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FFRF Saves $72K for County Taxpayers in North Carolina

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FFRF Saves $72K for County Taxpayers in North Carolina Darrow statue We resist and Salman Rushdie can help educate challenge because to speak at for years we must FFRF convention PAGES 10-11 PAGES 12-14 PAGE 3 Vol. 35 No. 3 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. April 2018 FFRF saves $72K for FFRF celebrates 40 years as national organization! county taxpayers in North Carolina FFRF is pleased to have stopped It is unconstitutional for the Bun- an expensive and unconstitutional combe County Tourism Develop- taxpayer grant to a North Carolina ment Authority to fund a religious church. mural, FFRF contended. The Buncombe County Tourism “The Establishment Clause of the Development Authority had award- First Amendment prohibits the gov- ed $72,500 to Haywood Street Con- ernment from financially supporting gregation in Asheville, N.C., for, churches,” FFRF Staff Attorney Ryan according to local media, “an in- Jayne wrote to Buncombe County novative project, to artfully portray Tourism Development Authority [the church’s] mission and minis- President & CEO Stephanie Pace try through a large-scale work of Brown last November. “Buncombe art in the medium of fresco.” This County may not award grants to Freedom from Religion Foundation Co-Founder project, which was slated to be 28.5 churches in order to decorate their Anne Gaylor (pink jacket) leads an FFRF contingent feet wide and 11 feet tall, was meant sanctuaries with religious imagery.” in an abortion-rights rally in Washington, D.C., in to decorate Any reasonable observer would 1992. For an extensive look at FFRF’s 40-plus-year the church’s understand the city’s contribution history, see our eight-page pullout section inside. sanctuary of $72,000-plus as an endorsement with a Chris- of this church and the religious tian religious message portrayed in the project, scene of the FFRF maintained. The U.S. Consti- “eight beati- tution prohibits such endorsement State senator pushes poster fight tudes” of Je- regardless of whether the project Much to the chagrin of Arkansas state religious symbols or messages. sus delivered attracts tourists and possibly gener- Sen. Jason Rapert, FFRF has harmonized an FFRF was then contacted by letter from during the Sermon on the Mount in ates revenue for the county. Arkansas high school’s choral area with the Barrett that the Christian posters had been the New Testament. FFRF’s campaign has paid off. Constitution. removed and that school staff had been in- The church’s pastor had told the “Asheville’s Haywood Street Con- Last fall, it was brought to FFRF’s atten- formed on the unconstitutionality of reli- media that the project would direct- gregation has withdrawn its request tion that Searcy High School’s choral di- gious displays. ly promote the church’s religious for funding for a fresco project rector had placed several Christian-themed But Rapert thought the school should mission: “What it will do more than from the Buncombe County Tour- posters on the walls of the high school cho- have held its ground and taken FFRF to anything is theologize our deepest ism Development Authority, ending rus room. Most contained bible verses. court, posting on Facebook that the district belief here, and that is that God a several-months-long challenge of FFRF Robert G. Ingersoll Legal Fellow “should NOT have caved into the demands blesses those who suffer the most.” the grant’s constitutionality,” the Colin E. McNamara sent a letter to Searcy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.” He also explained that it would be Asheville Citizen-Times reported. School District Superintendent Diane Bar- Rapert was also unaware of the significant “a timeless witness, both visually and The congregation’s move was a rett, warning the district that it violated the successes of FFRF lawsuits, stating, “Nothing spiritually, to the Gospel.” See Taxpayers on page 7 U.S. Constitution by allowing a display of fails like a Freedom From Religion lawsuit.” FFRF’s newest award honors Avijit Roy legacy FFRF is proud to announce the to death by militants at the Dhaka creation of an annual award in the Ekushey Book Fair where his two new name of Avijit Roy, who was assassi- books were featured. His wife, Rafida nated three years ago. Avijit, a Ban- Bonya Ahmed, known as Bonya, was gladeshi-American writer and atheist, also brutally attacked and critically died at the hands of militant Islamists wounded, but survived the assault. on the streets of Dhaka. FFRF will be working with Bonya Avijit Roy initiated a new move- in helping to raise funds and bestow ment in free and rational thinking the annual award or scholarship of in Bangladesh, South Asia and Ben- $5,000. gali-speaking diaspora communities. The Avijit Award will be given to a He had a Ph.D. in biomedical engi- person who has been working toward neering, but wrote prolifically on the spread of rational and logical many varied subjects that include discourse, toward diminishing the in- religion, atheism, cosmology and fluence of regressive fundamentalist homosexuality. Bonya Ahmed, left, carries on the legacy of her husband, Avijit Roy, who was religious thinking, toward building He founded an online communi- assassinated in a vicious streetside attack in 2015. a society based on humane laws and ty called Muktomona (freethinkers) without discrimination. The award that promoted rational discourse of freedom of expression, Avijit took His writings and activism earned will recognize creative and heroic among mainly Bengali-speaking us- an active role in protesting the arrests the ire of fundamentalist Islamists ers across the world. As an advocate of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh. and on Feb. 26, 2015, he was hacked See Roy Award on page 4 Page 2 FFRF | FREETHOUGHT TODAY | Madison, Wisconsin | April 2018 Pushing for freethought equality Name: Joseph Richardson. will supply plenty of time for silence.” ural anymore. And further, that I was Where I live: Winter Garden, Fla. — Christopher Hitchens. no longer able to believe. Where and when I was born: I was These are a few of my favorite things: Before I die: I’d like to see an aurora born in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1963, but There are so many things I enjoy. Last borealis. grew up in the Orlando area. year, I went on vacation with my wife Ways I promote freethought: I Family: Married for 26 years with and we spent two whole weeks hiking, serve on the board of the Central three sons (23, 21 and 18 years old). bike riding, whitewater rafting, zip-lin- Florida Freethought Community. I And four cats. ing and more. That was a very good write letters, speak before state and Education: I graduated from Oak time. But I also love movies, books, local meetings, maintain the CFFC Ridge High School in Orlando, then cats, science and wordplay. website and social media sites, and started college at Renselaer Polytechnic These are not: Time zones (and help in many other ways. I also give Institute in Troy, N.Y. I finished my B.S. don’t get me started on Daylight Sav- talks in local churches explaining my in computer science/physics at SUNY ing Time). Also, anytime someone uses views on freethought, atheism and Albany in 1986. That was followed up an argument from ignorance to justify the separation of state and church. with an M.S. in computer science from their position. And I give atheist/humanist invoca- SUNY Albany in 1988. Started, but never My doubts about religion started: I tions for local government meetings. finished, a Ph.D., also at SUNY Albany. grew up in the Assemblies of God. I I have been fighting with my city, Occupation: Software engineer remember having doubts when I was Winter Garden, for almost four years working on a transaction processing very young. Later, I switched to the now (starting within a week of Greece system for college students. Joseph Richardson Episcopal Church and managed to ra- v. Galloway being handed down) to How I got where I am today: A lot tionalize or liberalize or ignore those do an invocation at our City Com- of the reason I’m where I am today is MEET A MEMBER doubts until I was 49 years old. Then mission meeting. I’ve spoken at more luck or being a white male in the Unit- the doctrine of hell became dramati- than two dozen meetings asking it to ed States. I’m not much of a planner. cally more important when I found change its invocation policy, which School, jobs, living situations, etc., of- py if it ends up being a direction that out someone close to me was an athe- allows it simply to pass over anyone ten fell in my lap. Certainly I’ve worked other people look at and say, “I’d like ist. In the process of trying to rational- it doesn’t like. At the moment, that for some things. But the older I get, to go that way, too.” ize, liberalize or ignore hell, I started means me. An unplanned part of the more I realize the advantages I’ve Person in history I admire and why: learning some additional things . this fight was getting kicked out of had that I did not earn. Richard Feynman. How can you not things about the bible, theology, phi- one Winter Garden City Commis- Where I’m headed: I’d like to think admire someone who wanted to de- losophy, evolution, morality, etc. Over sion meeting for not standing for the I’m headed in a direction that, in cline a Nobel Prize? the course of five VERY difficult and Pledge of Allegiance. It generated a some small way, reduces suffering, in- A quotation I like: The one that mo- painful months, I shed one doctrine ton of local press and some nation- creases fairness, and makes the world tivates me is this: “Never be a spectator after another.
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