FFRF demands that Fla. sheriff’s office stop coercive inmate baptisms

Screenshot courtesy of Christian Broadcasting Network

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office that a recent event where it baptized inmates was a grave constitutional violation. 

A Christian Broadcasting Network article reports that the Sheriff’s Office (headquartered  in DeFuniak Springs, Fla.) recently partnered with First Apostolic Church of DeFuniak Springs and New Life Church of Santa Rosa Beach with the apparent purpose of baptizing inmates at Walton County Jail and encouraging them to convert to Christianity. According to the July 15 article, 69 inmates were baptized at Walton County Jail in the coordinated “mass baptisms” organized by the Sheriff’s Office and the two churches. Furthermore, these churches have partnered to hold mass baptisms at other jails before, indicating that the Walton County Sheriff’s Office was aware of the churches’ intentions. The baptisms appeared to have taken place on jail property. Inmates are photographed in the article being baptized by Walton County Sheriff’s Office employees. 

The sheriff’s office public information officer, Corey Dobridnia, told reporters that part of the office’s “mantra” is “trying to make men and women who are incarcerated in our jail better people, and introducing them to the Lord. And then being baptized is sort of a rebirth for them.”

FFRF is demanding that the Walton County Sheriff’s Office immediately put a stop to this unconstitutional promotion of religion.

“By organizing and hosting inmate baptisms, the sheriff’s office is unconstitutionally favoring religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson Jr.

A correctional facility is an inherently coercive environment and inmates and detainees are literally a captive audience. When the Walton County Sheriff’s Office entangles itself with religion and makes it clear that it’s encouraging inmates to convert to Christianity, inmates will no doubt feel pressured to convert and participate in religious activities to be seen as cooperative and well behaved. Inmates and detainees who are aware of the Sheriff’s Office’s promotion of Christianity will not genuinely feel free to refuse to participate in its religious activities. This is constitutionally impermissible. 

Law enforcement must be even-handed and avoid any appearance of bias towards some citizens, and hostility towards others, the FFRF letter emphasizes. Walton County Sheriff’s Office employees can practice their personal religion any way they wish when acting in their personal capacities. However, they are not permitted to use the machinery of government and taxpayer money to promote their personal religion to inmates or the wider community. The Sheriff’s Office’s promotion of religion and conversion to Christianity needlessly marginalizes the 38 percent of Americans who are non-Christians, including the nearly one in three adult Americans who are religiously unaffiliated.

To comply with the First Amendment and to protect the rights of all inmates held in Walton County Jail, FFRF is asking that the sheriff’s office halt inmate baptisms.

“First Amendment violations in incarceration facilities are particularly egregious, given the abuse of a literal captive audience,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “The right to be free from religious coercion is not stripped from a citizen when they are in prison. These baptisms must stop immediately.” 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members and several chapters across the country, including nearly 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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FFRF co-hosts secular gathering on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress, national secular leaders and advocates joined together in a Capitol Hill reception room Tuesday evening for the third annual Congressional Reason Reception.

The reception celebrated the Congressional Freethought Caucus, reason, constitutional democracy and the growing visibility of nonreligious Americans in public life. 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.

The reception has served as a celebration of reason and joy in public life, a secular alternative to the dour and sanctimonious National Prayer Breakfast as debates over Christian nationalism, religious exemptions and the separation of church and state continue to shape national politics. Organizers said the event demonstrates that Americans who value secular government are increasingly organized and visible on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, has quipped that it is “a boozy alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast.”

“Our country was founded on freedom of religion and church-state separation. No wannabe king or theocratic sycophant hellbent on controlling people through religious extremism will change that,” says Huffman. “Folks from all walks of faith — or none at all — came together to celebrate something far more American: a government run by reason, freedom of conscience and the Constitution. That’s what the Reason Reception is all about. No matter how hard Christian nationalists fight to overturn democracy and force their extremism on the American people, we will be here defending church-state separation and our fundamental rights.”

“Every year, some of the most reasonable people I know assemble to highlight the essential role that reason plays in protecting democracy, liberty, progress and justice for all,” says Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “The Congressional Reason Reception celebrates and revives the spirit of Tom Paine and Ben Franklin and our Enlightenment Constitution, which cast off centuries of religious fanaticism and dogma, Holy Crusades, witch trials, Inquisitions and theocratic rule to usher in a new era of self-government, reason and democracy. Congratulations to our honorees, Katherine Stewart and Alison Gill, who are doing fine work to champion reason and common sense in our own time.”

“All you need to do is read the Declaration of Independence to understand that our Founders did not want and did not intend for this to be a religious country,” says Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. “And now, when you look at what is happening with this administration and with Republican MAGA colleagues, they want this to be a white Christian nation. It is not — and we will not let that happen. With your voices here and across the country, we will stop that from happening. We want the next generation to know that this is a country where you are free to believe in religion or free to not believe in religion.”

“When I first came into Congress eight years ago, someone told me that religion is what politicians talk about when they don’t want to talk about ethics,” says Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill. “And there is a deep truth there. I think the inverse of that is equally true, that if you talk about ethics, people think you’re talking about their religion. And I think there’s a power there. There’s an ability there. What I think you challenge us to do, and what we have to challenge ourselves to do, is to speak about ethics and morality in a way that doesn’t fall back on those religious texts.”

“Trump has learned that to say ‘God’ or ‘gun’ gets you votes,” says Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. “And as I said in committee today, he is totally irreligious and doesn’t have any idea of Matthew. Being in legislatures and congresses has taught me a lot about religion because so many people use it. … Trump knows nothing about it. He is so obviously areligious. He really should be here with us, the other heathens. But he uses God to get votes, which is a corruption of God. And all about Christian nationalism is a corruption of Christian.”

Mary Trump, the keynote speaker, remarks: “We’ve been on a very dark path for a very long time. So we need to do a better job of explaining to people why allowing religion and government to become intertwined is fatal to the American experiment on the one hand and detrimental to the pursuit of our freedoms on the other. We have the benefit, those of us in this room, of reason, of perspective. A lot of people who have made the choices they’ve made and voted the way they have voted don’t have those luxuries. So we, from the benefit of where we stand, need to extend these people grace because that way I truly believe we can make common cause with people who in the grand scheme of things have suffered as much from their choices as others have. And I think that’s the way forward.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast tells everyone who isn’t the right kind of Christian that they don’t quite count as Americans. We reject that,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “This country belongs to all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, and no one needs to bow their head to belong here.”

“Thomas Paine called it ‘the cause of America’: the conviction that free minds, working together through reason, could govern themselves better than any king or church ever had,” says Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. “Last night’s room, packed with members of Congress and humanists from across the country, was proof that cause is still alive. Now we take it to statehouses, school boards, and every corner of this country, and build the nation Paine imagined: one where reason and compassion govern together, and empathy is not a matter of faith, but of conscience.”

Steven Emmert, executive director, The Secular Coalition for America, says, “This reception is called the Congressional Reason Reception and I think that’s fitting not because reason belongs to secular Americans alone, but because reason belongs in public service.”

The Congressional Reason Reception coincides with the growing strength of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which now counts 37 members, and reflects a secular movement that continues to gain ground on Capitol Hill.

The evening also recognized recipients of the Age of Reason Award and Common Sense Award for their contributions to advancing secular government and freedom of conscience.

“I don’t need to tell you that 250 years after Thomas Paine helped launch the American Revolution, our democracy is in crisis,” says Katherine Stewart, recipient of the Age of Reason Award. “This is no time for the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot. This is the time to fight like hell for our country and our founding ideals of equality, pluralism, reason, justice, and the rule of law.”

“We need courts that are fair, unbiased, and that will uphold the Constitution, and enforce our rights and protect our democracy — not ignore it to salute their political or Christian Nationalist agenda,” says Alison Gill, recipient of the Common Sense Award. “And the Congressional Freethought Caucus plays an especially important role in showing the harms caused by this Christian nationalist agenda and pushing back against it. So I truly want to thank you all for this award, and I hope that together we will keep making progress to reform the courts and restore our democracy.”

Organizers said the growing attendance at the annual reception and the expanding Congressional Freethought Caucus reflect increasing recognition that Americans of every faith and none deserve equal representation in public life.

Freedom From Religion Foundation:
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

The Secular Coalition for America:
The Secular Coalition is a group of diverse organizations representing atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nonreligious Americans. The Secular Coalition for America is a dedicated lobbying organization within the Coalition, whose mission is to advocate for the equal rights of nonreligious Americans and defend the separation of religion and government.  

American Humanist Association:
The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which — without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces — encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

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FFRF: Incoming Texas comptroller must abandon reported religious litmus test

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that incoming Texas Comptroller Don Huffines immediately disavow reported plans to judge state employees based on their beliefs.

According to reports, Huffines recently told top staff that his priorities in the workplace would be “Jesus, family and work,” and indicated that employees would be judged on how Christian they are when he decides whether to retain them after taking office. FFRF warns that any religious test for public employment is blatantly unconstitutional.

“If these reports are accurate, they describe an astonishingly blatant violation of the Constitution,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public employment is not conditioned on religious belief, and no government official has the authority to impose a Christian litmus test on state employees.”

FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler has sent a letter to Huffines asking that he immediately rescind any such policy and make clear to employees that there are no religious requirements for serving in the Office of the Comptroller. If he is unwilling to do so, FFRF insists that he should decline the appointment.

The Constitution is unequivocal on this point. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office. At the same time, Article I, Section 4 of the Texas Constitution likewise bars any religious test as a qualification for public office. In Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that neither the federal government nor any state may constitutionally require a person to profess or reject a religious belief as a condition of public service.

The Supreme Court has also repeatedly affirmed that the First Amendment requires government neutrality between religion and nonreligion. Favoring Christians in hiring or retention decisions sends an unconstitutional message that non-Christians and nonreligious citizens are second-class participants in their own government.

“The Texas Comptroller’s Office serves every Texan, not just Christian Texans,” Ziegler adds. “Employees should be evaluated on their competence, integrity and job performance, not whether they subscribe to the religious beliefs favored by their boss.”

The comptroller’s office itself states that it “serves virtually every citizen in the state.” Yet roughly one-third of Texans are not Christians, including approximately 26 percent who identify as religiously unaffiliated. These Texans are equally entitled to compete for and hold public employment free from religious discrimination or coercion.

Beyond violating the Constitution, any effort to favor Christian employees or penalize non-Christian employees could expose the state to liability under federal and state employment discrimination laws.

FFRF is calling on Huffines to publicly clarify that no employee will be judged, retained or dismissed based on religion and that the office will comply fully with its constitutional obligation to remain neutral on matters of faith.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 41,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including 1,800 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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FFRF: Erasing America’s history serves white Christian nationalism

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is castigating the Trump administration’s latest move in its white Christian nationalist campaign to rewrite America’s past.

The administration has outrageously replaced an exhibit at Philadelphia’s President’s House with a sanitized version of history that downplays the realities of slavery. The overnight removal of exhibits detailing the lives of the nine enslaved people held by George Washington while he lived in Philadelphia follows President Trump’s 2025 executive order directing federal historic sites to avoid materials that “disparage Americans” and instead emphasize the nation’s “greatness.” Historians, local officials and preservation advocates have criticized the revised displays for omitting critical historical context and softening or erasing the brutal realities of slavery and treatment of Native Americans.

“This administration is openly pursuing the agenda of white supremacists allied with Christian nationalism,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “A government in our pluralistic democracy should be committed to truth, not erasing uncomfortable facts.”

FFRF notes that the decision is part of an ongoing White House campaign to reshape public education, museums and historical institutions around an idealized narrative of America that minimizes the country’s failures while elevating a preferred vision of its religious identity.

“White Christian nationalism depends on a mythologized version of American history,” says Gaylor. She points out that its adherents portray the United States as a divinely founded Christian nation and that honest discussions of slavery, religious persecution, indigenous dispossession and systemic race or sex discrimination undermine that narrative.

The exhibit changes come amid a series of administration actions targeting what Trump has labeled “divisive narratives,” including executive orders aimed at the Smithsonian Institution, federal museums and educational programs addressing race and discrimination.

When the government begins editing history to serve an ideological agenda, democracy itself is at risk. “Free people deserve facts, not propaganda,” Gaylor concludes.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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New ‘Secular Spotlight’ episode tackles historically inaccurate legislation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Secular Spotlight” welcomes a special guest for an episode examining the role of Christian nationalism in whitewashing American history.

Lawmakers are using the name of the late Charlie Kirk (the co-founder of Turning Point USA) to advance legislation that promotes a distorted version of American history in public schools. FFRF’s Ryan Jayne and Mickey Dollens are joined by retired psychology Professor Warren Throckmorton to fact-check the myths behind these bills, expose the influence of Christian nationalist “historian” David Barton and explain why historical misinformation continues to resonate.

“The Associated Press reported that over 60 bills in the name of Charlie Kirk have been introduced in 20 different states. This is an attempt for lawmakers to use a slain activist name to usher in Christian nationalist policy,” Dollens reports. “We saw this first happen in Ohio with the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act that was chock-full of misrepresentations and primarily built upon David Barton’s WallBuilders pseudo-history philosophies. Now we are seeing other states take it up, such as Tennessee, that recently passed the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act on July 1st.”

You can catch this episode of “Secular Spotlight” on FFRF’s YouTube channel, as well as by watching on your smart TV after downloading FFRF’s free app, Freethought TV, which also highlights FFRF’s other video programming. Our recent episodes include a historical examination of America’s secular underpinnings, a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jack Rakove on the history behind the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, and much more. Make sure you’re subscribed to FFRF’s YouTube channel for all the latest updates!

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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