‘Jesus Unfollower’ unpacks religious satire on latest episode of ‘Secular Spotlight’
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The brand new episode of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Secular Spotlight” show explores online comedian Kevin Crowe’s satirical approach to calling out religious bigotry.
Crowe, also known online as “Jesus Unfollower,” discusses how religious satire and humor can expose hypocrisy, absurdity and the weaponization of religion. Crowe shares his journey from evangelical Christianity to atheism, how he uses short-form comedy to reach new audiences, and why he argues that the freedom to mock ideas is an important part of a free society.
“It’s more about the weaponization of [religion] and the whole self-righteousness and that you’re living incorrectly and treating minorities poorly because you think their whole life is sin,” Crowe explains. “Those are the people that I’m trying to go after — not the religion itself.”
You can catch this episode of “Secular Spotlight” on FFRF’s YouTube channel, or on your smart TV after downloading FFRF’s free app, Freethought TV, which also highlights FFRF’s other video programming. Previous episodes include a deep dive into still-existing blasphemy laws in America and a warning about Wisconsin’s proposed constitutional amendment that will exempt places of worship from emergency measures. 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 40,000 members across the country, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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November 1, 2026 – FFRF Co-Sponsors Secular Day of the Dead Celebration (virtual)
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Secular Day of the Dead
On Sunday, November 1, 2026, the Freethought Society (FS) and other secular sponsors, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation, will host the annual online International Secular Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Secular celebration of life.
The event will start at 12:00 PM Pacific Time/3:00 PM Eastern Time/2:00 PM Central Time.
Click here to pre-register (required).
If you would like to honor a deceased loved one or family pet via a 5-10-minute video instead live of at the time of the event, please send submissions here.
The hosts of this event are Margaret Downey and Memo Benumea. The welcome speaker will be actor, producer, and director Jon Huertas.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will honor the life of his beloved brother Darrell Barker. FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor will be honoring American journalist, writer, feminist, and political activist Gloria Steinem. FFRF Board Member David Tamayo, founder and president of Hispanic American Freethinkers, will honor the life of his mother-in-law Domitila Castillo-Tapia.
Other co-hosting groups are American Humanist Association, Black Nonbelievers, Center for Inquiry, Freethought Society, Hispanic American Freethinkers, and the Secular Coalition for America.
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FFRF launches nationwide billboard campaign: ‘Vote like your rights depend on it — because they do’
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking a simple message to voters across the country this fall:
VOTE LIKE YOUR RIGHTS DEPEND ON IT — BECAUSE THEY DO
Beginning this week, FFRF is launching a national billboard campaign in 19 markets across the United States, encouraging Americans to pay attention to what is at stake in the 2026 election and make their voices heard at the ballot box.
The billboards direct viewers to ffrf.us/vote.
“Religious special interests are working aggressively to impose their beliefs through government, and the decisions voters make this fall will have very real consequences for our constitutional rights and freedoms,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Our message is simple: Pay attention to what’s at stake, make your voice heard and vote like your rights depend on it — because they do.”
The campaign connects FFRF’s work protecting the constitutional separation between state and church with the importance of civic participation.
Decisions made at the ballot box can affect issues central to FFRF’s mission — including secular government, public education, individual rights and whether public policy represents all Americans regardless of religious belief or nonbelief.
The campaign does not endorse candidates or tell voters who to support. Instead, FFRF is encouraging voters to understand the issues, evaluate candidates for themselves and participate in the democratic process.
“State/church separation is not an abstract constitutional issue — it shapes decisions about our schools, our laws and our individual freedoms,” Gaylor adds. “Voters have enormous power to determine what kind of government represents them. We want people to wield that power.”
FFRF quotes the late feminist and freethinker Gloria Steinem: “Voting isn’t the most we can do, it’s the least. … If you don’t vote, you don’t count.”
FFRF intentionally selected many communities where its chapters and supporters provide a local presence. The goal is to pair a national message with local voices, creating opportunities for community engagement and conversations about secular government.
Billboards are appearing in or near:
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Knoxville, Tenn.
- Northwest Arkansas
- Duluth, Minn.
- Cincinnati
- York County, Pa.
- Spokane, Wash.
- Madison, Wis.
- Kenosha, Wis.
- Chicago
- Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Denver
- Louisville, Ky.
- Orlando, Fla.
- Phoenix
- Sacramento, Calif.
- San Francisco Bay Area
- San Antonio
Local FFRF chapters and supporters will help amplify the campaign in many of these communities and serve as local voices for media interested in the importance of secular government and civic participation.
The campaign runs now through early November.
Learn more at ffrf.us/vote.
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 40,000 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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Secular groups urge Okla. board to reject religious public charter school application
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Prominent secular groups in a letter sent today are once again urging the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board to reject the nation’s first proposed religious public charter school.
The letter was written soon after the school admitted that it will not come close to meeting the student enrollment numbers predicted in its charter school application. Instead of opening with 335 to 495 enrolled K-12 students, as promised in its application, the proposed Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School has disclosed it now aims to operate as a high school with an “aspirational enrollment goal” of only 10 students during its first year. As explained in the letter, the drastically reduced enrollment plan demonstrates that the school lacks community support, that the school is financially unsustainable, and that its application is noncompliant with Oklahoma’s charter school requirements.
The school’s severely scaled back enrollment efforts were revealed in a recent email sent by Ben Gamla founder Peter Deutsch of Florida to Oklahoma Jewish leaders asking for their help in finding 10 students for the school’s first year of operation, which would begin in September 2027. Among the recipients of Deutsch’s email was Rabbi Daniel Kaiman, one of the seven Oklahoma taxpayers participating in a lawsuit to oppose Ben Gamla’s approval as a religious public charter school.
“I was surprised that Mr. Deutsch would not only ask for my help to enroll students in a public religious charter school — an endeavor I have publicly opposed because I believe in church-state separation and secular public education — but that he’d also invite me to apply to become the school’s principal,” Rabbi Kaiman says. “Mr. Deutsch’s email shows what we’ve long argued: Mr. Deutsch, who’s from Florida, and his school are completely disconnected from the Oklahoma Jewish community. It also shows how little our community wants this. Perhaps most importantly, it shows that this school is nothing but a Trojan horse for creating religious public schools. We don’t need or want this school. We want strong public schools and to keep church and state separate.”
Despite a recent federal court ruling that temporarily prohibits the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board from rejecting Ben Gamla’s application because of the school’s religious character, today’s letter reminds the board that the court’s order does not prevent it from rejecting the application on other grounds. Sent by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Education Law Center, the letter argues that the school’s erratic shift in operational plans raises serious concerns about Ben Gamla’s credibility and ability to run a functioning public charter school funded by Oklahoma taxpayers.
The organizations outlined multiple reasons why the board must reject Ben Gamla’s application, including:
- Ben Gamla lacks community support.
- Ben Gamla is not financially or operationally viable.
- Ben Gamla’s application is fatally deficient.
- Ben Gamla lacks any credibility.
Attorneys representing the intervenors include Nancy A. Noet and Samuel T. Grover of Freedom From Religion Foundation; Alex J. Luchenitser and Lauren Schoen of Americans United; Brent Rowland and Morgan Bandy of the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice; Daniel Mach and Heather L. Weaver of the ACLU; and Jessica Levin, Wendy Lecker, Patrick Cremin and Katrina Reichert of Education Law Center.
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 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a religious freedom advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, AU educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. Learn more at www.au.org.
The Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice is a 501(c)3 public interest law firm that fights for the rights and opportunities of every Oklahoman.
Education Law Center (ELC) pursues justice and equity for public school students by enforcing their right to a high-quality education in safe, equitable, nondiscriminatory, integrated and well-funded learning environments. ELC seeks to support and improve public schools as the center of communities and the foundation of a multicultural and multiracial democratic society. Visit edlawcenter.org.
For more than 100 years, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has worked in courts, legislatures and communities to protect the constitutional rights of all people. With a nationwide network of offices and millions of members and supporters, the ACLU takes on the toughest civil liberties fights in pursuit of liberty and justice for all.
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FFRF and AHA file appellate brief against Ark. 10 Commandments monument
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Two secular groups have filed an appellate court brief asking for a district court ruling against an Arkansas Capitol Ten Commandments monument to be affirmed.
The Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 1231 in 2015 (the “Display Act”) mandating that the state place a monument “commemorating the Ten Commandments” on the Capitol grounds, using a specific, state-sanctioned version of the Ten Commandments. Christians, Jews, other persons of faith and nonbelievers objected to the placement of the monument at public hearings. Still, despite widespread objections and public controversy, the state installed the monument, which has brought nothing but division to the people of Arkansas.
After reviewing the record, expert reports and motions for summary judgment, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas held the Display Act and resulting Ten Commandments monument unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The district court considered relevant historical practices and understandings and the relevant context of the Ten Commandments monument in reaching its holding. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Humanist Association are asking the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the decision.
“On the merits, the district court correctly concluded that the Display Act and the Ten Commandments monument violate the Establishment Clause,” states the brief. “Under the two-step ‘historical practices and understandings’ test there is no established history supporting the specific practice at issue — neither laws ratifying the Ten Commandments nor monuments commemorating them — and no other relevant historical practices that support the challenged practice.”
From the Display Act’s introduction through the monument’s eventual erection, the bill sponsor, media and the public at large have always understood the monument to be religious in nature, the brief points out. Members of the public have consistently opposed the bill on those grounds. The primary sponsor of the Display Act, then-state Sen. Jason Rapert, repeatedly flaunted the religious motivations behind his actions.
The Orsi Plaintiffs are a group of concerned Arkansas citizens who object to the Display Act as a violation of their sincerely held beliefs. Each plaintiff showed that they repeatedly visited the Arkansas Capitol and Capitol grounds for a variety of reasons, both before and after the Ten Commandments monument was installed, and that some of those visits have involved unwelcome contact with the monument. The district court correctly held that the Orsi Plaintiffs have standing to challenge the Display Act and the monument because of their direct, unwelcome contact with the monument. The state’s argument that they lack standing must be rejected.
The principal problem with the state’s examples of generalized religious acknowledgments to justify the monument is that none are analogous to the practice at issue, which ratifies a specific religion’s doctrine. When viewed in relation to these supposedly analogous practices, the uniquely problematic nature of the Display Act becomes clear: Unlike general acknowledgments of religion that have historically been found permissible, here the state has ratified a specific version of a religious code, elevated that version of the Ten Commandments as the state’s officially codified version, and placed the force and authority of the state behind that religious doctrine by memorializing it in a permanent, stand-alone monument.
“For these reasons, this court should affirm the grant of the Orsi Plaintiffs’ summary judgment motion and denial of the state’s summary judgment motion,” the brief concludes.
“The state of Arkansas has no business weighing in on quintessentially religious matters,” notes Freedom From Religion Foundation Legal Counsel Sam Grover. “The Display Act was passed in order to commemorate a literal bible verse that mandates worshiping the Christian god. Erecting a permanent monument to one religion’s beliefs is precisely what our Constitution’s First Amendment was meant to prohibit.”
“The district court was right: Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument is an unequivocally sectarian display with no deep roots in American tradition, and it has divided the state, telling Arkansans who don’t share the state’s preferred religious views that they are outsiders in their own Capitol,” says American Humanist Association Legal Director Amitai Heller. “We will continue fighting against attempts by Christian nationalists to use the power of government to impose their beliefs on everyone else, because religious freedom belongs to all of us.”
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 approximately 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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.
FFRF would also like to thank local counsel Gerry Shulze, who also assisted in the drafting of this brief.
The post FFRF and AHA file appellate brief against Ark. 10 Commandments monument appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
AHA and FFRF file appellate brief against Ark. 10 Commandments monument
Tags:American Humanist, Politics, Religion
AHA and FFRF file appellate brief against Ark. 10 Commandments monument
WASHINGTON – Two secular groups have filed an appellate court brief asking for a district court ruling against an Arkansas Capitol Ten Commandments monument to be affirmed.
The Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 1231 in 2015 (the “Display Act”) mandating that the state place a monument “commemorating the Ten Commandments” on the Capitol grounds, using a specific, state-sanctioned version of the Ten Commandments. Christians, Jews, other persons of faith and nonbelievers objected to the placement of the monument at public hearings. Still, despite widespread objections and public controversy, the state installed the monument, which has brought nothing but division to the people of Arkansas.
After reviewing the record, expert reports and motions for summary judgment, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas held the Display Act and resulting Ten Commandments monument unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The district court considered relevant historical practices and understandings and the relevant context of the Ten Commandments monument in reaching its holding. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Humanist Association are asking the 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals to affirm the decision.
“On the merits, the district court correctly concluded that the Display Act and the Ten Commandments monument violate the Establishment Clause,” states the brief. “Under the two-step ‘historical practices and understandings’ test there is no established history supporting the specific practice at issue — neither laws ratifying the Ten Commandments nor monuments commemorating them — and no other relevant historical practices that support the challenged practice.”
From the Display Act’s introduction through the monument’s eventual erection, the bill sponsor, media and the public at large have always understood the monument to be religious in nature, the brief points out. Members of the public have consistently opposed the bill on those grounds. The primary sponsor of the Display Act, then-state Sen. Jason Rapert, repeatedly flaunted the religious motivations behind his actions.
The Orsi Plaintiffs are a group of concerned Arkansas citizens who object to the Display Act as a violation of their sincerely held beliefs. Each plaintiff showed that they repeatedly visited the Arkansas Capitol and Capitol grounds for a variety of reasons, both before and after the Ten Commandments monument was installed, and that some of those visits have involved unwelcome contact with the monument. The district court correctly held that the Orsi Plaintiffs have standing to challenge the Display Act and the monument because of their direct, unwelcome contact with the monument. The state’s argument that they lack standing must be rejected.
The principal problem with the state’s examples of generalized religious acknowledgments to justify the monument is that none are analogous to the practice at issue, which ratifies a specific religion’s doctrine. When viewed in relation to these supposedly analogous practices, the uniquely problematic nature of the Display Act becomes clear: Unlike general acknowledgments of religion that have historically been found permissible, here the state has ratified a specific version of a religious code, elevated that version of the Ten Commandments as the state’s officially codified version, and placed the force and authority of the state behind that religious doctrine by memorializing it in a permanent, stand-alone monument.
“For these reasons, this court should affirm the grant of the Orsi Plaintiffs’ summary judgment motion and denial of the state’s summary judgment motion,” the brief concludes.
“The state of Arkansas has no business weighing in on quintessentially religious matters,” notes Freedom From Religion Foundation Legal Counsel Sam Grover. “The Display Act was passed in order to commemorate a literal bible verse that mandates worshiping the Christian god. Erecting a permanent monument to one religion’s beliefs is precisely what our Constitution’s First Amendment was meant to prohibit.”
“The district court was right: Arkansas’s Ten Commandments monument is an unequivocally sectarian display with no deep roots in American tradition, and it has divided the state, telling Arkansans who don’t share the state’s preferred religious views that they are outsiders in their own capitol,” says American Humanist Association Legal Director Amitai Heller. “We will continue fighting against attempts by Christian nationalists to use the power of government to impose their beliefs on everyone else, because religious freedom belongs to all of us.”
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.
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 approximately 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
FFRF would also like to thank local counsel Gerry Shulze, who also assisted in the drafting of this brief.
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The American Humanist Association
<span data-metadata="“>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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