Fear of Faith

The Freedom from Religion Foundation

Background

Founded in 1976 by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter Annie Laurie Gaylor, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, with about 20,000 members and a dozen or so employees. An annual convention, meetings, and other events are funded by dues and gifts. FFRF's purpose, according to its website, is twofold: (1) "to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church"; and (2) "to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism."

Objective #1 is pursued through threats of litigation and, where those fail, actual litigation. Objective #2 takes the form of promoting nontheism. The FFRF holds outreach events such as debates and speeches. It publishes the tabloid Freethought Today, broadcasts a weekly radio show, and sells books and other miscellaneous paraphernalia such as bumper stickers, solstice cards, frame-ready "Debaptismal certificates," and "nontracts"—the nontheist's version of religious tracts. It also fosters and facilitates The Clergy Project, a confidential online community for nonbelieving clergy. The overarching thrust of FFRF outreach is manifested in its "Out of the Closet" online video campaign: "Declare and share your nonbelief!"

Reason for Surveillance

The two-pronged mission finds choleric expression on the "Join FFRF" membership page: "If you have had it up to here with faith-based initiatives, creationism and clerical prying into our private lives, FFRF is the organization for you. This scrappy group brings lawsuits against church-state entanglements and puts up witty billboards and bus signs promoting, well, freedom from religion. Reason's Greetings!"

"Business is flourishing," said the younger Gaylor in 2012, noting that the organization was involved in an unprecedented number of cases and had doubled the number of its staff attorneys in the past year. But what they're engaging in isn't business as much as "busybody-ness"—and an especially perfidious form of busybody-ness at that. FFRF attempts to wield the forces of government to suppress the expression of a particular viewpoint, or idea, about religion, while actively promoting the opposite viewpoint—its own. And it does this, absurdly, in the name of freedom.

Most Silly Offense Taken

While this poses a serious threat to a free society, it sometimes gets downright silly. When the Licking Valley High School marching band, of Newark, Ohio, performed its arrangement of Russian composer Pavel Tchesnokov's 1912 opus, "Salvation Is Created," at the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival in August, the band members all wore t-shirts with the word "Salvation" printed on them. Two months later, the superintendent of the Licking Valley School District received a two-page dispatch from Rebecca Markert, a staff attorney with the FFRF. "When a public school allows its marching band to display religious messages like 'Salvation' during performances, they unconstitutionally entangle the school with religion," the heavy-handed cease-and-desist letter stated.

Interestingly, Zoe Weaver, flutist and field commander for the band, said, "We never thought [the word 'salvation'] had religious connotation." But a little cadre of godless lawyers did.

Psychologists tell us that unresolved issues can cause people to project difficult emotions, such as guilt, anger, or fear, outward, making such people see threats where they don't exist. "Inner fear is projected outward, causing us to 'see' dangers in the world that we believe validate our fear," writes psychotherapist Peter Michaelson. "Fearful people unwittingly create the circumstances through which their fears become more real."

Ponder how deeply these "freethinking" nonbelievers will bore into Americans' lives in order to silence faint echoes of belief. Then try to figure out if the witch-hunting should be taken more as silly, sad, or alarming.