Freethought-Now

It’s a bit of a marvel how much attention our activities at the Freedom From Religion Foundation have been receiving from all over.

The office of Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., issued a celebratory press release acknowledging our role in organizing the recent Congressional Reason Reception on Capitol Hill.

“Congressional Freethought Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Jared Huffman and Rep. Jamie Raskin alongside fellow CFC members, national secular leaders and advocates joined together in a Capitol Hill reception room Tuesday evening for the third annual Congressional Reason Reception,” says the release. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Humanist Association and the Secular Coalition for America hosted an evening filled with wit and humor, with leaders of the secular movement and keynote speaker Mary L. Trump.” 

On this week’s episode of Freethought Radio, you can hear remarks at the reception from Reps. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Sean Casten, D-Ill., and Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., capped off by the guest of honor Mary Trump.

For her presence and remarks at the Congressional Reason Reception, the FFRF Action Fund, our advocacy affiliate, has chosen Mary Trump as its “Secularist of the Week.”

Prominent media outlets note our election integrity efforts
USA Today, “The Nation’s Newspaper,” is spotlighting our efforts to prevent churches from electioneering in this election season.

“As the midterm campaign heats up, a legal battle continues to unfold over whether churches will be able to endorse candidates and more openly take part in politics – without drawing the ire of the Internal Revenue Service,” the paper reports. “According to religion watchdog groups, those efforts have at times crossed a legal line. Among them is the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has filed scores of complaints to the IRS about alleged Johnson Amendment violations over the years.”

The article goes on to include comments from FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line. Read the full story here.

USA Today is not the only media outlet covering our efforts on this front. The prominent investigative outfit RawStory has also noticed.

“Calvary Chapel church in Chattanooga, Tenn., was under fire Friday after committing what one tax law expert described as a ‘pretty blatant’ illegal act in its efforts to help bolster Republican candidates ahead of the 2026 midterm elections,” it reported. “‘Unfortunately, expect much more of this in the coming election cycle,” reads a statement from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national Wisconsin-based secular advocacy organization, issued on Friday. ‘When the rules against partisan electioneering from the pulpit go unenforced, abuses become the norm.’”

Our resistance is making a global splash

Sites as varied as the leading legal news service in this country and an African news portal have noticed our pushback against Texas’ imposing of Christianity on its public school students. 

“A coalition of multifaith Texas families plans to ask the justices to review whether the display of the Christian religion in government-run schools violates the First Amendment in the coming weeks, arguing the Lone Star State’s law runs afoul of the Establishment Clause,” says a Courthouse News Service dispatch. “The ACLU is supporting the coalition of multifaith families challenging Texas’ law with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.”

“In a deeply polarizing move that fundamentally alters the American educational landscape, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has officially mandated the reading of specific biblical texts for all public school students,” states a piece on a Kenyan website. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation released a statement declaring the curriculum sends ‘a clear message to nonreligious and non-Christian students and families that they don’t quite belong.’” 

Lexington paper covers our constitutional intervention
One of Kentucky’s most prominent papers has run a piece about a recent complaint of ours.

“An organization focused on the separation of church and state has accused a Lexington middle school of letting church representatives ‘proselytize’ local middle schoolers,” states a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation on Wednesday demanded that Fayette County Public Schools ‘immediately stop allowing pastors from a local church to proselytize middle school students through school-sponsored activities’ at Jessie Clark Middle School.”

Travel portal likes our win

A travel website (seriously!) has featured our recent constitutional victory in getting a Missouri fire department to take down a Christian flag.

“A Missouri fire station has removed a Christian flag from its property after the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a demand letter arguing that the display on government grounds violated constitutional principles separating church and state, according to publicly available information and recent local coverage,” reports The Traveler. “Following receipt of the demand letter, the Missouri fire station opted to remove the Christian flag from its grounds. Local reports describe the decision as an administrative response intended to bring the department’s practices in line with prevailing interpretations of church-state separation in public agencies.”

We nixed a proposed religious club

We successfully stymied a proposed school-organized religious club in an Alabama school system that aimed to indoctrinate elementary school students. “It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for an elementary school to organize, lead or encourage student participation in a religious club like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, especially when that club is clearly run by an adult staff member and not students,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district — and the district listened.

FFRF attorney details weight-loss journey
FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line details on a humanist podcast how he lost 270 pounds — and how he has managed to keep them off. Listen in!

Speaker Johnson’s worrisome confession

We expressed concern after House Speaker Mike Johnson declared at a highly influential Christian legal organization’s annual summit that it shapes his governance.

“Speaker Johnson has made explicit what many Americans have long suspected: He does not view himself simply as an elected official who happens to be religious,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “He views his leadership of the House as an extension of the mission of Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization dedicated to advancing conservative Christian ideology through the courts and government.”

AG Blanche is ‘Theocrat of the Week’

The FFRF Action Fund has named Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche its “Theocrat of the Week” for the Department of Justice’s flagrant expansion of religious privilege in the federal government through a new guidance. It serves to override the constitutional separation between state and church and position conservative Christians over people of other religions and nonreligion — making the “theocrat of the week” a very befitting title for Blanche.

How Justice Gorsuch’s actions are at odds with his words

FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line has a biting commentary on Justice Neil Gorsuch — and the contradictions between his statements and actions.

“Justice Neil Gorsuch recently said something the Freedom From Religion Foundation has documented for decades: The United States was not founded as a Christian nation,” Chris’ blog begins. “That’s encouraging. The problem is that many of Gorsuch’s own Supreme Court opinions have helped empower the very Christian nationalist movement he now says misunderstands America’s founding.”

Whether it is Todd Blanche or Neil Gorsuch, we are able to subject theocratic enablers to withering scrutiny only due to your unstinting support.

The post Weekly Wrap: Mary Trump, Speaker Johnson, Justice Gorsuch and Acting AG Todd Blanche  appeared first on Freethought Now.