FFRF to Texas megachurch pastor: Having law enforced isn’t bullying
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is challenging a Texas megachurch pastor’s claims that attempting to have federal electioneering restrictions enforced amounts to intimidation tactics.
Josh Howerton, senior pastor of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, laughably accuses FFRF of engaging in “street-level lawfare” and aiming to silence conservative pastors because the state/church watchdog reports violations of the Johnson Amendment to the IRS. The Johnson Amendment is a federal law that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from intervening in political campaigns.
Howerton’s accusations come two years after FFRF filed an IRS complaint over his October 2024 sermon, “How to Vote Like Jesus,” in which he appeared to encourage congregants to support Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.
Contrary to Howerton’s claims, FFRF is a nonpartisan organization that has repeatedly reported churches for endorsing Democratic candidates. For example, FFRF reported New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia for such politicking during the very same election cycle.
The Johnson Amendment is an essential safeguard to ensure that tax-exempt churches and other charitable organizations don’t use tax-deductible donations for political purposes. Churches have substantial taxpayer-supported benefits enjoyed by all 501(c)(3) organizations, but are singled out for additional privileges, such as not having to publicly report what they do with tax-deductible donations, turning them into financial black holes. This makes it all the more necessary that houses of worship follow the same restrictions on partisan campaign intervention that apply to every other (c)(3) organization.
FFRF notes that pastors remain free to preach about moral issues, criticize public policies and encourage voting, but they must express political opinions in their personal capacities. Churches may not use their tax-exempt resources to endorse or oppose candidates for public office.
Last month, FFRF filed a friend-of-the-court brief before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit brought by National Religious Broadcasters and allied churches seeking to undermine the prohibition on nonprofit electioneering. The brief highlights the IRS’ longstanding failure to meaningfully enforce the Johnson Amendment against churches, undermining claims that religious organizations face a credible threat of enforcement.
That history of nonenforcement makes Howerton’s accusations particularly absurd.
“FFRF is not attempting to intimidate pastors into silence,” note FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It is asking the federal government to enforce a 70-year-old law that prevents tax-exempt groups from becoming political operatives and that applies equally to religious and secular nonprofits.”
Asking the IRS to investigate organizations that appear to willfully violate federal law is not bullying, harassment or intimidation, they add. “It is demanding equal enforcement of the law.”
FFRF will continue defending the Johnson Amendment and insisting that churches — regardless of their political affiliations — abide by the same rules as every other tax-exempt nonprofit.
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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FFRF warns that Pentagon’s Christian nationalist problem goes deeper than Hegseth
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is decrying the growing influence of Christian nationalism at the Pentagon following disturbing revelations about a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A new CNN investigation reveals that Ryan Higgins, Hegseth’s senior adviser on religious matters, has spent years promoting conspiracy theories, spreading racist and homophobic rhetoric and openly rejecting the separation of church and state. For example, Higgins has declared that the “Separation of Church and State does not exist” and proclaimed, “THIS IS A CHRISTIAN NATION.” His social media history includes describing LGBTQ Americans as “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” condemning same-sex marriage as “abominable,” and attacking Muslims with the claim that “Islam teaches death to all who do not comply.” He also defended a deplorably racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes and promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Even more alarming, multiple sources have told CNN that Higgins has helped shape Hegseth’s Christian nationalist messaging and has played a significant role in establishing the Pentagon’s new (and unconstitutional) Office of Religious Affairs.
“These revelations expose the danger of allowing Christian nationalist extremism to take root in our military,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Someone who openly rejects the separation of church and state and posts disgusting disparagements of religious, sexual and racial minorities has no business shaping policy at the Pentagon. Our military exists to defend the Constitution, not impose Christianity.”
The disclosures come as Hegseth continues injecting Christianity into military leadership. He has hosted monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon, including one featuring Christian nationalist Pastor Doug Wilson, who has advocated for repealing women’s voting rights and criminalizing homosexuality. Hegseth also declared last month that the military was putting on the “full armor of God” (citing a New Testament bible verse meaningful to Christian nationalist extremists) and described the Pentagon’s mission as a spiritual battle. He additionally announced in September the creation of the Office of Religious Affairs, which reports directly to him.
FFRF warns that the Pentagon’s increasing embrace of explicitly Christian messaging threatens the constitutional rights and domestic security of non-Christian and nonreligious service members. The military serves Americans of every religion and no religion, and no service member should face religious pressure from the secular government they have sworn to defend. FFRF has called on Hegseth to resign.
“Atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Jews and Americans of every belief or nonbelief serve our country honorably,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “They deserve military leaders who respect their rights, not Christian nationalist ideologues who treat religious hegemony as patriotism.”
FFRF is insisting on congressional scrutiny of Hegseth, the new Office of Religious Affairs and Higgins’ role in promoting religious favoritism and coercion in the military.
“The Pentagon is supposed to defend the Constitution, not wage a crusade for Christianity,” concludes Barker.
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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Rio Hondo Teacher Sues District Over Mandatory Prayer
Tags:American Humanist, Politics, Religion
Rio Hondo Teacher Sues District Over Mandatory Prayer
Juan Antonio Castillo worked as a Spanish teacher at a public middle school in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley.
BROWNSVILLE, TX. – Today, Juan Antonio Castillo – a former Spanish teacher at Rio Hondo Middle School, filed a federal lawsuit against the Rio Hondo Independent School District (ISD) for violating his First Amendment rights over the course of several years by coercing him to partake in mandatory prayer.
Castillo’s complaint explains that he, a Humanist, was required to attend multiple mandatory staff meetings that featured evangelical Christian prayers. No advance notice was given to staff that these meetings would include religious observances, and in each meeting, staff were instructed to rise, bow their heads and join the superintendent or school board member in prayer. Despite not sharing the religious beliefs that their superiors expressly promoted, Castillo and other staff were given no opportunity to excuse themselves or decline to participate. Castillo has worked as an educator for 25 years and was employed at Rio Hondo Middle School from 2023 to 2026.
“I feel that it is my responsibility to speak up for the rest of the educators at Rio Hondo Middle School who have been subjected to this discrimination,” said the plaintiff Juan Antonio Castillo. “As a Humanist, it is a violation of my beliefs to be forced to take part in theistic religious observances like Christian prayer, which happened several times during my employment with Rio Hondo ISD. I have nothing against my colleagues who willingly choose to participate in these group prayers – I just want everyone’s right to their personal beliefs to be respected by the school district.”
“Compelling public employees to participate in a supervisor’s religious practice against their will is precisely the kind of abuse the framers of the First Amendment sought to prevent,” said Amitai Heller, Legal Director at the American Humanist Association. “That this is happening in our public schools shows how deeply the Christian Nationalist movement has permeated our institutions. We filed this lawsuit to remind Rio Hondo ISD that public schools, like all of our public institutions, belong to all of us, and everyone should feel welcome there.”
“We are proud to support Mr. Castillo and the American Humanist Association in this lawsuit,” said Billy Marsh, cooperating attorney on behalf of the American Humanist Association and a Texas-based partner at A&O Shearman. “It is a fundamental tenet of our system of government that the state cannot favor one religion over any other. All people should be free to worship who, how, or what they may (or not worship at all), free of coercion by the state.”
High-resolution photo of Juan Antonio Castillo.
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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Johnnie D. Cotton – First Amendment Hero
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Johnnie Cotton, a Texas native, received FFRF’s First Amendment Hero Award after quitting his position as high school band teacher last fall rather than put up a Ten Commandments poster in his classroom. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts and from Texas A&M University in 2005 with a Master’s of Education Administration. He served as a high school principal for nine years in Texas, Alaska and New Mexico, and was director of secondary education for three years in Alaska and Kuwait. He is married to Ruth Cotton, an RN at the Texas State Hospital in Rusk, Texas, has two daughters, a son, two stepdaughters and five grandchildren.
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Gigi Cervantes – Civil Rights Heroine Award
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Gigi Cervantes, received FFRF’s Civil Rights Heroine Award, was a high school theatre and acting teacher at a fine arts charter school who left her position in protest of the Texas Ten Commandments Statute SB 10. Gigi is a professional actor who has performed for 40-plus years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as regionally at the Cleveland Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. She also has over 20 years of experience as an acting teacher and has taught classes, camps and workshops at multiple DFW theatre companies. Gigi is also an accomplished singer-songwriter, avid Dallas Cowboys fan, and dog lover who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her husband Chris, who is a painter, musician, attorney and constitutional law professor, and their two dogs, Donny Osmond and Bill Murray (Donny & Murray).
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Maya Wiley – Champion of Civil Rights Award
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund, received a Champion of Civil Rights award. A nationally respected civil rights attorney, she has been a litigator, program creator and policy advocate in philanthropy, nonprofits, government and higher education. She ran for mayor of New York in 2021, garnering the second highest number of first choice votes in a rank choice vote election. In 2014, she became the first Black woman to be counsel to a New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, and worked to protect and expand civil rights. She was senior vice president for social justice at the New School University, where she founded the Digital Equity Laboratory. Wiley has been a litigator at the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc., and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Wiley has received numerous awards, and has been a public voice for rights, justice and democracy. Wiley is the author of the memoir, “Remember You Are A Wiley.”
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