Maine Chapter – Freedom From Religion Foundation

“The clergy know that I know that they know that they do not know.”

Robert G. Ingersoll

Maine Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation         An Organization of Maine Atheists Freethinkers and Humanists

The Maine Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation is a welcoming group of skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, humanists, liberals, and other infidels who actively support the separation of religion and government. We testify on bills that affect human rights, write the monthly column “In Reason We Trust,” published in the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, and bring nationally known speakers to Maine.

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Meetings and Current Events

We have had a table at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity for about five years. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, many new people joined the chapter at the fair, and donations increased as well. It’s as though the Supreme Court gave us a gift but at the expense of denying women their constitutional right to choose. Well over 60% of Americans were outraged at the court’s edict and the increase in chapter membership and donations reflect that outrage.

You are invited to talk with friendly, supportive people concerned about the social and political turmoil the country is in. Those who do not support the separation of church and state tend not to stop at our table.

The fair offers something for everyone from activities centered around sustainable living, entertainment, and keynote speakers to activities for children. The fair is always held the third weekend in September. We offer volunteers a complementary full-day pass to the entire fair (a $20 value). We ask volunteers for a three-hour shift; 9 to 12, 12 to 3, or 3 to 6. The rest of the day is yours to explore and enjoy all the fair has to offer.

Email Tom at vice.president.tw@ffrfmaine.org or call/text me at 207-344-7852 to let me know which shift works for you.

We invite you to attend a monthly meeting at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick in person or via Hybrid Zoom. We have a speaker from leading secular organizations for two months and a member meeting the third month. Come talk with old friends you never met, and learn how you can help America return to being one nation, out from under god.

Politics and Religion Blog

 

Funding Christian Schools Advances Christian Nationalism

The Supreme Court’s decision in Carson vs Makin all but forces Maine to pay for Christian education. However, requiring Maine to fund religious education violates Maine’s Department of Education policy. Maine’s AG Aaron Frey outlined the state’s DOE policy: “Instruction that inculcates, instills, imbues a religious view through its materials,...

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Christian nationalist Mike Johnson becomes new House speaker

The U.S. Constitution established a federal government with three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The powers of these three branches are vested in the President, Congress, and the federal courts. Congress consists of the House and Senate, the federal courts consist of the Supreme Court, 13 circuit courts, and 94...

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Religious agendas cause transgender problems

Transgender and cisgender people (a person whose gender identity matches the sex given at birth) are the gender they identify as. Gender identity and sex are not the same. Sex is what you are given at birth based on your chromosomes and genitals. Gender identity is how you feel inside....

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Abortion essential to women’s reproductive healthcare.

Abortion is essential to women’s reproductive healthcare. Some conditions that make abortion necessary include the criminal or medical ills of rape, incest, intimate partner violence, illness or illegal drug use during pregnancy that affects the fetus, and life-threatening fetal abnormalities. Where abortion is illegal, women often resort to unsafe means...

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Racism in America Pt 2

Last month, I wrote that the source of racism in America is systemic, not individual. Since the topic spans over 400 years, one column, or even two, couldn’t adequately cover how our national laws legalized racism. So, this second column on racism in America will attempt to scratch the surface...

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Racism in America

Critical Race Theory (CRT) encourages accurate teaching of our nation’s history. If we don’t teach our children accurate history, young people will never learn from our nation’s failures or appreciate its successes. Unfortunately, some people only want to teach children a whitewashed version of history that portrays America as the...

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What Are The Christian Nationalists?

The Carson vs. Makin decision forces Maine to fund private Christian schools if it funds private secular schools. However, funding Christian schools is not the Christian nationalist’s ultimate goal; establishing America as a Christian Nation through a Constitutional amendment is. Christian nationalists are not your average mainstream Christian. They see...

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Conservative Christians Can Expect More Businesses to Refuse Service

Caren White questioned whether a restaurant in Virginia should have canceled a reservation for donors to a conservative Christian group that actively campaigns against LGBTQ rights and abortion access. The restaurant explained that many of its staff are LGBTQ and women. They were uncomfortable serving conservative Christians who donate money “to...

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Testimonials

Conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives. Now they’re championing their LGBTQ+ children.

I enjoyed your column and appreciate your explanation of how development affects gender and gender identity. Our Episcopal church welcomes LGBTQ people. Anyone seeking a relationship with God is welcome to explore their beliefs in an atmosphere that encourages everyone to find their own truth.

Episcopalians do not believe in ‘absolutism and no one will tell you, “Well, you cannot be an Episcopalian if you don’t believe that.” Much harm has been done to people in the name of religion, just look at the religious right today.

I’m happy to learn about the Mama Bears who support Christian families with LGBTQ children. (https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/mama-bears/) 

I think your article is the best article you’ve written to date! It sounds like you recognize some Christians are working for the good of all, especially our LGBTQ children.

Sincerely, Diane P

I always like your columns, and yesterday’s was no exception. It is dreadful how insidiously pseudo-Christianity has inserted itself into every system that gives it power and control and how easily it dupes those it controls. I say pseudo because it has nothing to do with its purported origin, of course. Thank you for your articles, which are always intelligent and well-researched, supported with facts. You care and somehow have escaped becoming cynical.  I appreciate that what you write always embodies truth, equity, and justice and exposes hypocrisy, racism, misogyny, and other evil raising their ugly heads even higher.

Thank you! Kathleen B

Religious Freedom Deniers

Reply to Christian Hatred Letter

Hi Tylar, Thank you for your reply. We don’t get many negative replies because most Christians don’t support Christian nationalism. However, negative replies allow me to raise awareness of our organization and what we stand for. The Maine Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation supports everyone’s freedom of religion....

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Article Rooted in Christian Hatred?

Your article in the Kennebec Journal about not funding Christian schools (https://www.centralmaine.com/2023/12/19/tom-waddell-2/) seems rooted in deep hate toward those who are religious. Hypocritically, you state how Christians force their belief (on others) through receiving funding for education. You seem to forget that students are not forced to go to these...

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Rebuttal to Fake Abortion Clinics column

by Denney Arbour (https://www.centralmaine.com/2023/04/08/maine-compass-maines-pregnancy-centers-the-rest-of-the-story/) In March 2023, the Kennebec Journal chose to publish an opinion column headlined “Tom Waddell: Maine’s crisis pregnancy centers only serve to deceive” that was meant to deceive its readership, taint the great work and reputation of Maine Pregnancy Centers (MPCs), and spread ill will toward...

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Christian Nationalists News

Christian Nationalist in Congress

January 28, 2021 FFRF: Shame on Christian Nationalist disruptors inside Congress   The Christian Nationalists, neo-Nazis, racists, and anti-government militia who attacked the U.S. Capitol and our democracy on Jan. 6 have been roundly denounced. But the Freedom From Religion Foundation believes it is also important to call to account...

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Christian lawmaker cites Bible to defend hitting special needs students

Republicans in Oklahoma had the chance to ban corporal punishment against students with disabilities but failed to pass the bill today, partly because one legislator said beating kids with special needs was biblical. Oklahoma currently permits corporal punishment in public schools. That’s a problem in and of itself, but the...

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Freethinking Videos

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial is an award-winning NOVA documentary on the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which concentrated on the question of whether or not intelligent design could be viewed as science and taught in school science class. It aired on PBS in November 2007 and features interviews with the judge, witnesses, and lawyers as well as re-enacted scenes (no cameras were allowed in court).

The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning documentary that tells the compelling personal story of the late Vashti McCollum, and how her efforts to protect her ten-year-old son led to one of the most important and landmark First Amendment cases in U.S. Supreme Court history – the case that established the separation of church and state in public schools.

When an Amish man loses faith and becomes an Atheist, his world crumbles, and he must rebuild it from scratch.

Kenneth Copp’s life has been defined – and twice upended – by his commitment to seeking the truth. Born into the Pentecostal faith in Virginia, at 17, Copp became an Amish convert, favoring its ‘quiet but dedicated Christianity’ to some of the more ‘wild and ecstatic’ tenets of his parent’s denomination. After trading his pickup truck for a team of horses, he was baptized and later married into the community. Decades later, his world again irrevocably changed when, while reading the Bible with a critical eye, he discovered what he viewed as manifold contradictions and ethical problems. His faith unraveled. Excommunication from his community – including a heartbreaking split from his wife and 10 children – followed shortly after.

“You can’t just say there’s a god because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children.

You have to account for the fact that almost all animals in the wild live under stress, with not enough to eat and will die violent and bloody deaths.

There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a god and ignore the true fact of what nature is.

The wonder of nature must be taken in its totality.”

Stephen Fry

Chapter and National Membership

We invite you to support your values on the local level by becoming a chapter member

or renewing your membership at:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=UW99YC53A9AMG

To help support the national effort to combat Christian nationalists, become a national FFRF member at:

https://secure.ffrf.org/np/clients/ffrf/membershipJoin.jsp?forwardedFromSecureDomain=1

Support Your Maine Chapter

Many have asked how they can support their values without becoming an activist. Here are some ways to support the chapter anonymously with little or no cost.

Return deposit bottles – Returning your deposit bottles and cans to Hannaford’s through Clynk really helps. Send me your name and snail mail address, and I will send you five barcode stickers on the bottle return bag. A box of ten Clynk bags can be purchased at Hannaford’s for $2.50. Put the barcode label on the bag, fill the bag (less than 20 pounds) with returnable bottles and cans, and drop the bag off at Hannaford’s (be sure to scan the barcode label) and you are done.

Comment anonymously on the chapter’s monthly column – I email the column, published in the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, to all chapter members so you will know when the column is about to be published. To read the column, go to CentralMaine.com, click on Opinion, and then on Op-Ed Columnists. You must be a Kennebec Journal or Morning Sentinel subscriber to write a comment. If you don’t already have a comment profile, click on – create a commenting profile at the end of the column. You will be asked for your name and email, but you can make an anonymous posting name. Once done, you can comment on the chapter column and other articles of interest. This is a great way to support the chapter and other issues you care about.

Write a letter to the editor – Anyone can write a 300-word letter that supports your values and the Maine chapter. Letting people know chapter members have the same concerns as everyone else will help readers realize not believing in the supernatural is just as much American as Mom and Apple pie. Send your letter to letters@centralmaine.com.

Write a Maine Compass column – Anyone can write a 750-word Maine Compass column. It is similar to a letter to the editor but gives you 750 words instead of the 300-word limit for a letter. Please send your letter to letters@centralmaine.com and mark it as an article for the Maine Compass.

Dues and Donations – The chapter dues are $25 annually and run a calendar year. In September we offer an extended membership that runs through the end of the following year. To contribute, visit https://ffrfmaine.org/home/about-membership/ and click the Support Your Chapter PayPal link. We also have Venmo and PayPal QR codes.  Please indicate if your funds are for membership dues or a donation.

For more information about the Maine Chapter, contact our president, Ray Vensel (president.rv@ffrfmaine.org / 207-370-8813), or our vice president, Tom Waddell (vice.president.tw@ffrfmaine.org / 207-558-1864

The PayPal link and QR code is for dues and donations. Credit cards accepted without a PayPal account.

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