Overheard (December 2025)

[My Oscar] begrudgingly shares the fireplace mantel with an equally lustrous naked emperor statue.

Irving, author of “The Cider House Rules,” for which he earned an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, on how the statuette is above his fireplace next to his “Emperor Has No Clothes” award he received from FFRF in 2019. He was being interviewed to discuss his 16th novel, “Queen Esther.”

Toronto Star, 11-9-25

I think its genesis is in Christian nationalism. There are believers that are confusing true religion — and religious liberty, and faith in God — with political power. And this Christian nationalism is the movement that is giving oxygen to this attempt to eviscerate the Establishment Clause.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, speaking to Politico about the proposed public religious charter school (St. Isadore of Seville) that was eventually shot down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court (and then the U.S. Supreme Court).

Politico, 10-28-25

All people of all faiths or no faiths should be able to come into that space, feel welcome and not feel alienated. And I would argue that having a prayer that is very much geared toward the Christian faith, and having councilmembers actually citing the bible, having all the speech be about demons and hell and all of that, is not only not appropriate for a child’s celebration for school, it’s also not appropriate for a government building where you would presume that there might be citizens who do not share your same faith because we are in America. . . It’s not fine that thousands of people assumed we were in church when we were in a Town Hall meeting.

Tiana Torrilhon, a Fountain Hills, Ariz., resident who attended a City Council meeting after her son was invited to receive an award, only to be shocked by the political prayer that opened the meeting, such as Council member Hannah Larrabee’s impassioned denunciation after Charlie Kirk’s assassination of “God’s enemies” and Vice Mayor Allen Skillicorn’s remarks that Kirk was “not murdered for his politics, he was murdered for his faith in Jesus Christ.” Torrilhon posted a photo of the meeting that went viral on TikTok showing her son, who has autism, being poked by an audience member signaling him to stand up during the prayer.

Arizona Republic, 10-29-25

Right-wing claims of tens of thousands of deaths of Christians [in Nigeria] appear far off the mark. Rigorous reporting by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, an independent monitoring group, says that there have been 33 deaths so far this year in attacks against Christians in which religion was reported to play a role. The equivalent figure for Muslims is higher, 88 deaths. . . There’s something else that I find offensive about the Trump/Hegseth bombast about Nigeria: If you care about religious repression of only your sect, you don’t really care about religious repression. Persecution of Christians, Muslims, Baha’is, Ahmadis and others is a global scourge and deserves more attention, but some of the most urgent cases today involve Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Uyghur Muslims in China.

Nicholas Kristof, in his column, “Trump’s aid cuts kill more Christians than jihadists do.”

New York Times, 11-9-25

When the lyrics were coming together for that song, I just couldn’t stop thinking of the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson’s address to the Danbury Baptists. . . . What he said to the Baptists was intended to reassure them that they would be allowed to practice their faith, spirituality, religion, however you want to refer to it, freely under the Constitution. But he also makes a really important distinction that we aren’t an autocracy. We’re not a theocracy. We can’t rule over people with our interpretation of an extremely opaque scripture and religion, as it pertains particularly to the Christian religion.

Musician/singer Brandi Carlile, who spoke to Variety about writing her new song, “Church and State,” which she performed on “Saturday Night Live” on Nov. 1. For her actions, Carlile was named FFRF Action Fund “Secularist of the week” on Nov. 7.

Variety, 11-2-25

I believe that probably the Texas Legislature and the Louisiana Legislature are hoping that this conservative Supreme Court might reinterpret the Constitution, but until that happens, I feel obliged to comply with the Constitution as it’s currently interpreted, and that is that it’s unconstitutional. I took an oath as a trustee that I would defend the Constitution. All of us did.

Elizabeth Beeton, trustee of the Galveston Independent School District, who led the effort to delay the required display of Ten Commandments posters in Texas public schools. Beeton was named FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” on Oct. 31.

Houston Chronicle, 10-23-25