FFRF challenges N.C. county’s Christian agenda
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting that Randolph County commissioners in Asheboro, N.C., immediately stop imposing their sectarian religious beliefs on the community.
A concerned county resident informed the state/church watchdog that on Dec. 8, 2025, the Board of Commissioners voted to dissolve the entire Library Board of Trustees in response to its decision to keep the book “Call Me Max,” which is about a transgender child, in the children’s section. In a video documenting the meeting, Commissioner Kenny Kidd stated, “What is important to me is the souls of our children.” FFRF has learned that the board now intends to create new Library Board of Trustees policies that would supposedly better “represent the values of Randolph County” by excluding books like “Call Me Max.”
The community member who reported this incident also informed FFRF that the board has been opening every meeting with a Christian prayer. As far back as Aug. 4, 2025, Chaplain Bill Hatfield led the audience in prayer at the board meeting, saying, “Thank you for our country. The Lord is always here when I say the pledge of allegiance, and I encourage us to do this as well. Not only to make it a pledge, but make it a prayer. … Oh we pray for our country and pray for our county. We love you Lord, we thank you, we give you praise again. Jesus Christ our lord. Amen.” And to give a very recent example, the meeting on June 1 began with a Christian prayer led by Chaplain Kevin Walton:
Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Lord, I pray that you bless and watch over this meeting and I do pray that the truth will be done. Lord, and I ask all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
The board ought not to lend its power and prestige to religion, especially a single religion, by scheduling, hosting or conducting governmental prayers.
“Citizens, including Randolph County’s nonreligious citizens, are compelled to come before the board and its committees on important civic matters, to seek licenses and permits and to participate in important decisions affecting their livelihoods, property, children and quality of life,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude writes to Board Chair Darrell Frye.
Prayer at government meetings is unnecessary, inappropriate and divisive. All board members and meeting attendees are, of course, free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way. However, board members do not need to worship on taxpayers’ time.
Exclusively Christian opening prayer excludes those community members who belong to the 38 percent of Americans identifying as non-Christians, including the nearly one in three Americans who are now religiously unaffiliated. It is coercive, embarrassing and intimidating for such citizens to be required to make a public showing of their nonbelief in Christianity — by not rising or praying — or else to display deference or obeisance toward a religious sentiment in which they do not believe, but which their county commissioners clearly do.
The ideal approach is to discontinue invocations altogether.
Additionally, FFRF is firmly opposed to banning books from libraries. FFRF believes that there is no true freedom of thought, conscience or even religion unless our government and its public schools are free from religion and its control over thought. The best solution is to leave a diversity of viewpoints in libraries — and trust that families will explore complex topics in the ways their beliefs dictate. As the board must know, parents, not the government, have the constitutional right to guide their children’s religious or nonreligious upbringing.
To respect the diverse range of religious and nonreligious residents living in Randolph County, FFRF is asking that the board concentrate solely on civil matters — and leave religion to the private conscience of each individual.
“As if banning books from the library were not bad enough, board members are revealing their true nature by putting prayer before meetings,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “The commissioners should stop their prayers immediately, and not channel their personal dogmatic beliefs to control what books are available to the public.”
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 almost 1,000 members and a chapter in North Carolina, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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Emma Hanson
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
EMMA HANSON
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Ellen Gaul
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MLB warns San Francisco Giants players after anti-LGBTQ protest on “Pride Night”
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A group of Christian athletes on the San Francisco Giants pushed back against the team’s “Pride Night” festivities by writing anti-LGBTQ Bible verses on their caps, a move that violates baseball’s rules. They’re now acting like they’re the real victims in all this.
Last week, the Giants celebrated Pride Night with special rainbow-colored caps for team members—they apparently didn’t have to wear them if they didn’t want to—and a message promoting resources to help LGBTQ people and their loved ones.
It’s not a controversial message in any way… unless you’re a conservative Christian who thinks acknowledging and helping LGBTQ people amounts to a sin.
That was the case for Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp, who wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on his cap… and relievers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker, who imitated him… and another pitcher, Sam Hentges, who refused to wear the cap entirely.
You’d be forgiven for not noticing the message given that Roupp gave up four runs in under five innings and left the game before taking the official loss. But those verses are ones in which God says the rainbow is a sign of his covenant with the planet—after he murders nearly everyone on it. In other words, Roupp was arguing that God owns the rainbow, not LGBTQ people. As if a message of unity and inclusion violates his religion.
It’s bad enough that these pitchers wanted to make it clear they’re not on board with celebrating LGBTQ people, but to do it in San Francisco? Who do they think comes to the games?! It’s also not like they care about sending this message on other nights. Just Pride Night. So let’s not pretend like this is anything but anti-LGBTQ.
Roupp and his colleagues later gave the standard Christian monologue to reporters saying they don’t hate LGBTQ people at all. They just don’t like them and that’s a totally different thing! They’re just following the Bible! They’re Christian so you’re not allowed to be mad at them! Stop persecuting them for their free speech!
“Kind of what the verse says, you know, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant to us, and us as believers to stand firm in that. … There’s no hate at all. It’s just what I stand for and what I stand in. I believe in God, and that’s me.”
Roupp then was asked how he’d respond if someone from the LGBTQ+ community took exception to his inscription of the Bible verse on Pride Night.
“First of all, as a believer, I would push them to read the Bible,” Roupp stated. “I think God has blessed me in so many ways, and I don’t think I would be here right now if it wasn’t for him. So, like I said, there’s no hate in it at all, you know, like I said, we live in a country where you’re welcome to believe what you want. There’s a freedom of speech and stuff like that, so that’s really all I have to say about that. I’m just thankful that God has put me in this situation and that I can go out and share his kingdom.”
…
Hentges said Saturday there had been discussions among several players in the days leading up to the Pride event on how to proceed. The reliever referenced “other Christians on the team that have the same beliefs” and said the group went to team leaders and then made a “collective decision.”
“It’s just something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it,” Hentges said. “There wasn’t hatred behind it. I think that’s kind of something that’s misinterpreted. I don’t hate the LGBTQ community. It’s just something I believed and talked with teammates and family, and they supported it.”
There wasn’t hatred behind it. These guys just want LGBTQ people to know they are evil sinners who deserve the wrath of God. You know, Christian Love. It’s such a cop-out of an answer because Roupp and Hentges clearly didn’t want to say what they actually believe about LGBTQ people so they tiptoed around it, as if that would make anything better.
It’s also not a matter of “free speech” because this has nothing to do with the government. MLB sets the rules.
The pathetic responses from the Christian bigots led to predictable praise from fellow religious bigot JD Vance, and an offer to pay future fines from “comedian” Rob Schneider, while the team quickly issued a statement denouncing the players’ actions… but not saying they would do anything about it:
“The San Francisco Giants are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ+ community. Baseball should be a place where everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued.
“We also respect that individuals may make personal choices about participating in team activations. We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that. Those choices do not change our organization’s commitment to inclusion, belonging, and creating a welcoming environment for all.
“We remain grateful to our fans, partners, employees, players, and coaches who help make Pride Night a meaningful celebration.”
That was followed by a mild rebuke from a Higher Power: Major League Baseball itself.
Not because of the anti-LGBTQ sentiments, which the players are allowed to have, but because there are rules about putting personal messages on your equipment:
“The writing on the cap violates our rules and consistent with normal practice we have warned the players about future violations,” Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer, told Outsports in a statement.
It was a weak statement that didn’t go into any specifics about what the consequences could be if they did it again—or how immediately those consequences would be implemented. How many strikes will these guys get?
And then, somehow, MLB made it worse. They issued a second statement, watering down the first one, and making it clear that their only concern was the act of writing a message, not the content of the message:
“To be clear, this routine verbal warning not to wear the hat in future games is not disciplinary and had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message,” MLB said.
“We respect players’ right to free expression. However, writing of any kind, with any message, is prohibited per Major League Baseball’s Uniform Regulations which provides in part that, ‘(a) Player may not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment…’. We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom,’ and names of family members.”
Again, they didn’t say what the consequences would be if these players did something similar in the future. Probably nothing, given that baseball players have put messages on their caps for right-wing and sensible reasons and there’s no evidence of MLB taking any action against them. Hell, Clayton Kershaw did the same thing with the same Bible verses last year. No punishment. In fact, Jim Buzinski of Outsports.com noted, “In reviewing Spotrac’s database of MLB fines and suspensions going back 10 years, I could find no examples of players being fined for a uniform violation.”
It’s not like this is limited to baseball either. Hell, a player on the Chicago Bulls was booted off the team after unleashing an anti-LGBTQ rant back in March (though the team said he was let go for unrelated reasons).
It’s worth reiterating that the players in question didn’t have to wear the Pride Night hats at all. They could have worn the regular ones. Instead, they wore the rainbow caps and wrote a message on them, to be extra dickish to their fans.
Rarely has this kind of pushback been part of a concerted team-wide effort, though. Maybe that’s why MLB put out a statement now when they said nothing publicly in the past.
My concern isn’t that other teams will do this, realizing there are no real penalties. It’s that some teams may stop doing anything Pride-related in the future because they want to avoid controversy altogether.
Whatever the case, God doesn’t appear to be on the Giants’ side. They have one of the worst records in all of baseball. And after their antics this week, there’s even less to root for.
Trump-backed pastor Jackson Lahmeyer accused of sexting staffer as Oklahoma primary nears
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Oklahoma will have its primaries today, which means right-wing Christian Nationalist pastor Jackson Lahmeyer could finally be the Republican nominee for Congress (after a failed previous attempt). But despite an endorsement from Donald Trump, the campaign may have just suffered a major blow after a woman who worked for his campaign said that Lahmeyer—a married father of five—had been sexting her for months… at least until his wife found out.
A quick recap: Lahmeyer is pastor of the internet-friendly Sheridan.Church, based in Tulsa and the founder of “Pastors for Trump,” which was organized to get conservative Christians to support Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The MAGA base loves him because he’s a massive conspiracy theorist. He has said Black Lives Matter was founded by “witchcraft-practicing lesbians,” signed vaccine exemption forms for anyone who became an online member of his church, claimed Dr. Anthony Fauci was a “mass-murdering Luciferian,” said January 6 was an “inside job” by the FBI, claimed that Alex Jones “did nothing wrong,” and fully embraces QAnon… even though he’s been accused of Satanism by other QAnon conspiracists.
He also seeks the “eradication” of Islam from the country and thinks Black women like Jasmine Crockett are guilty of acting “like a GHETTO fool in Congress.”
Soon after Trump nominated Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to take over Kristi Noem’s job as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, there was a flurry of replacements and newly vacant seats, including the one Lahmeyer is now angling for in the House.
Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District is a fairly red district where all the real competition occurs in the GOP primary. The Cook Political Report currently rates it a solid Republican district, meaning Democrats don’t stand a chance. But Lahmeyer has the one thing no one else in his race does: The Trump Stamp of Approval.
That endorsement is what led Caitlin Simmons Key, a former Miss Oklahoma USA and a fundraiser for Lahmeyer’s campaign, to post about why she was also supporting him:
… Today, Jackson Lahmeyer received President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and regardless of where anyone lands politically, that is a huge moment in this race.
I support Jackson because I actually KNOW him. I know his family. I see the conversations people don’t see, the work people don’t see, and the heart behind all of it.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years working around politics, it’s this: politics can be ugly… but not every person in politics is.
There are good people trying to do good things, and Jackson is one of them.
She actually KNEW him. She knew his family. She knows he’s a good guy trying to do good things.
And she knew this because the two of them had been texting for months in a way that any white evangelical pastor would say crossed every boundary. She told her story to the right-wing Daily Mail—with the screenshots of their messages to back it up—adding that she remained on Lahmeyer’s payroll even after his wife found the messages.
She says the two of them didn’t have sex. But their text messages were never supposed to be made public because it was clear he would have gone further if he thought he could get away with it, even inviting her to his hotel room. She said no because he was still married to his wife.
‘Eventually the conversations crossed the line of probably what most people would consider appropriate for a married man and a single woman,’ she said.
…
He sent a selfie from his room at a Hyatt Place and floated a ‘late invite.’ She declined. Key says she was the one urging realism about his marriage. ‘And at some point- if u need to get divorced. Then ok,’ she texted him. His reply: ‘Not right now tho lol.’
…
She put it to him bluntly: ‘U r in love with me and we don’t even have sex.’
‘Well… hahah,’ he replied. ‘I’m a fan of you how about that lol.’
‘Nobody knew how close we were,’ says Key. ‘Not one person on the planet besides me and him.’
When his wife found Lahmeyer’s texts, she was predictably furious—and lashed out against… Key. As if this were a one-sided interaction.
‘How dare you,’ Kendra wrote on May 9. ‘Don’t you ever contact my husband again. He told me everything.’
Key denied it. ‘I am not romantically involved with him. At all. If he feels differently towards me, that is nothing I have control of. I am dating someone!’
‘You are a liar,’ Kendra replied. ‘So just stop. You are out of our lives, don’t ever contact my husband again. Do you understand? Im not kidding. It was romantic, I saw it.’
…
‘You are a home wrecking whore. Did you enjoy ruining our family?’ Lahmeyer’s wife Kendra wrote to Key on May 9: ‘He has 5 kids.’
It’s not clear how much, if any, responsibility she puts on Lahmeyer himself, even though he apparently told Key to delete their messages (she didn’t). Did his wife know Key was still on the payroll, presumably so she wouldn’t go running to a British tabloid about their relationship?
In another interaction between the two, he told her she was “super thin and very cute” before leaving Mar-a-Lago to go to a strip club. As conservative Christians do. (Don’t worry, though. He said no to the offer of cocaine.)
Her response was incredible:
Her reply now reads as prophecy: ‘Jackson if u become congressman & if ever got caught u would be headlines.’ Then, one word: ‘Pastor.’
Yes. There would be lots of headlines. Because when you have a right-wing MAGA preacher who promotes “family values” and Trump, the inevitable hypocrisy is bound to be a major part of the campaign. It’s just a matter of which flavor. (Just ask Mark Robinson.) Is Lahmeyer a Christian who wants to help the “least of these” while persecuting refugees? Someone who promises fiscal responsibility while allowing Trump and his family to practically rob the Treasury? Someone who champions “pro-life” policies while opposing programs that keep people healthy and alive? Or a pastor who denounces same-sex relationships while trying to score himself a mistress?
I don’t normally care about these MAGA cultists’ private lives when it doesn’t affect anything else. Former Oklahoma official Ryan Walters recently got divorced. It wasn’t a scandal. There was no evidence of hypocrisy (other than the hypocrisy of an evangelical getting divorced at all despite pushing for covenant marriages). So it wasn’t a story. This, on the other hand, is a secret Lahmeyer didn’t want anyone to know about.
When the story was published Sunday night, Lahmeyer responded by blaming the messenger. He didn’t deny the texts. He just called the story “distorted”—without going into any details about what the Daily Mail purportedly exaggerated—and suggested the story may have been “paid for.” There’s no evidence of that. He also claimed he handled the matter privately and that his wife “may” have more to say soon.
Notice he doesn’t say the story is a lie.
And then his church canceled its Sunday service. Because Jesus can wait if the alternative is being in the spotlight after a story like this breaks.
Will any of this matter in today’s primary? Probably not. Lahmeyer’s base consists of white evangelical voters and they don’t actually give a shit if their most prominent pastors break their own moral codes. They’ll just chalk it up to sin and then celebrate whenever the pastor gets around to his forgiveness tour. Only Democrats are ever held to any standards these days. It’s the Christian Way™.
It should matter, though, because Lahmeyer has built his entire public career around judging other people’s morality. Yet here’s evidence of him violating his own supposed standards and what’s his response? Denial and deflection.
You know how all of these people would react if a Democrat did anything like this. They would spend months treating it as proof of moral corruption. But because Lahmeyer is a Republican, the rules don’t matter. His supporters on Facebook are already calling it a distraction or a lie.
That’s the hypocrisy at the heart of Christian Nationalism.
New Report Touts Importance of “Religious Liberty for All” at America 250
Tags:American Humanist, Politics, Religion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2026
Contact:
Logan Bayroff, lbayroff@westendstrategy.com
Sam Hananel, shananel@americanprogress.org
Andrew L. Seidel, media@au.org
Court Beyer, cbeyer@americanhumanist.org
Diverse advocates’ defense of religious freedom counters Trump’s discriminator “Religious Liberty Commission”
WASHINGTON – The Center for American Progress, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Interfaith Alliance, and the American Humanist Association today launched “Religious Liberty for All: Celebrating This Founding Freedom at America 250,” a new report featuring 20 prominent voices, including elected officials and faith leaders, on what religious liberty means in their lives and for the nation.
The report makes the case for a vision of religious liberty rooted in dignity and the Constitution. It serves as a powerful alternative to the anticipated upcoming report from the Trump administration’s so-called “Religious Liberty Commission,” which has elevated a very narrow ideological perspective, perpetuated Christian Nationalist doctrines, and sought to weaken the separation of church and state.
The “Religious Liberty for All” report makes clear: “Religious liberty belongs to all people, not to any single tradition, party, or administration…As America reaches its semiquincentennial, these perspectives affirm that America’s strength lies in protecting the freedom of belief and nonbelief and ensuring that religious liberty is not misused to decide who belongs, whose rights are protected, and who has power.”
“Humanists have always understood something that gets lost in the current debate: religious liberty isn’t a prize to be won by the most powerful,” said Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. “It’s a foundation that only holds if it holds for everyone. That principle isn’t new, and it isn’t controversial. It’s why we’re proud to stand alongside this coalition in defending it.”
Elected officials contributing to the report include Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Jamie Raskin, (D-MD). Faith leaders include Rabbi David Saperstein (Union for Reform Judaism), Sunita Viswanath (Hindus for Human Rights), Rev. Terri Hord Owens (Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)), Dr. Homayra Ziad (American Islamic College), Rev. Carlos L. Malavé (Latino Christian National Network), and many more.
To mark the report launch, the organizers are holding an event at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, from 2:00 p.m.–3:15 p.m. ET. The event features keynotes remarks by Senator Coons, introductory remarks by CAP’s president and CEO Neera Tanden, and multiple panel discussions with experts on religious freedom.
The Trump Administration’s Religious Liberty Commission is expected to release its own report as early as the end of June—the publication has been repeatedly delayed as the commission faces ongoing litigation from diverse faith organizations including Interfaith Alliance, which allege illegal discrimination in the makeup and actions of the commission. In April, Democracy Forward and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a motion to pause the release of the report, on behalf of the Interfaith Alliance, Muslims for Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus for Human Rights.
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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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