I saw a tv ad for this organization ( the one where Ron Reagan “is not afraid to burn in hell”) during the State of the Union address. Pretty good strategy to catch folks when they’re all fired up. It worked on me, anyway.
For those of you familiar with it, what do you think? Is it legit? Do they accomplish anything? Here’s a link to their website for those who’ve not heard of it. If you’d rather not click the link, they’re an organization concerned with separation of church and state.
So far I’ve received two of their newsletters, which obviously come with solicitation for donation, but other than that I don’t get frequent emails or anything. It’s definitely a cause that I’m passionate about but these days I’m leery of just about every “association”.
Just look on Google News to see a lot of mentions of their legal activism. They have been heavily involved in seperation of church and state things for a long time.
I’ve looked some, and their newsletter is mostly about strides they have made and plans for the future (thus the need for donations). I guess I’m looking for anyone’s personal experience. It seems like something that would be right up a lot of Dopers’ alley but I don’t recall anyone talking about it here.
Well dayum. I didn’t see anything relevant but I was looking under the full name. Thanks for pointing it out. I honestly don’t know how I missed all the references.
They’re highly regarded in the Atheist community. I have friends who donate every year (religiously!) come hell or high water. If I had extra bucks, I’d send them over. I’m delighted to hear they’re putting up effective TV advertising.
Just looked to see if Dan Barker was still head of the ffrf (he is). He’s had a few mentions here, too. (Only one by me.) His book Losing Faith in Faith is one of the foundational books from the early days of “New Atheism”. (I was already an atheist when I read it in the early 1990s, but it has put a wedge in the faith of a lot of Christians, from their own mention after becoming former Christians.)
I am or was a member. I got a membership. It got me access to some products including a mildly amusing comic book I bought. But I didn’t find much about being a member that I valued. Offhand I don’t remember how long membership lasts or whether I let them automatically renew, thus the “am or was”.
What I value is the work they do. For me, simply donating, or paying for membership, feel equivalent.
BTW I really like Ron Reagan, and I too am not afraid of burning in hell.
I am a member. Years ago my kid’s public school had an event where they handed out bibles. After a sternly worded letter from FFRF that behavior stopped. They do important work.
I joined back in the late 1990’s after learning about them from the FreedomFoundation.org, a site that was very concerned about a lot of First Ammendment issues. At the time I was putting together an Encyclopedia of Media & Communications and freedom-of-the-press was a major chunk of the project.# Freedom-of-religion is also part of that primary protection, of course.
I used to get their newsletters and visit their website, but haven’t been there for quite a while. They and the ACLU are often on the same side of issues, but don’t always see eye-to-eye.
–G! #It’s still rather surprising how much we in the USA take that for granted and still find it jeopardized; it’s even more appalling how many other nations do not have equivalent protections for news reporters, et al.
Been a member about four years. They don’t care about people having religion, they just try to keep people from pushing their religion on others in things such as government settings.
The police department in my little Red-State town of about 600 Ozark Mountain people, as recently as about seven years ago, had bumper stickers on the cars that had a Bible verse on them. "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14), with the caption, “WAKE UP AMERICA.” I sent an email, with photos, to the FFRF. A few days/weeks later I get an email from them, with a screenshot of the email they sent to the town Chief of Police, basically lecturing them for favoring Christianity, ignoring the non-Christians in the town, turning a blind eye to the First Amendment, yada yada yada. The letter threatned legal action. Not long after, the bumper stickers were gone.
Fast forward a few years. Red-State Mountain Town now has a new police chief for unrelated reasons. On the town police department Facebook page are whole sermons – sermons!!! – copied from some preacher in Tallahassee about the importance of Good Red-Blooded Americans submitting to authority without question, treating police with the utmost of respect at all times. It quoted Romans. Again, I took a screenshot and sent an email to the FFRF. A few weeks later, they send me correspondence. This time, instead of just taking their castigation, the police chief fought back, saying that it was his personal FB page and he had the right, per the First Amendment, to post whatever the hell he wanted. The FFRF lawyer then pointed out that the words “Viburnum MO Police Department” are right there on the FB page. Long story short, the sermons stopped after a few weeks.