FFRF castigates second House Judiciary hearing targeting SPLC
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center is the latest step in a coordinated effort to intimidate organizations challenging Christian nationalism and other forms of extremism.
Testifying before the committee, Southern Poverty Law Center Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair defended the organization’s 55-year record.
“For 55 years, with the support of generous donors who appreciate our work, the SPLC has fought racial terror, white supremacy and other forms of discrimination and hate, to build and defend a multiracial democracy where we can all thrive,” Fair told lawmakers. “That was the goal of the Civil Rights Movement — and it is our mission.”
Fair reminded committee members that the center helped dismantle the United Klans of America through litigation and has spent decades exposing extremist organizations through research, education, policy advocacy and legal action. He also rejected claims that the organization has strayed from its mission.
“Some say we’ve lost our way,” Fair testified. “That’s false. We have never lost our north star — a fair and just society for every person.”
At the hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Subcommittee Chair Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and others continued their campaign against the Southern Poverty Law Center, attacking the organization’s longstanding work tracking hate groups and extremist movements.
Multiple lawmakers questioned why the center has designated organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom as hate groups. Fair responded that the designations are based on documented statements and activities that vilify, demean or target marginalized communities, not on an organization’s religious beliefs. He emphasized that the center does not label entities based on their faith, but rather on conduct and rhetoric that it concludes promote hostility or discrimination.
Members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, including Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Reps. Becca Balint, D-Vt., and Hank Johnson, D-Ga., forcefully pushed back against these attacks, defending the importance of independent research and documentation of extremist movements. Raskin defended the Southern Poverty Law Center’s decades-long civil rights work and warned against using government power to punish organizations for their viewpoints.
“The proper response to speech you don’t like is counterspeech, not government prosecution, not government censorship,” Raskin said in his opening remarks.“If you don’t like the fact that someone’s called you a hate group, then you get up and you rebut them. You denounce them.”
Balint warned that the hearing was part of a broader campaign to punish organizations unwilling to show blind loyalty to President Trump. She accused Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche of transforming the Justice Department into a tool for political retribution, targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups that have resisted the administration’s attacks on democratic institutions and civil rights protections.
Among the witnesses was Alveda King of the America First Policy Institute, a Christian nationalist organization closely aligned with the Trump administration. King argued that Americans with “traditional Christian values” are being unfairly targeted and criticized the center for its opposition to anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion activism. She accused the organization of mischaracterizing her advocacy and repeated claims attacking transgender healthcare and reproductive rights. Her testimony reflected a broader theme of the hearing, in which lawmakers and witnesses sought to portray criticism of Christian nationalist ideology and anti-LGBTQ extremism as discrimination against Christians themselves.
The same House committee had held an earlier hearing against the Southern Poverty Law Center on May 20. And in April, the Justice Department indicted the center over its program to track hate groups, an investigation which an earlier administration had already closed. The center’s lawyers are seeking dismissal, documenting that the DOJ moved to charge without interviewing a single current employee and contends the prosecution is a political vendetta.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has a long history of documenting threats from Christian nationalists, white supremacists and other extremists. In its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, it named white Christian nationalism as the key ideology that inspired the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, drawing directly on the February 2022 report that the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty co-published. The center has continued to document how Christian nationalism stokes hate through false claims of “Christian persecution” and “white genocide,” and how the movement seeks to dominate American political and cultural life.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation stands firmly with the Southern Poverty Law Center. FFRF is among more than 100 civil rights organizations that have signed the Unity Pact, a commitment organized by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights under which an unjust attack on one signatory is treated as an attack on all. A prosecution built on the president’s enemies list and dressed up in a congressional hearing is exactly what the pact has been made to defend against.
Despite the congressional attacks, the center today released its most recent “Year in Hate & Extremism” report, which chronicles trends in hard-right activity, exposes the players driving extremism and equips communities with data and tools to prevent radicalization. This year’s report identifies 1,263 hate and antigovernment groups in operation throughout 2025 and documents how the hard-right movement rapidly consolidated power across influential institutions, including the federal government and the private tech sector. The report examines how extremist movements have targeted immigrants, LGBTQ-plus people, women, students of color and poor people, exploited cryptocurrency to sustain harassment campaigns, and intensified propaganda and recruitment efforts on college campuses.
“Attempts to punish organizations for exposing extremism are an attack on free inquiry, civil rights advocacy and democratic accountability,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent decades documenting the dangers posed by white supremacy, Christian nationalism and other extremist movements. It should be commended for that work, not dragged before Congress because powerful politicians dislike its conclusions.”
FFRF urges lawmakers to abandon these politically motivated attacks and focus instead on addressing the real threats posed by extremist movements that seek to undermine constitutional rights and secular democracy.
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.
The post FFRF castigates second House Judiciary hearing targeting SPLC appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
FFRF challenges Indiana sheriff’s jailhouse baptism event
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, based in Bloomington, immediately stop sponsoring Christian devotional events at the correctional facility, including pressuring inmates to undergo baptisms.
FFRF received a report that the sheriff’s office and Monroe County Correctional Center organized a religious event encouraging inmates to display adherence to Christianity and be baptized. A May 31 post from the official Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page contained multiple photos, including a banner featuring the message “Where You at Redeemed?” along with a cross, detailing the event as such:
Forty-nine individuals publicly declared their faith in Christ through baptism. Christian hip-hop artists Redeemed and J. Truth shared their testimonies and performed music that inspired and encouraged those in attendance.
The evening was marked by healing, forgiveness, accountability, and redemption.
According to the Facebook post, not only were the baptisms administered with the participation of Monroe County Correctional Center staff, but they were also organized and supervised by multiple law enforcement leaders. Some of the officials are pictured in the Facebook post in their official uniforms.
Multiple residents contacted FFRF about constitutional concerns regarding the baptisms. Community members expressed concern with the sheriff’s office’s promotion of the event on its official social media. As one individual contacting FFRF pointed out, the inmates likely would not have felt free to refuse to participate in the baptisms or the event because it was clear that the sheriff’s office, the center and leadership wanted inmates to attend and be baptized. Another individual contacting FFRF expressed concern about nonreligious inmates who did not participate being treated worse than inmates who did.
“By organizing, hosting, and promoting inmate baptisms and celebrating inmates’ conversions to Christianity on its official social media, the sheriff’s office is unconstitutionally favoring religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence has written to Sheriff Ruben Marté.
A correctional facility is an inherently coercive environment — and inmates and detainees are literally a captive audience, as FFRF points out. When the sheriff’s office entangles itself with religion and makes it clear that it’s encouraging inmates to convert to Christianity, inmates will no doubt feel pressured to convert and participate in religious activities to be seen as cooperative and well-behaved. Inmates and detainees who are aware of the sheriff’s office’s promotion of Christianity will not genuinely feel free to refuse to participate in its religious activities. This is constitutionally impermissible.
FFRF emphasizes that law enforcement must be even-handed and avoid any appearance of bias toward some citizens and hostility toward others. Sheriff’s Office employees are not permitted to use the machinery of government or taxpayer money to promote their personal religion to inmates or the wider community. And such activity needlessly marginalizes the 31 percent of Indiana residents who are religiously unaffiliated.
“It is egregious and unacceptable that a sheriff would arrange Christian baptisms for inmates, using the sheriff’s department time and staff to push a specific belief system on a literal captive audience,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “A county jail is not a church and a sheriff is not a pastor. U.S. citizens are entitled to their right to be free of religious coercion, and that right cannot be revoked for the incarcerated.”
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 over 41,000 members, including more than 500 members in Indiana, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
The post FFRF challenges Indiana sheriff’s jailhouse baptism event appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Statement on Department of Defense’s Reduced List of Recognized Religions
Tags:American Humanist, Politics, Religion
WASHINGTON – The following is a statement from American Humanist Association Executive Director Fish Stark in response to news that the Department of Defense has dramatically reduced its number of recognized religious faiths and belief systems from 211 to 31, eliminating specific designation categories for humanists, atheists and Unitarian Universalists, among others.
“This is a blatant erasure of atheist and humanist Americans serving in the military. Secretary Hegseth can say whatever he wants about the motivations for this decision, but its implications are undeniable: it will be harder for individual service members to access religious accommodations, and for chaplains, it will be more difficult to properly serve those in their care.
“Data collection isn’t a morally neutral undertaking – this accounting will inform future resource allocation at the Pentagon and make it harder for service members to defend their rights, and it is for these reasons that we’re opposed to this senseless decision.
“We call on the Pentagon to immediately restore the more inclusive list of 211 faith and belief codes, and for Congress to hold the Department of Defense accountable for its attempt to curtail the religious freedom of our service members.”
The post Statement on Department of Defense’s Reduced List of Recognized Religions appeared first on American Humanist Association.
Bobby Charles wants to govern Maine based on Noah’s Ark and internet conspiracies
This newsletter is free and goes out to over 24,000 subscribers, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can subscribe via Patreon or the Subscribe button below! You can also make one-time donations through Venmo or PayPal.
The Republican front-runner in the race to be Maine’s next governor is a man who believes he can personally talk women out having abortions, that transgender people don’t exist, that kids use kitty litter in classrooms because they think they are cats, and who believes his views are justified because of the mythological story of Noah’s Ark.
The primary elections for Maine are taking place today and Bobby Charles is currently the front-runner among Republicans according to pretty much every poll. Charles sat for an interview recently with the Christian Civic League of Maine and just went all-out on his delusions while speaking with the group’s leader Nick Adolphsen.
When it comes to abortion, for example, Charles insisted he would have an “open-door” policy as governor, where women who were considering the procedure would have the thrill of listening to him talk them out of it for 30 minutes by reminding them they were not giving birth to giraffes.
I want to leave my door wide open as governor to any young woman who is pregnant and is considering—under pressure from mothers or anyone else—is considering an abortion.
You spend half an hour with me, you will understand the incredible gift, the miracle that God has given to you. That you will understand for the first time how special you are and how important it is that you embrace this.
You know, so many people they have an abortion, they’re never able to have a child again. And that one piece of their life is missing forever. Okay? Never mind, they wrestle with the guilt of having taken a life and they struggle with this for… I mean, you know, as some will say, they just simply define life away and so pretend that they’re not guilty of it. But the reality is, it leaves a scar on the soul, okay?
And so, that having been said, one thing I will do is leave my door wide open…
…
… You either truly believe that this is a child… I say to people, just so you know, it’s not gonna be a giraffe. It’s not going to be a zebra that you bear. It’s going to be a little boy or a little girl—and it will be a boy or a girl, okay?
He had to sneak in that little bit of transphobia at the very end there…
Needless to say, the vast majority of people who have abortions don’t regret them (in fact, it’s far more damaging to their mental health to be denied one) and aren’t affected if they choose to have children later in life. The opportunity to have their pregnancy mansplained to them by a Republican governor is not a selling point to any sane person. As if they’re too dumb to realize they’re giving birth to a human.
At no point did Charles explain how this lecture would go over with a pre-teen rape victim, or a woman who knows far more than he does about her body, or anyone who doesn’t feel like the governor needs to be personally involved in her medical decisions.
Later in the interview, he went after transgender identities, falsely claiming that acknowledging their existence went against biology, citing Noah’s Ark in defense of his bigotry, and perpetuating the debunked lie that schoolchildren have kitty litter boxes in their classrooms because they identify as cats.
… Our school system has been hijacked by leftists who think—and that’s why we’re number 50 in the country—by leftists who think that teaching activism, crazy words like ”gender affirmation” and “transition”… Oh, look, go back to the medical literature. I’m not being, I’m not being—you know, they say “You’re an ideologue” or “You’re racist” or you’re this or you’re that—No, I’m being very factual.
We know the Bible has a very clear understanding. Noah didn’t take 27 genders of animals. He just took two, as far as I remember. And… that’s true. But then there’s the biology. Right now there now we’re denying genetics and biology…
…
… You know, you’ve got kids now that apparently think that they’re cats and dogs and we are accommodating that. That’s garbage. What do you do, by the way, when you get to be 20, and you break it to them, “Actually, you’re not a cat, and you will have to go to work, and, uh, we’re going to not do this kitty litter crap anymore,” right?
The only people who believe teachers are teaching “activism” or encouraging kids to be transgender are people who have no idea what happens in public schools. (This particular exchange came after Adolphsen falsely claimed public school teachers in Maine were helping children “socially transition their gender without notifying parents.” Charles said he would issue a flurry of executive orders on Day One as governor to end things like that.)
It’s hilarious that Charles’ comments about Noah’s Ark were preceded by “I’m being very factual.” If we’re talking about facts, though, Noah did not take two genders of each kind of animal on the ark. In fact, he took zero genders of animals on the ark. Because it never happened. Neither did the inevitable inbreeding that would result from having one family, and only one family, survive a global genocide, which is something else Charles believes as fact.
For a guy who thinks kids have wacky beliefs, here’s a grown-ass adult treating the Noah’s Ark myth like it’s literal history. (One critic online noted, while referring to the age of Noah, “I’ve never met a 900 year old person… but I’ve met plenty of Trans people.”)
And, of course, that right-wing talking point about how some kids think they’re “furries” and want litter boxes in the classroom is a complete lie. In instances where litter boxes are in schools, it’s for emergency purposes like in the case of a school shooting threat where students aren’t allowed to leave their classrooms.
As The Advocate points out, Charles may have felt comfortable saying all of this because he knew which audience he was speaking to:
The anti-LGBTQ+ views were being voiced to a friendly audience in Adolphsen, whose organization has lobbied state officials to apply a “Biblical approach” to government and has advocated for barring gender-affirming care for youth while allowing conversion therapy in the state.
For a man who claims to care about the facts, Charles should be aware that—to quote The Advocate—national groups like the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics “have continued to support gender-affirming care for minors.”
This is the man who is on the verge of being the Republican nominee for governor. Because a deranged religious lunatic like him is the best person that the party can find throughout the state.
It’s not just that he’s wrong about a handful of controversial but important issues. It’s that he’s offering voters a platform built entirely on misinformation and bigotry. Women who are pregnant don’t need a lecture from him. The existence of trans people isn’t a political debate; it’s just reality. And the fact that he’s repeating hoaxes that only exist on disturbing right-wing corners of the internet should be a warning that this man doesn’t know how to obtain accurate information.
You can watch the full interview here:
American Atheists Demands Answers from Pentagon Following Removal of Atheist, Humanist Faith & Belief Codes
Tags:American Atheists, Politics, Religion
Prior changes to faith codes were the result of recommendations from the Armed Forces Chaplains Board. It is unclear whether Hegseth relied on or even sought the input of the Board before making this substantial change.
The post American Atheists Demands Answers from Pentagon Following Removal of Atheist, Humanist Faith & Belief Codes appeared first on American Atheists.
Connecticut GOP candidate’s anti-gay extremism sparks party meltdown
This newsletter is free and goes out to over 24,000 subscribers, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can subscribe via Patreon or the Subscribe button below! You can also make one-time donations through Venmo or PayPal.
Jadon MacCormack, the only Republican candidate for a State House seat from Connecticut’s 50th District, is a regular Christian shit-poster who routinely brags about how much he hates LGBTQ people.
Just last week, to mark the beginning of Pride Month, he wished everyone a “Happy Straight Month”:
As your State Representative, I, Jadon MacCormack, would stand firmly against the Transgender and LGBT movement that has for too long corrupted our families, undermined parental authority, and eroded the foundational values of our society. This ideology promotes confusion over clarity, prioritizes feelings over biological reality, and seeks to redefine the natural order of marriage, family, and human identity in ways that directly contradict God-given rights and common sense.
I will fight relentlessly in the state legislature to protect our children from premature medical interventions, indoctrination in schools, and the normalization of perverse ideologies that threaten the innocence of the next generation.
For him, it was a tame post. In 2025, when the Supreme Court hinted that it’d be open to overturning the Obergefell ruling that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, MacCormack said it’d be better off if gay people were hanged. Because Bible.
That post rivals some of his other disturbing ones. Like the one where he endorsed Holocaust denial…
… or supported the view that we should “make being a homo illegal again”…
… or this one promoting his album of Gospel music. (Watch the video. I dare you.)
That’s who the Republican Party has chosen to be their standard bearer in a District that they have a very real chance of winning. District 50 has been represented by Democrat Pat Boyd since 2017, but that hasn’t always been automatic. While Boyd ran unopposed in 2020 and 2024, he won with only 53% of the vote in 2022, 57% of the vote in 2018, and 55% of the vote in 2016.
In other words, if Republicans ran a halfway-decent candidate, they might have a shot at flipping this district.
The problem is that, in Connecticut, Republicans don’t have much of a bench. In fact, after their nominating convention in May, they had no candidates for 31 (out of 151) House seats… and some of the districts were ceded over to the only person who offered to run. That’s how MacCormack became the sole Republican option for this district. There was no vetting; the 23-year-old homeschooled bigot was just the dude who raised his hand.
It was only after he became the default nominee that everyone realized how much of a religious extremist he was. And now Republicans are scrambling to fix the mess they created before MacCormack’s candidacy drags down the rest of their already pathetic ticket. After people saw the noose image and the Happy Straight Pride post, the Connecticut Republican Party issued a formal condemnation of him, saying MacCormack “crossed a line that should never be crossed by anyone seeking public office.”
Mr. MacCormack is entitled to his personal opinions, but those opinions are not representative of the Connecticut Republican Party. His statements do not reflect our values, our principles, or our approach to public service. Republicans can and should engage in vigorous debate on public policy without resorting to language that demonizes entire groups of people or invokes historical acts of persecution.
Given the nature of these comments and the poor judgment they demonstrate, I believe Mr. MacCormack has disqualified himself from serving as a standard-bearer for the Republican Party and as a representative for all the people of the 50th House District. Accordingly, I am calling on him to immediately withdraw his candidacy and step aside.
While that statement is important, it’s laughable coming from a party that openly embraces Donald Trump, a man whose racism, sexism, and outright bigotry toward immigrants and women and non-Christians and everyone who dares to ask him a non-softball question is so glaringly evident.
What’s the line that MacCormack crossed that Trump doesn’t cross every day?
Plus, this is the same party where a congressman just tweeted “Homosexuality has no place in America” (before deleting it and blaming a staffer). Anti-LGBTQ hate is quite literally what they stand for. MacCormack isn’t some anomaly; he’s the sort of bigot the Party has been embracing as its base for years. If you’re Republican, you should be used to people like this.
That’s the argument that Connecticut Democrats are making as they aim to tie MacCormack to every other GOP candidate who will appear on November’s ballot.
That includes MacCormack’s opponent, Pat Boyd, who spiked the ball as soon as he realized the political gift he’d been given: “I am deeply embarrassed that our region is drawing statewide, and potentially national, attention for all the wrong reasons. The nomination of a major party candidate who chooses to divide our towns, spread hate, and insult our neighbors is completely tone-deaf to the decent people from all political backgrounds who live here.”
Other Democrats also jumped on the action:
“The hateful comments made repeatedly by this Republican candidate for public office are unacceptable and completely out of step with Connecticut values,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “Connecticut is a state that welcomes people, respects differences and believes everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. Hate and discrimination have no home here, and I will continue to stand with the LGBTQ+ community to ensure our state remains a place where everyone feels safe, welcome and respected.”
US Congressman Joe Courtney, a Democrat, also released a statement on the controversy.
“The recent comments, and history of similar rhetoric, made by a candidate seeking state office in northeast Connecticut are reprehensible in every way and have no place in our public discourse,” Courtney said. “While I’m glad to see a number of Republican elected officials and party leaders condemn the statement, it is worth remembering that the Republican party gave this candidate their endorsement less than two weeks earlier.”
For the Republican Party’s part, they’re scrambling to avoid a larger headache. The deadline for all candidates to appear on November’s ballot is Tuesday. And they only began recruiting an alternative option to MacCormack on Friday.
With time running short, the next step is that Republicans have already started to collect about 240 signatures by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, in order to force a primary, House Republican Leader Vince Candelora said Friday. The candidate is Anthony J. Emilio of Pomfret, a Republican small business owner who has run previously for the board of selectmen, school board, and board of assessment appeals over the past 15 years. His wife, Martha, is currently serving a four-year term on the town’s Board of Selectmen.
Republicans started collecting signatures Friday in the hopes of reaching their goal by Sunday with volunteers from the House, Senate, and state party.
Even if Emilio gets all the necessary signatures, though, because of the way Connecticut’s election laws work, both he and MacCormack would appear on November’s ballot. Which could split the Republican vote, making it easier for Boyd to win again.
MacCormack says he fully intends to stay in the race: “I will never withdraw.”
It’s also worth noting that his X/Twitter post history includes a LOT of shares of New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist preachers, like Steven Anderson and Jonathan Shelley. Anderson has previously celebrated the deaths of murdered LGBTQ people and called on the government to execute gay people with a firing squad. His sermons have been so outrageously awful that 34 countries won’t allow him to step foot within their borders. I spoke with two of their more popular preachers a couple of summers agin. I also reached out to Shelley to see if he had any thoughts on MacCormack; he didn’t respond.
MacCormack says he’s not a New IFB member himself. He’s more of an old school IFB guy. But the tactics and dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ rhetoric are basically the same.
Regardless of how much the state’s Republican Party is trying to distance themselves from this guy, they’re going to find it impossible to do so because even if they claim his views don’t represent their positions, the fact is MacCormack felt perfectly at home within the Republican Party. Hell, he took a selfie with the GOP’s chosen candidate for governor, Ryan Fazio, calling him a “friend.”
It wasn’t just a selfie either. At one point, after MacCormack announced he’d be running in District 50, a man said he lived in that area and was represented by Pat Boyd.
“Not for long,” joked Fazio, referring to MacCormack’s campaign.
The Republican Party may not like MacCormack dragging them down, but they’ve done nothing to push bigots away from them. If anything, they’ve embraced bigotry and cruelty from the top of the ticket all the way down to local elections. You can’t run away from anti-LGBTQ rhetoric when you’re actively spreading lies about trans people and celebrating a Supreme Court that’s hell-bent on reversing civil rights progress made by LGBTQ people.
I attempted to contact MacCormack himself to chat about his positions, but he also did not respond to a request for comment.
