September 12, 2026 – Kentucky Freethought Convention 2026 Featuring FFRF’s Chris Line (Lexington, KY)
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Join the Kentucky freethought community for the Kentucky Freethought Convention on Saturday, Sept. 12th, in Lexington, KY!
This biannual convention provides opportunities for education, community building and connection among freethinkers in and around Kentucky. This year’s theme, “Empowering Humanity and Securing Our Freedoms,” focuses on the importance of critical thinking, human rights, reason, empathy and defending individual liberty.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is especially pleased that FFRF Rapid Response Counsel Chris Line will be among the featured speakers this year, as he presents on ‘The Christian Nationalist Playbook: How We Defend Our Freedoms and Win.’
Other featured speakers include Nick Fish, president of American Atheists; Jake Via, organizing director of the American Humanist Association; Amanda Knief, board member of American Atheists; Dr. Pearlie M. Johnson, independent scholar; and Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign.
A general admission ticket includes lunch, featuring a soup and sandwich buffet, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options available. Free parking is also available.
Click here to reserve your spot today!
Event Detail Summary:
Kentucky Freethought Convention 2026
Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026
9 a.m. – 5:30 PM
1375 S. Broadway
Lexington, KY 40504
The post September 12, 2026 – Kentucky Freethought Convention 2026 Featuring FFRF’s Chris Line (Lexington, KY) appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
FFRF welcomes positive ruling in hometown case against religious tax exemption
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation hailed a ruling today that allows its hometown case against unconstitutional church property tax exemptions to move forward.
This is the second time a Dane County judge has ruled that FFRF and its three Madison residents may proceed in the lawsuit challenging an unconstitutional state property tax exemption unduly benefiting commercial rental properties owned by two local religious organizations.
The property tax exemption was created and later amended to benefit specific church-owned rental properties to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The Pres House and Lumen House Apartments, both serving primarily student renters and owned by two of the defendants, are explicitly exempted from paying their share of taxes. Removing these large, extremely profitable rental properties from the tax rolls forces other property taxpayers to make up the difference.
A judge in February denied an earlier round of motions asking the court to toss out the case. The defendants filed a second round of motions seeking dismissal, which the court has once again denied.
“Plaintiffs’ action is not time-barred,” Judge Stephen Ehlke said in his order.
“We are pleased to finally move forward with this case,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “This suit serves all taxpayers in Madison and ensures that the Wisconsin Legislature is not allowed to favor specific churches for special tax benefits.”
FFRF and its three local plaintiff property owners contend that the tax exemption is unconstitutional under the Wisconsin Constitution for several reasons. The exemption undeniably harms all property taxpayers in Madison, including plaintiffs Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker (who serve as FFRF co-presidents) and local resident David Peterson, by forcing them and all other Madison property taxpayers to pay higher property taxes to make up for the unlawful omission of these properties from the tax rolls. The exemption also harms plaintiff FFRF by favoring rental properties owned by two religious organizations to the exclusion of all other nonprofits that may desire to run commercial student apartments in the future.
The Pres House Apartments’ current market value likely exceeds $25 million, with estimated property taxes owed in excess of $300,000 annually. The current market value of Lumen House Apartments likely exceeds $7.6 million, with estimated property taxes exceeding $94,000 annually.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Madison working as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church. It currently has nearly 41,000 members nationwide, including 1,600 members in Wisconsin.
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How you can help free Moroccan activist Betty Lachgar one year after imprisonment
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Prisoner of conscience and atheist Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar has now been imprisoned for a full year in Morocco for the “crime” of “insulting Allah.” She has a year and a half to go in her 30-month sentence as her health deteriorates and she remains unable to access the surgery that she urgently needs.
“For more than a year, Betty has been separated from her family, her community, her work and the life she built,” reports Shelley Segal of the Free Betty Coalition. “We are incredibly grateful to every single person who has continued to speak out, organize, contact decision-makers, engage the media and keep Betty’s case visible.”
At the time of the first anniversary of Betty’s initial arrest on Aug. 10 (which preceded her conviction by a month), supporters took action in Morocco, France and other countries with protests, public statements, press activity and solidarity actions.
Recent weeks have brought further important news coverage and advocacy attention, including from the admirably secular-minded Moroccan publication Telquel, which published an article, “One year behind bars,” that quotes her sister Siham: “Faced with this absolute emergency, political or legal debates have no place. It is a purely humanitarian appeal for help that I am launching today.”
Betty has a rare form of bone cancer and has a prosthesis in her left arm. Surgery on it was scheduled for September 2025, when she was already incarcerated after a rushed trial. U.S. orthopedia surgeon Dr. Neil C. Vining notes that the only appropriate treatment is the placement of a total humeral megaprosthesis, similar to the procedure scheduled before Betty’s arrest and incarceration, by the team of French specialists that has treated her for 30 years.
A photo taken of Betty with a T-shirt bearing a version of a feminist slogan saying “Allah is lesbian,” which Betty never wore in Morocco, is what brought her criminal conviction. A Moroccan law passed last year permits alternative forms of punishments for certain prison sentences. Betty’s attorney, Ghizlane Mamouni, notes that the law would allow Betty to pay a fixed sum for each day of the sentence she has been given instead of her serving the full term.
The New World, a U.K.-based publication, observes in a recent article, “The woman who’s too dangerous for her own supporters” that “a Moroccan activist named Betty has ended up in jail. Male activists get public outcry and petitions of support — but not her. She gets silence.” The journal quotes Mamouni as observing that “Betty is the first woman in the history of Morocco to be incarcerated for an act of feminist activism.”
Andrea Bolaños Vargas, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, has publicly called for Betty’s immediate release and the urgent provision of specialized and appropriate medical care. Her intervention comes as Betty’s health crisis continues to worsen and adds an important international voice to the humanitarian call for urgent action.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is working closely with the Free Betty Coalition.
“Thank you for continuing to stand with Betty and with all of us working for her release,” say FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, who have met with Betty at many international freethought conferences and hold her in the highest regard for her secular and feminist advocacy.
The Free Betty Coalition asks individuals and groups to amplify the U.N. special rapporteur’s statement (here in French and here in English) through your own networks to keep her situation visible.
Segal of the Free Betty Coalition notes that the next phase of the work to free Betty involves “a coordinated international strategy.” Individuals wanting to help do not need existing government relationships to participate. A new one-page humanitarian case summary outlining Betty’s current medical crisis and the urgency of immediate action is now available to share with elected representatives, journalists and advocates.
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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Church Tax Toolkit
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
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FFRF calls out Hegseth rant against atheists and non-Christians
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is blasting a social media post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sent out scapegoating non-Christians and atheists.
The intemperate post arose from a dispute over repeated religious greetings by gate guards at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation reported receiving complaints about the guards there repeatedly greeting personnel entering the base with “God bless you.” One service member said they heard the greeting consistently over multiple days and viewed the repetition as an officially sanctioned religious message. The practice reportedly stopped after the complaint was received.
Hegseth, a Christian nationalist, responded via social media, savaging the advocacy group as a “radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group” and stating that the Pentagon would “never cave” to the organization and that the Air Force would “confront this.”
Making Hegseth’s comments particularly hateful is the reality that, as FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor points out, 18 percent of active military members are atheist/agnostic, and another 32 percent have no religious affiliation, according to research, putting the “Nones” overall at half of current military members!
“Whatever the facts of the matter are, the secretary’s vituperative and prejudiced language against non-Christians and atheists is deeply dismaying, disrespectful and unacceptable,” she says. “Our military represents Americans of every faith and no faith, and those who serve our country should never be made to feel like their government considers one set of religious believers as favored and the others deserving of public calumny.”
The military must distinguish between the private religious expression of individual service members and religious messages delivered as part of an official government interaction. The Air Force’s own standards recognize precisely this distinction. Air Force Instruction 1-1 requires leaders to balance constitutional protections for the free exercise of religion with the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion: “Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for free exercise of religion and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. They must ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same. Leaders must ensure that their personal expression is not reasonably associated with their government role, but may engage in such expression per DAFI 52-201, Religious Freedom in the Department of the Air Force.”
Air Force guidance has stated that its constitutional responsibilities prohibit officially endorsing a particular religion or “the idea of religion over nonreligion.” The Air Force has likewise explained that personnel are free to practice their own beliefs while respecting differing viewpoints and that leaders must avoid using their positions to promote personal religious beliefs or give preferential treatment for any religion. The Air Force itself has described pluralism as a source of strength. Its longstanding guidance emphasizes the importance of Americans representing many religions serving “shoulder-to-shoulder with those who claim no religion.”
That is the principle that should be guiding Hegseth.
Members of the U.S. military swear an oath to support and defend America’s godless and entirely secular Constitution. Maintaining governmental neutrality toward religion honors that oath while preserving the individual religious freedom of every service member.
Hegseth’s shameless tirade undermines military regulations, signals that he considers non-Christians and freethinkers alike to be second-class citizens, and undermines the religious freedom protected by the U.S. Constitution itself.
Gaylor notes that if Hegseth cannot carry out his professional obligations to uphold equal protection under the law, he should resign.
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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Here are the openly non-religious candidates for state/federal office in 2026
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There’s a longstanding belief that openly non-religious candidates are unelectable in the United States. After all, only 60% of Americans say they would vote for a “generally well-qualified” atheist even if that person was from their own party, and there’s only one openly Humanist member of Congress (Rep. Jared Huffman).
But a new crop of openly non-religious candidates, both challengers and incumbents, are challenging that stigma this November.
With the help of the Center for Freethought Equality PAC (the political action arm of the American Humanist Association), I’ve compiled a list of all the openly non-religious candidates running for office at the state and federal level.
This year, there are more “Nones” on the ballot than ever before: Nearly 200 candidates. They use a variety of labels to describe themselves, but they are all people who don’t subscribe to organized religion.
You can check out the full list here:
Because primary season is not yet over in a few states, the list will be updated in the coming weeks leading to November’s elections. But a few things stand out right now:
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There are no non-theistic Republicans currently on the list. The few who had appeared on it in the past are no longer in office, including one who resigned last year.
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There are a record 12 “Nones” running for Congress, including one (Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania) who has no Republican opponent and one (Kristi Burke of Tennessee) who was an outspoken atheist on YouTube before running for office.
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There are over 70 “Nones” running for re-election to the State House or State Senate. (Who knew there were that many openly non-religious lawmakers serving in office right now?!)
While many of the people on the list will not win their races, given that they are in ruby-red districts where they face a steep uphill climb, they have greater freedom to be themselves and not “play it safe” politically. By coming out as non-religious, while never making it the centerpiece of their campaigns, they’re making it much easier for others to follow suit in the future.
This list is bound to change as the election approaches—sometimes because readers inform me about candidates in their districts who are non-religious and sometimes because those candidates out themselves wanting to be included in this particular community! (If that’s you, get in touch!)
Whatever the case, if you notice any errors or omissions in the list, please let me know and I’ll fix it.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
