FFRF: Don’t turn Connecticut’s Capitol into holiday battleground
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
It may only be July, but a Christmas controversy is already brewing in Connecticut, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging state officials to avoid turning the State Capitol into another holiday battleground.
After First Liberty Institute threatened Connecticut with litigation over a proposed Nativity display inside the state Capitol, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has stepped up to urge state officials to adopt a simple, content-neutral policy prohibiting all unattended private displays inside the Capitol. This would ensure that government buildings remain focused on serving the public rather than becoming annual battlegrounds over religion.
First Liberty Institute and the law firm Jones Day recently demanded that Connecticut allow the Family Institute of Connecticut to place a privately sponsored Nativity scene inside the Capitol. Rather than allowing advocacy groups to turn the Capitol into a forum for competing religious and ideological displays, FFRF recommends that the state adopt a straightforward rule barring all unattended private displays, regardless of viewpoint.
“The end of the year should be a time for celebration, not annual fights over whose religious display belongs inside the state Capitol,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “People of every faith and of no faith should be able to visit their Capitol feeling welcome, knowing it’s devoted to the people’s business, not to promoting or hosting private religious displays.”
Christians have churches, homes and countless private venues in which to celebrate the religious aspects of Christmas. Government buildings need not become another venue for privately sponsored religious displays.
In a letter to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Legislative Management, FFRF noted that prohibiting all unattended private displays inside the Capitol would eliminate recurring disputes over which groups receive access to government property.
Writes FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line: “Such a policy would better serve the Capitol’s governmental purposes, avoid unnecessary constitutional litigation and protect the committee from precisely the type of lawsuit First Liberty appears eager to bring.”
FFRF has consistently opposed government-sponsored religious displays. At the same time, when governments choose to create genuine public forums for private holiday displays, FFRF works to ensure those forums are open to everyone, not just Christians. The organization has placed Winter Solstice displays, its “Bill of Rights Nativity” display and other secular exhibits in capitols and public spaces across the country to remind governments that if they open the door to private religious expression, they must also welcome nonreligious viewpoints. FFRF’s preferred solution, however, is a neutral policy that avoids turning government property into an annual contest over competing religious and ideological displays.
Courts have repeatedly recognized that governments may impose reasonable, viewpoint-neutral restrictions on unattended displays on public property. The U.S. Supreme Court has specifically observed that “a ban on all unattended displays” would be a permissible time, place and manner restriction.
FFRF urged the committee to temporarily pause approval of any new unattended private displays while it reviews and revises its policy. The organization noted that its legal department has extensive experience with First Amendment litigation and state/church issues, and offered to consult with the committee or its counsel in developing a constitutionally sound, viewpoint-neutral display policy.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 41,000 members nationwide, including more than 400 members in Connecticut. 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.
The post FFRF: Don’t turn Connecticut’s Capitol into holiday battleground appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
New ‘We Dissent’ episode focuses on Rededicate 250 and “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias”
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
America turned 250 this year — and the Trump administration did its best to infuse Christian nationalism into the historic anniversary.
On Episode 55, FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell, Americans United for Separation of Church and State Legal Director Rebecca Markert and National Women’s Law Center Director of Nominations & Democracy Alison Gill dive into how the Trump administration is using America’s 250th birthday as a way to rewrite the past and the present. They discuss how the administration hijacked the nation’s planned bipartisan 250th anniversary celebration and turned it into a taxpayer-funded Christian nationalist prayer revival, before moving on to tackle the report issued by the “Taskforce to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias,’ one of several task forces created by the administration to manufacture a “Christian persecution” narrative to privilege conservative Christianity under the law.
“We Dissent,” which first aired in May 2022, is a legal affairs show offering legal wisdom from the secular viewpoint of women lawyers. The show is a collaboration of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center.
Find previous episodes here, which examine developments affecting the separation of church and state, particularly in the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts. Past episodes include discussions about court reform, religion behind bars and abortion and also feature a range of expert guests.
Episodes are available at the “We Dissent” website, on YouTube, Spotify or wherever your podcasts are found. Be sure to stay up to date with the “We Dissent” podcast on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bluesky.
Tune in regularly at “We Dissent” for compelling legal discussion and insights!
The post New ‘We Dissent’ episode focuses on Rededicate 250 and “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Freethought Radio – July 16, 2026
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
After reporting national Christian-nationalist news and local state/church victories in the schools, we talk with journalist Carlos Orsi, author of the new book, ”What Science Says About Astrology.”
The post Freethought Radio – July 16, 2026 appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Hospital rejects Christian pregnancy center’s anti-LGBTQ doctor pledge
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The consequences of religion and anti-abortion zealotry are taking a toll in northern Idaho, where doctors from a neighboring state are refusing to cross the border to provide maternal care to patients because, to do so, they have to sign a contract pledging to be straight and Christian.
Here’s the situation: Republican-dominated Idaho passed a near-total abortion ban in 2022, and that led to an exodus of OB-GYNs from the state. One estimate found that a third of doctors in that field left the state over the following two years because they feared being prosecuted simply for providing medical care to patients. Some retired early. Some stopped providing certain kinds of care, a move that hit rural areas especially hard. And many just moved to states that value medical expertise. The result was that, in the 37 least populated Idaho counties, home to a quarter of the state’s residents, there were only 23 OB-GYNs. (For comparison, the seven most populated counties had 151 OB-GYNs.) They had no choice; providing care could have led to imprisonment or the loss of their medical licenses.
The bottom line is that women who need abortions or have riskier pregnancies in those communities are in danger, all because conservative Christians don’t give a shit about their health. Under the guise of protecting the unborn, Idaho Republicans have made life miserable for the living. The state is unsafe if you’re a pregnant woman, especially one who doesn’t want to be pregnant, and it’s unsafe if you’re a practicing OB-GYN.
In some cases, the only option for pregnant women who need medical care in certain parts of Idaho is a Christian “crisis pregnancy center.” Those are the places that pretend to be alternatives to actual health care facilities but have a religious, anti-abortion mission.
That’s the situation in Sandpoint, Idaho.
A few years ago, Bonner General Health, the local hospital, shut down its labor and delivery unit due to the issues listed above. They even said this in an FAQ explaining their decision:
Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult. In addition, the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho Physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.
Even though this was a town of 10,000 people, pregnant women would have to travel at least an hour away to get proper care in one of Idaho’s larger cities.
That left an opening for a Christian non-profit, 7B Care Clinic, to pretend they were picking up the slack, even though they’re not a licensed medical facility and don’t provide certain kinds of care. But not to worry! According to a CBS News article from May:
The organization plans to add to its current building once it’s paid off, [Executive Director Janine] Shepard said, and it’s in talks with a hospital about 30 miles away in Washington state to bring in an OB-GYN once a week to provide prenatal care.
That was at least some good news. A real doctor would come by once a week to meet with patients. It’s not the same as having dedicated doctors in the community, but it was a step in the right direction.
But now that arrangement has blown up, according to a stunning article by Sophia Mattice-Aldous of RANGE Media.
The hospital in question was Newport Hospital District in nearby Newport, Washington, and the plan was for a real doctor (licensed in both states) to visit 7B Care every two weeks to meet with patients. In return, the clinic would pay the hospital $200/hour.
But when Dr. Kevin McNamee visited 7B Care on June 2 to begin the program, he was handed a Statement of Faith to sign… that required him to be Christian and anti-LGBTQ.
Not only did the clinic have a No Jewish/Muslim/Atheist/Gay/Trans Doctors Allowed policy. The Statement required single doctors to be “committed to sexual purity” and married doctors to be “in a heterosexual marriage consisting of one biological man and one biological woman.”
McNamee didn’t sign the document. The hospital canceled the contract with 7B Care the next day.
The district’s CEO Kim Manus said in a report to the Newport hospital’s administration and board of commissioners she learned of the statement of faith the same day McNamee did.
“The District was not informed during negotiations that its providers would be required to individually subscribe to religious doctrines, ministry principles, or additional conditions of participation as a prerequisite to providing services,” Chief Financial Officer Justin Peters wrote in a letter to 7B Care Clinic terminating the PSA dated June 3.
7B Care responded a week later by acting shocked that any of this was a surprise. Of course they’re pushing their religious beliefs on everyone. That’s what they do!
We were surprised by the assertion that the Statement of Faith and Statement of Principle were not disclosed prior to execution of the Agreement or that their existence was concealed during negotiations.
Life Choices Pregnancy Center has always operated as a Christian, faith-based ministry. Our mission, public communications, governing documents, website, organizational practices clearly reflect that identity. At no time did we attempt to conceal our religious nature or the values that guide our ministry.
Of course no one was denying that the clinic was faith-based. But it’s not a stretch for the hospital to believe the clinic needed actual doctors with medical expertise, not other automatons who share their religious views.
Shepard said she made it very clear that doctors would need to abide by the religious policies:
During the negotiation process, I specifically raised the issue of our Statement of Faith and asked whether participating providers would be willing to sign it. Dr. Reinke said that all were Christian and it would not be a problem.
Even if the hospital representative who negotiated the deal assumed their doctors were all Christian, that’s still a far cry from a contract that requires them to be conservative anti-LGBTQ Christians. (Leave it to a religious zealot to assume there’s only one kind of Christian.) Shepard also said the Statement of Faith was included in their discussions earlier this year, though the hospital denied that anyone was aware of that.
“I personally attended the meeting; a copy of this document was not handed out,” [CEO Kim] Manus said.
Ultimately, you had one group of people who wanted to help patients with no strings attached… and a Christian ministry made up entirely of strings.
The result is that pregnant women in Sandpoint won’t be able to get the help they need in their community because of Republican politicians and Christian ministries that falsely believe they can provide enough care to patients on their own.
None of this should be surprising to anyone. It’s the natural consequence of anti-abortion ideology replacing actual health care. Idaho Republicans drove OB-GYNs out of the state by threatening them with prison for doing their jobs, and a Christian “crisis pregnancy center” that stepped into the void cared more about policing doctors’ religions, marriages, and private lives than bringing qualified medical professionals into a community that desperately needs them.
Instead of helping to repair the damage wrought by Republicans, 7B Care has only proven why clinics like theirs aren’t substitutes for legitimate medical facilities. Much like Catholic hospitals, their first obligation is to religious doctrine, not patients’ needs.
Kudos to the Newport Hospital District for making the right decision and ripping up the contract. No reputable public hospital should have its doctors signing religious loyalty tests in order to provide care.
Keep in mind this is not an isolated incident. You’re going to see more cities like Sandpoint running into similar problems because conservative Christians got everything they ever wanted. They forced doctors to flee, got hospitals to shut down essential departments, and ushered in unlicensed ministries masquerading as health clinics. We saw this coming from a mile away. It’s what always happens when the people who don’t value women’s health take control of it.
