atheist and a humanist and hope to demonstrate by my words and actions that it is indeed possible to live a life that is ethical, happy and fulfilling without belief in a deity.
Every year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation handles multiple complaints about local government officials inserting themselves into National Day of Prayer events, not as private citizens but in their roles as public employees or appointees.
FFRF, a national state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., so far this year has sent letters of complaint to Bulloch County (Statesboro, Ga.); the cities of Mandeville, La.; Guin and Summerdale, Ala.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Polk County Public Schools, Bartow, Fla. (event at Lake Wales Senior High); and the cities of Odessa, Texas, and Barron, Wis.
Complaints about Nampa, Idaho, Jeffersonville, Ind., and other locales were pending at press time.
Staff Attorney Sam Grover wrote Mandeville Mayor Donald Villere on April 29 about the rally on the front steps of City Hall, which was prominently displayed on the city’s website under the section titled “Mayor’s Message.”
An April 16 letter from Grover went to Odessa Mayor David Turner and City Manager Richard Morition about the May 1 Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon held annually in conjunction with the NDP. A city press release said tickets for could be bought through the city secretary and listed her phone number at City Hall.
FFRF contacted the previous mayor in 2012 about spending several thousand dollars of tax money on the luncheon and using city staff to coordinate it. Guin promoted its event on the city’s website and Facebook page.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote April 30 to Bulloch County Attorney Jeff Atkins, and included a photo of a sign on the courthouse lawn. “It appears that the county is hosting the event since there is no indication of a private sponsor.”
FFRF also filed an open records request for county policies on advertising and putting up displays on government property.
This year’s National Day of Prayer theme was “One Voice, United in Prayer.” The featured bible verse was Romans 15:6: “So that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Secularists and even some Christians have long noted that the day “has been taken over by evangelicals,” as one man put it. The NDP Task Force, based in Colorado Springs, is top-heavy with social conservatives, many of whom are homophobic and anti-choice.
Ohio FFRF members Nancy Dollard and Tom Reke, joined by freethinkers Charles Wright and Andreas Avente, protested the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 1 at the Summit County Courthouse in Akron. The Beacon Journal story said the event marked the end of a marathon reading of the bible that started the previous Sunday. Pastor Mike Radebaugh sang the national anthem and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
The paper added, “Tom Reke from Akron was among local atheists to carry signs on the sidewalk below the courthouse steps. Reke’s two-line sign read: ‘Prayer Never Works/There’s no God.’ ”
Nancy notes that Tom’s god was lower-cased, unlike the newspaper’s. Freethought Today tried to purchase reprint rights to the photo but was told “we will not be able to grant permission to use one of our photos for your publication” by Kimberly Barth, director of photography and graphics.
The Akron Day of Prayer had a “much lower turnout this year,” Nancy said. “Also, we got to talk to some young students who were part of the local Secular Student Alliance chapter.”
So this Easter Week, of course we recognize that there’s a lot of pain and a lot of sin and a lot of tragedy in this world, but we’re also overwhelmed by the grace of an awesome God. We’re reminded how He loves us, so deeply, that He gave his only begotten Son so that we might live through Him.
President Barack Obama, remarks, White House Easter prayer breakfast
whitehouse.gov, 4-14-14
Now I am here in America all these years, and I am terribly disappointed religion is being interfered with. If they want me to go to jail, I will go to jail.
Rabbi Avrohom Cohn, 85, American Board of Ritual Circumcision chairman, on his refusal to stop performing metzitzah b’peh (orally sucking blood from the circumcision wound) despite documented health risks to the boy
Haaretz, 3-30-14
These toys can have a negative effect on children. They can destroy their souls and lead them to the dark side.
Fr. Slawomir Kostrzewa, news story, “Lego is a tool of Satan, warns Polish priest”
The Telegraph, 4-1-14
Calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based.
Provision in a new Saudi Arabian law defining atheism as terrorism
Human Rights Watch, 4-2-14
Fascism, Minnesota style. HF826 is simply another attack on the bible and conservative Christians.
State Rep. Mary Franson, R–Alexandria, debating a bill to toughen bullying laws
WCCO, 4-8-14
[The church] has asserted and continues to assert that trademark law and other intellectual property laws prohibit Jonathan from using the word “Mormon” to promote, market, or otherwise advertise the dating website.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ lawsuit against Jonathan Eller, who owns dateamormon.com
Courthouse News Service, 4-10-14
I ask myself how I can sit at dinner and laugh at my husband’s jokes, when, right at that very same moment, innocent babies are being aborted in droves? I read today that a 5-day-old baby was abducted from her home in Wisconsin, and now I can barely function. I want to remain on my knees permanently in supplication and beg the Lord to reunite her safely with her family.
Question to columnist Mark Shea on how to relax when someone else somewhere is suffering
National Catholic Register, 4-11-14
Activists like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. used nonviolent methods having nothing to do with guns. Jesus is calling us to take it up a notch to the spiritual world.
Rev. Kenneth V.F. Blanchard, nondenominational Christian pastor and creator of the “Black Man with a Gun” blog and podcast
Human Events, 4-13-14
If my stupidity brings one person to the love of Jesus Christ, then I have served a greater purpose and the consequences are well worth it.
Luke Emory Oyler, 29, charged with defiant trespass for running shirtless around the infield after crashing the pierogi race at a Pittsburgh Pirates-Chicago Cubs baseball game
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4-8-14
I don’t mean that they’re making up she’s pregnant. But what great timing! I mean purely accidental, purely an act of nature, purely just left up to God. And God answered Hillary Clinton’s prayers and she’s going to have the prop of being a new grandma while she runs for president. It just warms the heart, it brings a tear to my eye. It really does.
Newsmax host Steve Malzberg, speculating on Chelsea Clinton’s pregnancy
“The Steve Malzberg Show,” 4-17-14
Why do we freak out? We’re human. We forget about the miracles.
Richard “Stick” Williams, Duke Energy vice president, speaking at the YMCA Community Prayer Breakfast at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.
Charlotte Observer, 4-24-14
Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, speaking at the NRA convention in Indianapolis
CBS News, 4-27-14
As long as they have [a biblical] worldview, then they’ll be a good judge. If they have a secular worldview, where this is all we have here on Earth, then I’m going to be very concerned about how they judge.
Matt Whitaker, GOP U.S. Senate candidate, telling a Family Forum audience in Ankeny, Iowa, he would insist that judicial nominees “be people of faith”
rightwingwatch.org, 4-28-14
The Creator will not hold us guiltless if we turn a deaf ear to the cries of his innocent babies. So come and get me if you must, Mr. President. I will not bow before your wicked regulation.
Rev. James Dobson, calling Barack Obama “the abortion president” at a National Day of Prayer event in the Cannon House Office Building
World Net Daily, 5-1-14
America, as did Israel in its blessing, has been turning away from God, driving him out of its public squares, bringing in idols in his place and calling what is evil good and what is good evil.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, speaking at the National Day of Prayer event
World Net Daily, 5-2-14
I believe there are certain qualities that may be worthy of rape. If a woman dresses proactively[sic], gets blackout drunk and is wearing really revealing clothing, then I would say that she is partially responsible for the rape.
Arizona evangelical preacher Dean Saxton, aka Brother Dean Samuel, shouting “Yoga pants are sin” and holding a sign saying “You deserve rape”
The Raw Story, 5-6-14
Eleven friendly and thought-provoking billboards featuring members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and its chapter, the Northern Ohio Freethought Society, went up in early May around Cleveland and Akron in a month-long campaign to introduce area atheists and agnostics to their communities.
The billboards feature their faces and personal freethought “testimonials.”
Mark Tiborsky, who is pictured with his wife, Marni Heubner-Tiborsky, chapter director, commented: “We just want to let other nonbelievers, or those on the fence about their religious belief, know they’re not alone and that the local nontheist community is both welcoming and growing.”
Roni and Elliot Berenson, who are octogenarians, describe themselves modestly as “Grandparents . . . Atheists.” Roni is well-known in the area and nationally as an activist for social justice, world peace and secular humanist causes. She became a freethinker at age 16 after escaping the Holocaust in her native Germany.
Students with the University of Akron Secular Student Alliance are featured on two billboards in Akron.
FFRF, with more than 20,000 members, has about 550 members in Ohio.
FFRF debuted the “Out of the Closet” campaign in Madison in 2010 and has taken the campaign to Columbus, Tulsa, Raleigh, Phoenix, Nashville, Portland, Spokane and Sacramento.
“Research shows that atheists and other nonbelievers are still at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to social acceptance. One reason is that even though at least 20% of the population today is nonreligious in the United States, many Americans have never knowingly met an atheist,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
“Taking a cue from the gay pride movement, our campaign invites other nonbelievers to share their views and ‘Come out of the closet.’ ”
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker said, “The thoughtful, positive viewpoints expressed by Cleveland-area FFRF’ers — and their willingness to speak up so publicly — makes me so proud of FFRF members, the best advertisement there is for freethought.”
It’s easy and fun to make your own “virtual billboard,” useable for Facebook image, at ffrf.org/day/. Watch for launching soon of FFRF’s latest “speak up for freethought” video campaign.
Find locations for the billboards, in case you’re passing through the area, at: ffrf.org/news/news-releases/. Scroll to the to the May 8 release.
Proselytizing coach ends up resigning
FFRF has halted a pious coach’s practice of proselytizing students in Spokane, Wash. According to the complainant, Rogers High School head football coach Matt Miethe and other coaches had not only been baptizing players at Pentecostal churches, but the assistant coach was leading the team in prayers during “chapel time” and before games.
The coaches reportedly also pressured players to attend church. According to news reports, Miethe “offered players three opportunities to gather for church and encouraged them to attend.”
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a complaint letter to the school district Dec. 17: “Even if Miethe is simply suggesting [church] attendance, his position as head coach in charge of playing time impregnates any suggestion with force. Playing time leads to scholarships and college; it should be a question of merit only, not religion. No student should be deprived of the opportunity of playing football because they, as a matter of personal conscience, feel unable to participate in a religious ritual or attend church.”
On March 17, the district responded: “Rogers High School principal Lori Wyborney spoke with the football coach and confirmed activities that she had not been aware of.
“Ms. Wyborney took immediate action to ensure that the activities described ceased. She reminds her coaching and athletics staff as well as her administrative staff of the need to separate the role of school and religion. Additionally, and for unrelated reasons, Coach Matt Miethe resigned his position as head coach for Rogers High School.”
Rampant religiosity out at Arizona elementary
Oakwood Elementary School in Peoria, Ariz., will no longer allow religious icons, bibles and proselytizing “gifts.” This is not the first violation from the Peoria School District that FFRF has acted on.
FFRF was informed that a kindergarten teacher has been pressuring families to attend a specific church and had decorated her classroom with religious iconography, bible verses, crosses and Christ Church of the Valley propaganda such as “I love Jesus” clothing and mugs. She had also distributed inappropriate religious gifts to students, including bookmarks featuring the holy sites of Christianity.
A parent alerted FFRF about another violation: a Thanksgiving program last year which included a call and response in which teachers sang questions and kindergartners responded. At the teacher’s prompting, the student “turkeys” would gobble, the Native Americans would say “big and brave” and the preachers would say “praise the Lord.”
The student “preachers” wore school-owned costumes with Latin crosses on them. According to a complainant, this program has been performed for at least 15 years.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a Dec. 5 letter of complaint to the district, which acknowledged in an April reply that the complaint’s allegations were accurate. The district assured FFRF that the religious icons and bibles were removed and that religious conversations and activities have been eliminated from the classroom. “The Thanksgiving performance is being revisited for content, but rest assured that the crosses will be removed and the choral response will be reworded.”
Church graduations
will go secular
FFRF complaint letters led two Ohio school districts to drop churches as high school graduation venues.
Canton Local School District in Canton will no longer hold church graduations starting in 2015. Canton South High School plans to hold this year’s ceremony May 27 at Canton Baptist Temple.
Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert sent a letter to the district Feb. 17 to explain that it’s illegal to force graduates, families and friends to enter a church that might espouse an ideology or belief to which they might not adhere.
The superintendent responded April 8, “While it is not possible for the district to find an alternate location for graduation [this year], I have spoken to the board and they have agreed to find a secular site for the 2015 graduating class.”
Northwest High School in Canal Fulton, part of Northwest Local Schools, made a similar response April 8 to a Feb. 17 letter from Markert about its graduation May 24 at Akron Baptist Temple.
‘Religious value’ claim out of handbook
Poplarville School District in Poplarville, Miss., will no longer use religious rhetoric in its student handbooks. FFRF received a complaint that the “Strategic Plan” section of the 2013-14 handbook states that one of the district’s beliefs is “[a] relationship with God is critical to a meaningful life.”
The statement of belief has reportedly appeared in the handbook for many years.
Staff Attorney Elizabeth Cavell sent a letter to the superintendent Feb. 13: “The value statement in the student handbook sends the message that the district not only prefers religion over nonreligion, but the Christian god over all deities.”
The district responded May 6 that “the Board of Trustees voted to remove the above-referenced language from the strategic plan and handbook beginning with the upcoming school year.”
Praying Ohio coach ‘crossed the line’
A high school in Middletown, Ohio, will no longer let coaches lead athletes in prayers. According to a local complainant, the varsity football coach provided food for players after practice, then told them to bow their heads before leading them in prayer.
The coach also is alleged to have encouraged players to attend his church and be “saved,” invited them to church events during football practice and provided rides.
Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert’s letter to the superintendent explained the multiple reasons why such proselytizing is illegal in a public school.
On April 25, the district responded: “[The principal and athletic director] expressly informed [the coach] that his actions had crossed the line and were impermissible. He was expressly informed that he was required to respect others’ religious beliefs, that his conduct could be viewed as a government’s endorsement of religion, and that he was not permitted to engage in any of the conduct listed in your letter (or similar conduct, for that matter).”
School: Teacher owes student an apology
Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Texas, will no longer allow episodes from the series “The Bible” to be played during class. A concerned student reported that an economics teacher aired Episode 6 of the series, which depicts the “virgin” birth of Jesus, his baptism by John the Baptist and the angel Gabriel telling Mary she’s pregnant with “the Son of God.”
When the student told the teacher that it was inappropriate to show “The Bible” in economics class, the teacher called the show “factual.” After confronting the teacher a second time, the student was told he could go to another classroom during future showings. As a result, the student missed a week’s worth of economics classes.
In FFRF’s letter to the superintendent, Staff Attorney Sam Grover strongly objected to such illegal and egregious behavior.
On April 22, Superintendent Roger Hailey responded that “[The teacher] has agreed to apologize to your complainant and has been instructed to align his instruction with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Standards established by the Texas Legislature for the subjects he teaches.”
Wrestling team drops religious endorsements
The Parkersburg South High School wrestling team in Parkersburg, W. Va., will no longer display the motto “Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” The motto was adopted at least 10 years ago and has appeared on the team’s website, on team T-shirts and in the high school gym.
Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott sent a letter April 11 to Wood County Schools to explain the constitutional violations. He advised the school to end all endorsement of Christian messages.
In response to the complaint, the bible verse that was posted inside the gym was painted over and the motto was taken off the website.
Coach-led prayer
ended in Georgia
A coach at Thomas County Central High School in Thomasville, Ga., will no longer lead a football team in prayer before practice. The coach’s involvement was confirmed by a news story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which included a photo of the coach praying with the team with heads dutifully bowed.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent the district a complaint letter Aug. 5.
On April 19, the school superintendent responded: “I have carefully considered your concern and have reviewed the team’s practices regarding prayer. I plan to address your concern by taking steps to end any coach-led prayer that may be occurring during football practices or games, while ensuring that religious students and staff may exercise their First Amendment rights to speak, associate and participate in religious activities.”
Tragedy doesn’t excuse trampling Constitution
E.C. Reems School of Technology and Arts in Oakland, Calif., has concluded an investigation into a religious assembly and agrees with FFRF that it was “inappropriate.”
A complainant contacted FFRF about the assembly, which included kindergartners as young as 4. It was intended to honor Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old schoolmate declared brain-dead after surgical complications in December 2013. She remains on a ventilator.
At the assembly, about 250 students were given purple T-shirts emblazoned with “#TeamJahi” and “Keep Calm and Pray On.”
According to a local news report, “The academy’s chief operating officer Lisa Blair said she has tried to honor Jahi’s family’s wishes by telling students that their classmate may still be alive, even though doctors say she is legally and clinically dead.”
Blair is also on record as saying, “Most kids are Christian here, and they believe that if you continue praying there’s always a possibility. The students understand the debate. They’re just choosing spirituality over science.”
In a letter to the school board, Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel said, “What happened to Jahi is a terrible tragedy and all hearts go out to her suffering relatives and friends. No child’s life should be cut short before it can truly begin. But such tragedies are not an excuse to violate the Constitution. Public school employees cannot tell students that, if only they pray hard enough to a particular god, their classmate will come back to life. Public school employees cannot force their personal religious beliefs on students.”
On March 14, the district responded that “the statements made by Ms. Blair were inappropriate and the decision by administration to distribute shirts to the school was inappropriate.” Administrators “will receive training regarding requirements for compliance regarding religion in public schools.”
School scratches Mormon museum trip
When Westvale Elementary School, West Jordan, Utah, sent permission slips home April 24 for a fourth-grade field trip to the Church History Museum, which is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some parents parents were immediately wary. West Jordan is just south of Salt Lake City, headquarters for the LDS Church.
The slip told parents the trip would “supplement regular curriculum programs and [would] take place during the regular school day.” FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel, on behalf of several district parents, sent a letter May 1 to Superintendent Patrice Johnson.
Seidel pointed out that the museum “presents an unscholarly, uncritical, nonobjective view of the LDS Church” and noted that the New York Times has described the museum as “created by believers, for believers.”
One section of the museum section called “Learn Truths” depicts the “stories of ancient prophets found in the Book of Mormon.” Another named “The Gospel Blesses My Life” displays artwork from children who share “how knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses their lives.”
After taking a personal tour, Gregory Clark, a University of Utah associate professor of bioengineering, described how one museum docent “claimed that black skin was a curse from God.” Clark writes that the museum “is replete with religion, not history. It’s the Utahn equivalent of Ken Ham’s Creation Museum.”
In response to mounting evidence that the museum was much less about Utah history and more about prophecy and church doctrine, Kayleen Whitelock, a member of the Jordan School District Board of Education, said on May 6 that “students will no longer be attending this field trip.”
Seidel commented, “We hope that the Board of Education uses this opportunity to pick a more appropriate, educational location for a field trip. No one needs to play the martyr here.”
He added, “The Board of Education should have realized that this was an inappropriate location for a field trip from the beginning. If any Westvale fourth graders are disappointed, that’s on the board.”
Principal’s ‘witnessing’ to students banned
An administrator at Andalusia Middle School in Andalusia, Ala., will no longer be allowed to “witness” to students.
FFRF received a complaint that the assistant principal regularly proselytized students in his office and used social networking to advertise the message that the school allows sectarian prayer before sporting events.
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a March 4 letter to Superintendent Ted Watson to detail the constitutional violations.
Watson responded on March 24: “[T]hank you for making us aware of this situation,” and added, “[Your letter] has facilitated a review of the law as it pertains to the Establishment Clause within our school system. We strive to teach our students to be law-abiding citizens and it starts with the example we as adults set.”
City documents received by FFRF through an open records request show that Mayor Jim Schmitt and his staff have planned and coordinated a campaign on city time to bring the pope to Green Bay, Wis.
FFRF objected in March to Schmitt’s invitation in his official capacity as mayor sent on city letterhead to Pope Francis to “make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.” Emails reveal the mayor and his chief of staff, Andy Rosendahl, coordinated the initiative and organized weekly “Pope to Green Bay Committee” meetings throughout the workday.
Emails by city staff show they planned and scheduled meetings (dubbed “the Pope Mobile Committee” by the mayor), reviewed wording on the popetogreenbay.com website and created meeting agendas.
City Policy Chapter 24.4 requires “a distinction between sharing personal and official City views” and disclaimers for personal views and opinions — that were not employed by the mayor or his staff.
“Just as paid staff time may not be used for campaign activity, it’s equally inappropriate and unseemly to promote Catholicism and this religious pilgrimage on city time,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
FFRF says the mayor and city staff must stop working on the papal visit during city time while using city property and follow its disclaimer policy.
FFRF is strongly criticizing Hobby Lobby’s public school bible course approved April 14 by Mustang Public Schools in Mustang, Okla.
FFRF has been eyeing the bible course since November, when Hobby Lobby’s billionaire owner Steve Green personally pitched it to the school board. The board voted 4-0 with one absention to approve the curriculum entitled “The Book, the Bible’s History, Narrative and Impact of the World’s Best-selling Book” as an elective course.
Board member Jeff Landrith abstained, saying “I think the public should be able to look at this before we vote on it.”
“I am amazed that any school district would think this is appropriate for public schools,” said FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel, who got a sneak preview of the proposed text in April. “This just confirms the suspicions we had about the class. Hobby Lobby and the Greens are trying to convert children to their particular brand of Christianity. There is nothing scholarly, fair or balanced about the curriculum.”
In its April 24 letter to the school district, FFRF noted that the “the draft materials MPS intends to use unequivocally fail to meet the legal standards required by our Constitution. The materials show a clear Christian bias, treat the bible as historically accurate and true in all respects and make theological claims.”
Alarming entries include asking and answering such questions as, “What is God like?” The Hobby Lobby text lists only positive attributes (“Faithful and good,” “gracious and compassionate,” “orderly and disciplined,” “full of love”) or theologically Christian attributions, such as “ever-present help in times of trouble” and “righteous judge.”
The biblical deity’s negative aspects go unmentioned, such as the injunction in Exodus 20:5, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”
Ironically, the textbook criticizes the “historical half-truths” of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a work of fiction, yet fails to apply that same critical lens to the bible. The text states: “[W]e can conclude that the Bible, especially when viewed alongside other historical information, is a reliable historical source.” The text makes the absurd, long-reputed claim that the writer of Genesis is “thought to be Moses.”
Hobby Lobby, a national chain store, is challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, with a Supreme Court decision imminent. Green opposes the idea of his women employees using the IUD and birth control pill, and says his corporation’s “religious freedom” is offended if workers have access to the contraception of their choice.
FFRF has combated Hobby Lobby’s annual July 4 advertising blitz, in which the chain runs hundreds of full-page “In God We Trust” newspaper ads promoting religion in government.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s complaint to Clemson University over serious entanglements between its football program and religion created a national firestorm in April. FFRF’s administrative staff took abusive calls tying up the lines for a week and half after the complaint broke on wire stories, sports news sites and Fox TV.
“Christian worship seems interwoven into Clemson’s football program,” wrote Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott in his letter to the general counsel of Clemson University, a public university in Clemson, S.C.
Elliott warned of a “a culture of religious coercion within the university’s football program,” after reviewing evidence gleaned from his open records request, showing:
• In 2011, coach William “Dabo” Swinney personally invited James Trapp to become “team chaplain” for the Tigers. This is in violation of the Constitution and even Clemson’s own “misguided and legally dubious ‘Guidelines For Athletic Team Chaplains.’ ”
• Trapp was regularly given access to the entire team to conduct bible study between drills.
• The chaplain has an office at the Jervey Athletic Center, displays bible quotes on a whiteboard and has organized and led sessions on “being baptized” in the athletic building.
• Swinney confirmed that the entire team would attend a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast Dec. 31, 2011, wherein three players would “testify.”
• Three privately funded buses (116-seat total capacity) were used to take the team and coaches to Valley Brook Baptist Church on Aug. 7, 2011, and on other occasions for worship on “Church Day.”
• Swinney schedules team devotionals. Records indicate that between March 2012 and April 2013, approximately 87 devotionals were organized by Trapp, approved by Swinney and led by coaching staff.
“Mr. Trapp, as a paid employee of a state university, may not proselytize or promote religion and may not use his university office to do so,” Elliott wrote. Trapp also serves as a Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative and as a football recruiting assistant. A website lists him as campus director of ministry/life coach, and he refers to himself as a minister.
“Mr. Trapp’s legal duties and obligations as a state employee prohibit him from using state resources (i.e., his office in the Jervey Athletic Center) and his official position as a recruiting assistant to proselytize.”
FFRF wants the school to direct Swinney and Trapp to immediately stop team prayers, sermons, bible studies and “church days” for players and train staff about their First Amendment obligations and monitor compliance.
In 2012, FFRF sent a letter to Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C., alerting officials to similar violations in its football program. The university agreed that the program’s religious entanglement was coercive and had no legitimate place in the athletic program.
A January 2014 Sports Illustrated story said Swinney had recently signed an eight-year contract for $27.15 million.
While denying wrongdoing, the university has responded that it is investigating the allegations.
“If the Supreme Court won’t uphold the Constitution, it’s up to us — it’s up to you” is the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s homily in response to the high court’s May 5 ruling approving sectarian prayer at official government meetings. The ruling is a personal blow to the stature and rights of U.S. nonbelievers and non-Christians, as well as to secular government.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Town of Greece v. Galloway that governments can not only host prayers, those prayers can be pervasively sectarian: “To hold that invocations must be nonsectarian would force the legislatures that sponsor prayers and the courts that are asked to decide these cases to act as supervisors and censors of religious speech.” First Amendment champion Ellery Schempp, FFRF Lifetime Member from Massachusetts, who began the protest that led to a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools, emailed on the day of the ruling: “FFRF is vital after the awful Greece decision. This is why we need FFRF!”
FFRF, the nation’s largest association of freethinkers, with more than 20,000 atheist and agnostic members nationwide, has responded to the hostile court ruling by announcing a “Nothing Fails Like Prayer Award.”
The award will be given to citizens who succeed in delivering secular “invocations” at government meetings. The individual judged to give the “best” secular invocation will be invited to open FFRF’s annual convention with said “invocation,” receiving an all-expenses-paid trip to FFRF’s 37th annual convention at the Los Angeles Biltmore and an honorarium of $500.
Linda Stephens, the atheist plaintiff in the Greece challenge brought by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is a longtime member of FFRF, who became a Lifetime Member following the ruling. Both she and co-plaintiff Susan Galloway will be named Freethinkers of the Year and accept the award at FFRF’s convention Oct. 24-26. (See more, back page.)
Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered the “swing vote,” not only voted in lockstep with his four ultra-conservative Catholic brethren but wrote the Greece ruling.
“Once again, the lopsided conservative majority has proudly announced that it is on the wrong side of history,” commented FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, quipping about Kennedy: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”
The one silver lining in Kennedy’s decision was this reference: “The town at no point excluded or denied an opportunity to a would-be prayer giver. Its leaders maintained that a minister or layperson of any persuasion, including an atheist, could give the invocation.”
“Freethinkers: It’s time to crash the party, to ask for equal time to give our own atheist homilies and freethought invocations at local board meetings,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, who, with Anne Nicol Gaylor, cofounded FFRF in the late 1970s to successfully protest prayers at their local governmental meetings.
Already, a member of FFRF in Greece has received permission to give an atheist homily before the city meeting in July.
Government prayer remains one of the most common complaints FFRF receives from its members and members of the public.
Gaylor noted that despite the approval of sectarian governmental prayer by five Supreme Court justices, government bodies are not required to open with prayer. “We’d like to see secular citizens flood government meetings with secular invocations that illustrate why government prayers are unnecessary, ineffective, divisive, embarrassing and exclusionary of the 20-30 percent of the U.S. population today that identifies as nonreligious, as well as of other non-Christians,” Gaylor said.
FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel, who suggested the award, notes that many of our nation’s most influential founders opposed governmental exercises of religion, including revolutionary Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, who refused in his two terms to issue days of prayer, and James Madison, fourth president and primary architect of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Secular invocations for the contest could be sincere and eloquent, such as state Rep. Juan Mendez’s invocation before the Arizona House last year, for which he won FFRF’s Emperor Has No Clothes Award. You may wish to “invoke”secular “founding fathers,” your own life philosophy or take a more facetious route (think Flying Spaghetti Monster). The goal is to represent the nonreligious point of view and show that government bodies have no need of a prayer to imagined gods, or religion or superstition, to govern. The answers won’t come from above and government needs to be guided by reason.
“Government officials need to get off their knees and get to work,” said Barker, adding, “Be a Paine in the government’s Mass.”
FFRF plans to make the contest an annual event until the Greece decision is overturned. All eligible secular invokers will receive a certificate suitable for framing, and FFRF will post the invocation on its website.
Read full contest rules at:
ffrf.org/outreach/nothing-fails-like-prayer-award-contest
For “inspiration,” download a free copy of Barker’s songs “Get Off Your Knees and Get to Work” (from FFRF CD, “Adrift on a Star”) and “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” (from FFRF CD, “Beware of Dogma”) at FFRF’s website (select CD, then scroll play list to find free downloads): ffrf.org/shop/music/.
Read various early May FFRF blogs about the ruling, at ffrf.org/news/blog/.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has ended all prayer before the city council in Pismo Beach, Calif., with a settlement reached April 15. That victory has become all the sweeter following the Supreme Court’s unfortunate May 5 decision “blessing” sectarian governmental prayer. (See related story, this page.)
FFRF’s victory will hold, since the lawsuit was brought in state court and did not invoke federal law.
Following the filing of the lawsuit, the Pismo Beach City Council, which had dug in its heels after locals complained about its prayer practice, surprised observers by totally capitulating to FFRF requests. The council voted to stop all prayers at official meetings and to abolish a city chaplain position that had anointed a Pentecostal preacher to intone long sermons to begin meetings.
FFRF and Dr. Sari Dworkin, a Pismo Beach resident and FFRF member, sued the city Nov. 1, 2013, in Superior Court in San Luis Obispo, alleging the official prayers and chaplaincy violated the California Constitution.
Before each council meeting, city Chaplain Paul Jones or one of his religious substitutes delivered a Christian prayer. Prayers often included egregious factual mistakes, including manufactured theocratic quotes attributed to America’s founders. Jones’ prayers pressured citizens to live a Christian or biblical lifestyle, to vote for “righteous” leaders and make decisions that “honor” his god.
The city agreed to pay the plaintiffs nominal damages and attorney fees totaling about $47,500 and to end the practice of praying at meetings and abolish the chaplain position. The settlement carries the force of law and will be accompanied by a court order.
“This is a significant victory that FFRF intends to build on,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
Pismo Beach established an official city chaplaincy in 2005 and appointed Jones to the post. He’s affiliated with the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which emphasizes “speaking in tongues.”
Jones delivered 112 of the 126 prayers scheduled by the council between Jan. 1, 2008, and Oct. 15, 2013. All but one of the 126 prayers was addressed to the Christian god.
FFRF warmly thanks local plaintiff Sari Dworkin, litigation attorney Pamela Koslyn and FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel, who built the solid case. Seidel transcribed many of the prayers and joked that such work was “cruel and inhumane” for an atheist attorney. Atheists United of San Luis Obispo and its members helped initiate the lawsuit.
FFRF will receive $27,000 for Seidel’s services and plans to recycle the fees to go after other California governmental prayer.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation's talented graphic design intern, Sam Erickson, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has designed a number of images for FFRF members to utilize in protesting the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling. Some of them are already up on FFRF's Facebook page and Twitter account.
Sam is also president of UW-Madison's Atheists, Humanists & Agnostics campus group.
Please feel free to use the images in educating about the harm of the court's decision. FFRF has taken the lead in calling for the repeal of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the basis for the ruling that puts the religious beliefs of corporate employers over the conscience and rights of women workers to choose their own forms of birth control.
A full-page ad in The New York Times protesting the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling June 30 is being sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog representing over 20,000 nonbelieving members. It's expected to run in the front news section Thursday, July 3.
Featuring an arresting portrait of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, whose motto was "No Gods — No Masters," the ad criticizes the "all-male, all-Roman Catholic majority" on the Supreme Court for putting "religious wrongs over women's rights."
FFRF had previously submitted a friend of the court brief written by noted First Amendment scholar Marci Hamilton, urging the Supreme Court to declare the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) unconstitutional. Christian entrepreneurs running large chains challenged the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act, contending their corporate "religious rights" were violated under RFRA if their women employees chose forms of contraception the company owners disapproved of because of their religion.
"Allowing employers to decide what kind of birth control an employee can use is not, as the Supreme Court ruled, an 'exercise of religion.' It is an exercise of tyranny. Employers should have no right to impose their religious beliefs upon workers," reads the ad.
"Dogma should not trump our civil liberties."
FFRF has taken the lead in calling for the repeal of RFRA.
"None of our civil rights, established after decades and decades of struggle and education, will be safe until RFRA is overturned," commented Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. She called the Supreme Court decision "outrageous and untenable."
Today marks a turning point in the struggle to uphold the First Amendment to our Constitution. FFRF needs your help more than ever. This is a call to you, and to ask you to reach out to those you know. Please forward this email and encourage others to join us.