News Releases
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Media Inquiries
Please phone the Freedom From Religion Foundation office at 608/256-8900 to speak directly with Foundation Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker or other staff here in Madison, Wis. We receive an especially heavy volume of e-mails and we don't want to miss an inquiry, so please phone to set up an interview, especially if you are on deadline. We would be pleased to try to answer your questions, or accommodate your request.
CURRENT NEWS RELEASES
Remove Christian flag from veterans memorial, FFRF requests Miss. town
A Christian flag has no place at a veterans memorial, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is telling a Mississippi town. A concerned community member in Rienzi, Miss., contacted FFRF to report that the city's new Veterans Memorial Garden includes a Christian flag alongside the American…More »
Oppose Religious Right’s cruel domestic and international abortion gag rules
The Religious Right is already baring its fangs under the new Trump administration. Among religiously motivated congressional threats is a venomous piece of antiabortion legislation passed by the House on Tuesday, Jan. 24, that is now headed to the Senate. If signed into law, H.R. 7 would…More »
Senate needs to view agriculture secretary nominee with skepticism
The Senate should be highly apprehensive about President Trump's nominee for secretary of agriculture. Sonny Perdue, the ex-governor of Georgia, has a demonstrable record of fealty to religious overzealousness and a disdain for science. He has revealed his preference for faith over reason-based policymaking on…More »
FFRF documents Pryor’s ‘disastrous’ record; critiques Trump SCOTUS pool
A national state/church watchdog released a detailed analysis today documenting why William Pryor, short-listed as a possible Supreme Court nominee, would be a "disastrous appointment, and must be vigorously opposed." President Trump announced he'll be shortly disclosing his nomination to replace the vacancy left by Antonin Scalia's…More »
FFRF, tongue in cheek, questions Trump proclamation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the following letter today to President Trump about a possible typo in his new proclamation for a National Day of Patriotic Devotion. Read the letter below or click here: January 23, 2017 Sent via U.S. Mail and email: www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ The Honorable…More »
FFRF urges a Calif. county not to donate land to church
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging a California county not to gift land to a local church group. Placer County is considering donating 26 acres of land to Placer Rescue Mission to construct a "campus shelter" for the county's homeless population, a concerned local…More »
CIA chief nominee has extremist worldview
Mike Pompeo, the nominee slated to head the CIA, has a darkly dangerous way of thinking that is based on evangelical Christian notions, contends the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "To worship our lord and celebrate our nation at the same place is not only our…More »
Illinois school district apologizes to FFRF for coach’s public piety
An Illinois school district has said sorry to the Freedom From Religion Foundation for a coach's participation in prayer gatherings at school matches. On Dec. 26, after a game between Vandalia Community High School and Pana High School, Coach Brian Buscher took part in a…More »
Trump’s picks a threat to church/state issues
Evangelicals who pushed Donald Trump over the top in the election are surely pleased with several of his appointments to the cabinet and other high-ranking positions in his administration. Trump promised to be "the greatest representative of the Christians," and he seems to be heading…More »
FFRF, parent sue to end 75 years of bible classes in Mercer County, W.Va.
This visual aid is used among more than 60 images to help teach elementary school students in Mercer County Schools the Ten Commandments.The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed its first lawsuit of the year to end egregiously unconstitutional "Bible in the Schools" classes in Mercer County…More »
Minnesota town removes religious war memorial after FFRF protests
A Minnesota town has removed a religious veterans' war memorial after the Freedom From Religion Foundation protested. In Veterans Memorial Park in the city of Belle Plaine, there was a display of a soldier kneeling before a Latin cross next to the Veterans Memorial Stone.…More »
Senate should carefully assess Rick Perry
This is an FFRF billboard caricature of Rick Perry at the time of its lawsuit against him The Senate needs to carefully assess Energy Secretary nominee Rick Perry's qualifications for the job. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has serious doubts about his fitness for the…More »
FFRF lawsuit removes 14-foot cross in California
Local media tweet showing before and after photographsA 14-foot granite cross in a public park in Santa Clara, Calif., was recently removed, following a federal court challenge by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. FFRF and a local member sued the city in April 2016, after…More »
FFRF objects to official prayer meeting in Jackson, Miss.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has strongly objected to a recent police chief-led prayer meeting in Mississippi's capital and largest city. "State and local leaders gathered Friday for a prayer meeting," reports a TV station. "It was held at the Jackson Police Department's headquarters. Jackson police…More »
Secular groups demand nonreligious drug treatment program for Pennsylvania inmates
For Immediate Release The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Humanist Association's Appignani Humanist Legal Center are criticizing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for unconstitutionally requiring an inmate to participate in a religious program as a condition of parole. The inmate, who identifies as…More »
Court fails to uphold N.J. bar on church funding in FFRF case
A New Jersey state court has decided that tax dollars can be utilized to repair or maintain churches, despite a state constitutional provision barring such use. Superior Court Judge Margaret Goodzeit ruled on Jan. 9 against the Freedom From Religion Foundation's challenge of Morris County's church-funding…More »
Senate needs to firmly cross-examine Betsy DeVos
The Senate needs to ask the secretary of education nominee some tough questions at her confirmation hearing, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation has some good suggestions. FFRF is concerned about Betsy DeVos' suitability for the position. FFRF contends that if confirmed, DeVos would work…More »
FFRF urges Ben Carson scrutiny about his zealotry
The Senate needs to closely scrutinize Dr. Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary nominee, on how his zealotry might affect his leadership. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is requesting that the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs query Carson closely at his…More »
Senate finally acknowledges freethinkers
The U.S. Senate is finally addressing the concerns of freethinkers. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest nontheistic organization, sought to put these matters front and center in a list of questions it recently sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask Alabama Sen. Jeff…More »
Arkansas religious college grant scandal bolsters FFRF’s case
A corruption scandal unfolding in Arkansas demonstrates the pitfalls of disbursing discretionary public grants to religious colleges. "There's a massive scandal brewing in Arkansas involving Republican legislators and a conservative Christian college," Hemant Mehta writes on his Friendly Atheist blog. "Beginning in January of 2013, state…More »
Congress mustn’t eviscerate Planned Parenthood
The Republicans must cease their relentless assault on Planned Parenthood. For the umpteenth time, the GOP-controlled Congress has threatened to cut off reimbursement funds for the organization, this time as part of a larger plan to repeal Obamacare. House Speaker Paul Ryan recently announced Republicans will…More »
Questions that the Senate Judiciary Committee should ask Jeff Sessions
The nation's largest nontheistic organization is urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask the attorney general nominee some hard-hitting questions. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is very concerned about Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions' stated positions on a number of issues affecting the nearly one-fourth of…More »
FFRF has constitutionally disobedient Okla. football coach re-educated
An Oklahoma public high school football coach has been re-educated after the Freedom From Religion Foundation alerted the school district to his team's attendance at a sermon. The football team at Edmond Santa Fe High School (in Edmond, Okla.) held a religious event at a…More »
Atheist group: Clemson football proves that pious does not mean moral
In spite of — or perhaps due to — its religiosity, the Clemson football program is in trouble as it gears up for the national championship Monday night. Many people are questioning Head Coach Dabo Swinney's ability to teach his students character after reports of…More »
FFRF obtains victory after Illinois ‘Bring Your Bible to School’ day
An Illinois school district has pledged to better monitor its social media feed after a Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint. FFRF contacted Wayne City Community Unit School District #100 in October to object to a posting on Wayne City High School's Facebook account about a…More »
FFRF increases reward for banner vandalized in Connecticut
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is increasing the reward offer regarding the recent vandalism of its banner in a Connecticut park. A lifetime FFRF member from the area has generously proposed to augment by $1,000 the amount FFRF initially offered for information leading to arrest…More »
FFRF asks Trump to eject religion and prayer from public oath-taking
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking Donald Trump to "faithfully execute" the secular Constitution by keeping faith and prayer out of the Inaugural. Religion should not be part of "a ceremony about pleading fealty to a secular Constitution," says the state/church watchdog. The framers…More »
FFRF wins one in N.C. for separation of state and church
In this holiday season, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has won a victory for reason. On behalf of a local resident, FFRF recently wrote to the North Carolina town of Butner objecting to a nativity scene in a public park that had been placed there…More »
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.
