FFRF runs ‘quit the church’ ad in New York Times

FFRF ran a full-page ad in The New York Times the final week of August urging people to leave the church, in response to the newest revelations over sexual crimes against children in the Catholic Church.

The ad, headlined “It’s time to consider quitting the Catholic Church,” quotes the Pennsylvania grand jury report into sex abuse of minors by Catholic officials.

Reads the ad: “Six dioceses, three hundred predatory priests, a staggering 1,000-plus victims. No bishops indicted. The pope’s response? All words, no action — except, insultingly, to call on the faithful to ‘pray and fast.’

“As an early church whistleblower put it, the Catholic Church appears to be an ‘organization preaching morality while providing sanctuary to perverts,’ a church where shepherds routinely prey on their flock.

“Three decades of preying priests, church complicity, collusion and cover-up going all the way to the top. Anyone who continues to support this morally bankrupt global syndicate is complicit. This institutional betrayal of trust epitomizes the dangers of blind faith and obedience to religious authority.

“Help FFRF in our work to liberate minds and place humanity above dogma.”

FFRF famously first ran ads suggesting that Catholics quit the Catholic Church in 2012, at the time U.S. bishops were targeting women’s reproductive rights by working against Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate.

In Oregon, FFRF and its Portland chapter placed a full-page advertisement in the Sept. 16 Sunday edition of the Portland Oregonian, celebrating “Our godless Constitution” and Constitution Day.

Sept. 17 was the 231st anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

The ad, featuring six U.S. Founders, proclaims, “In Reason We Trust.”

Cheryl Kolbe, director of FFRF Portland Area, notes that on July 4, Hobby Lobby ran a full-page ad in the Oregonian. “Misleading sources and distortions were used to attempt to falsely imply that we are a Christian nation,” Kolbe says. “Our Portland chapter, with FFRF, is very pleased to record set straight.”