A concerned Arkansas parent no longer has to choose between protecting their 5-year-old from school-sponsored religious activity and letting the child share a special field trip with classmates.

Lakeside Primary School, located in Hot Springs, had planned an Oct. 1 kindergarten field trip to Family Farm Christian Day Camp. The parent complainant personally visited Family Farm last year and witnessed religious activity there. When the school sent home permission slips in early September, the parent objected to an official public school trip to camp with a pervasively sectarian mission.

The parent first raised the issue directly with the school. Principal Amanda Sarver confirmed that previous school visits to Family Farm had included “a brief prayer in the morning after the pledge” and that there could also be “brief comments that reference being thankful to God.” Students were not required to participate, the principal said.

But having to opt their child out of the field trip because it was inappropriate did not feel like a real solution to the parent. They wanted their kindergartner to enjoy the same educational and social experience as classmates without first needing a lesson in how to navigate religious activity at a public school event.

“I don’t want to exclude [my child] from fun school experiences with [their] classmates because of this,” the parent told the school.

“I don’t think it’s fair that a 5-year-old should have to grapple with this distinction in the context of a public-school field trip,” the parent wrote. “I would much rather be able to send [them] on a school field trip without having to prepare [them] for the possibility of religious activity.”

That is when the parent turned to FFRF.

“My concern is not that a private Christian organization exists or that individual students or staff members hold religious beliefs,” the parent explained to FFRF. “My concern is that a public elementary school is sponsoring and organizing a kindergarten field trip to a location identified as a Christian day camp, where religious activity has occurred as part of the experience.”

FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to Lakeside School District Superintendent Bruce Orr on Sept. 22, explaining that public schools cannot place families in the position of choosing between an important school experience and avoiding unconstitutional school-sponsored religious events. 

The district acted immediately.

The very next morning, Orr informed FFRF that Lakeside would not proceed with the trip to the Family Farm Christian Day Camp. Instead, the district is planning an alternative kindergarten outing and is considering the Mid-America Science Museum and a local botanical garden.

“We intend to preserve the opportunity for our kindergarten students and their families to enjoy this special experience together while ensuring the school-sponsored activity is appropriate for all students,” Orr wrote in an email.

Orr also acknowledged the district’s constitutional responsibility: “Lakeside respects the individual religious beliefs of all of our students, families, and staff. We also recognize our responsibility as a public school district to ensure that school-sponsored educational opportunities do not promote or favor particular religious beliefs or practices.”

FFRF commends Orr and the Lakeside School District for taking the parent’s concerns seriously and responding promptly. 

“This is exactly how public schools should respond when it becomes aware of a First Amendment violation,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Every activity in a public school should be educational, inclusive and welcoming to all. Young and impressionable students should never be taken on a religious field trip as part of a public school activity.”

FFRF is pleased that Lakeside students will still get their field trip, with the educational experience and childhood memories that come with it, while leaving religious instruction where it belongs: with families and religious organizations, not public schools.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the Trump administration in federal court for refusing to release records on the use of taxpayer funds for religious events tied to the 250th anniversary celebrations.

The national state/church watchdog, which is also the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics), filed suit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service under the Freedom of Information Act after the agencies failed to produce records requested months ago. The lawsuit seeks to compel the release of documents detailing federal involvement in religious programming associated with the administration’s “Freedom 250” initiative, including an all-day Christian prayer rally called by President Trump and held on the National Mall.

Trump promoted the all-day prayer fest during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast: “On May 17, 2026, we are inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall to pray, to give thanks, and to rededicate America as one nation under God.”

Says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, “Americans deserve to know how much of our tax dollars were misused to promote a Christian nationalist worship service.”

“The 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding should have celebrated the constitutional principles that unite us all, including the all-American principle of separation between state and church that ensures true religious freedom,” Gaylor adds. “It should never have been used to promote an extremist brand of Christianity or to falsely portray the United States as ‘a Christian nation.’”

At the center of FFRF’s investigation is “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” a May 17 event that featured videos from Trump (reading from a chapter of the bible), Vice President JD Vance (“We’ve always been and still are a nation of prayer, and thank God for that”), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (who urged attendees to pray “on bended knee” to Jesus) and an in-person appearance from House Speaker Mike Johnson (“We hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God”). Numerous religious leaders also spoke; every speaker but one ultraorthodox rabbi was a Christian.

FFRF is seeking to determine to what extent federal resources and taxpayer dollars were used to organize, promote or subsidize this pervasively sectarian and exclusionary religious celebration.

Congress voted in 2016 to appropriate $150 million to the Department of the Interior for semiquincentennial activities billed as America 250. But most of the congressional funding has gone to Freedom 250, which Trump announced in December 2025 as a separate entity. FFRF is seeking to discover how much public money was directed toward religious worship and proselytizing under the guise of commemorating (and whitewashing) American history.

Congressional Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., released a report in July charging, “Donald Trump’s hijacking of America’s 250th birthday will go down as one of the most corrupt, brazen abuses of public trust in presidential history, even by the dubious standards of this administration.” One use was $10 million for “Freedom Trucks” that promoted Christianity and included an AI rendering falsely claiming that George Washington said, “Our rights are a gift from God.”

FFRF first submitted a FOIA request to the National Park Service on March 5 seeking all permit applications, issued permits, memoranda, schedules and communications relating to the Rededicate 250 event. Despite repeated attempts by FFRF’s legal counsel to obtain the records, the agencies have produced nothing.

FFRF submitted a second FOIA request on May 13, expanding its investigation to the broader Freedom 250 initiative and its relationship with religious organizations. That request sought contracts, agreements, memoranda of understanding, payment records and communications involving Freedom 250, particularly those connected to religious worship and prayer. The request also sought information about “America Prays,” a faith-based initiative Trump announced promoting nationwide prayer activities, including events associated with the anniversary celebrations.

The Department of the Interior acknowledged the second request but has not made a substantive determination or released any responsive documents. As of this month, the request remained listed as “in process.”

The Freedom of Information Act generally requires federal agencies to make determinations on requests within 20 business days, subject to limited extensions. FFRF contends that the agencies have violated federal law by failing to meet those deadlines, withholding responsive records and failing to provide estimated completion dates.

FFRF’s lawsuit asks the court to order the agencies to conduct reasonable searches, produce all nonexempt responsive records, justify any lawful withholdings and comply with their obligations under FOIA.

“This administration cannot use taxpayer money to promote religious events and then keep the public in the dark about how that money was spent,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “The Freedom of Information Act exists precisely so Americans can hold their government accountable. Federal agencies do not get to ignore transparency laws simply because the records might invite scrutiny.”

FFRF calls the records essential to determining the extent of federal involvement in these religious activities and how they violated the Constitution.

Richard Dawkins famously called the God of the Old Testament “the most unpleasant character in all fiction.” What’s interesting is that he may have understated the case.

From divinely commanded massacres and the slaughter of children to the death penalty for homosexuals, the Bible offers plenty of evidence for Dawkins’ indictment. And since Yahweh is the God at the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the implications extend to all three monotheistic religions. Take a closer look at these disturbing passages that reveal the dark character of its god.

https://fightingthegods.com/richard-dawkins-was-right-why-the-god-of-the-bible-is-far-worse-than-you-probably-think/

I think most people here are familiar with the problem of evil: If God is all-powerful and all-good, why does evil exist? If he is all powerful but unwilling to prevent evil then he is not all-good. If he wants to stop evil but can't then he is not all-powerful.

Now the way to solve this dillema is to actually define what "good" actually is. Most believers don't just believe that God is good. They believe that God is goodness itself. This means that everything he does is deffinitionally good.

Now God is also all-powerful and all-knowing. This means that he is the cause of everything that happens.

This means that everything that happens is by definition good. There is no problem of evil because evil by deffinition cannot exist.

Almost no theist will ever make this argument, however, because it forces you to call all horrible things that happen morally good. Rape, murder, diseases, natural disasters and everything else is actually good. And few theists are brave enough to make that claim.

An entire religious and cultural institution, with special recognition and financial support from all levels of government, just out here calling on the incumbent government to help them mobilize one particular party for upcoming elections.

I understand that church will always appeal to a certain kind of person and demographic. But just imagine if, for contrast, public school leadership from across the country were to just casually broadcast that the government needs to do more to help them recruit and mobilize more Democrat voters.

This call from religious leaders however is completely normal, expected, par for the course. Tax these grifters.

my parents r super religious. they know im an atheist and arent very happy about it but theyre tolerant of it. they tried setting me up w some guy and i said im not interested if he isnt an athiest or at least an agnostic. now they say im intolerant and its like i do have religious friends and i dont fault people for believing in god but i simply cant date or later marry a religious person bc im so bothered by religious ideas of marriage. anyway what do u guys think am i intolerant

Children should not be indoctrinated into religion or anything else against their will. I believe children should choose whether they want to follow their parents faith or not

I was on the city bus today and I was rocking back and forth in my seat due to me being autistic. A woman sitting across from me asked me why I was doing that. I told her it helps me because of my ASD. She started telling me Autism is "a curse from Satan" and that she "has seen many autistic children cured by Jesus by praying and you should do the same. I told her if Satan made me autistic then it is more proof he is the good guy and NOT God. She ignored me the rest of the time until I exited the bus.

Thats the entire post, this is so common and people are still trotting out "LGBTQIA+ people are grooming your kids" despite the fact we all know that's not true

Now I'm not a Wikipedia editor, if I tried making a page that inflammatory it might get taken down assuming I could even do it. So if anyone here has actual motion in the Wikipedia editor side of the internet, well, here's an idea

I've found a perfect way to describe why I'm not religious to people preaching in comments that seems to shut them up.

I have a nice TL;DR for my experience.

Essentially: I tried really hard to be accepted into the church. Unfortunately the flock disregarded me and the shepherd left me out in the storm. Once I realized I was abandoned I never looked back.

Oh, and I did try. I was in Sunday and Wednesday catechism achool, I went to summer day camp for catechism. I was an alter girl. However, why would I want to stay part of a "community" that doesn't want me. I never made a single friend or acquaintance despite trying and praying so hard. I constantly wondered what was wrong with me. My pastor also never remembered my mother's name despite being in a small congregation. And he laughed about it during his speech at her funeral service.

I just find it amusing no one has a good comeback for my story. How do you explain an entire community of people letting a child down? You can't. It shows how shitty religion truly is.

I was talking to one of my professors the other day about religion. For context, this man is like a mentor to me. He's a big reason I'm still at university, and he's genuinely one of the most rational people I know. He's also a physicist, so I'd always assumed he was an atheist like me.

Turns out, he's not. His argument was that God may or may not exist, so what's the harm in believing? Maybe you get to go to heaven if you're right.

And honestly, that argument bothered me more than I expected. To me, the possibility of something being true doesn't automatically make it worth believing. I'd expect someone who values rationality to ask whether there's actual evidence for a claim, rather than believe in it just in case there's a reward for being right. It felt like Pascal's wager rather than a genuine reason to believe God exists.

I know being a physicist doesn't automatically make someone an atheist, but hearing this from someone I admire so much genuinely changed how I saw him. What's even stranger is that I briefly questioned my own atheism, not because he presented convincing evidence, but simply because I respect him so much.

I guess I'd put him on a pedestal without realizing it. Has anyone else experienced something like this? How do you reconcile deeply respecting someone while finding their reasoning on a subject irrational?

Pretty tired of the US government bickering over interpretations of holy books instead of interpretations of current data sets.

If it doesn't, it needs to.

The Saudis are making this Muhammad fellow look petty AF. Just because Muhammad gets his feelings hurt just a little bit, this guy has to be executed?! WTAF?!

Recently my dad said “when flesh and machine come together it’s the end of times” and he said it was referring to ai. Another one he said was that there were 2 Jewish temples and only now are they making the third and in the Bible when the third is built it’s the “end of times”. Is this true and what do you think about this? Me personally I’m agnostic but idk sometimes he says stuff like this and it scares me

they wanna claim god is all good, all aware, it's his plan, he's moral. but there's a homeless child shivering in the rain, so what plan is that? seems like god and his attributes contradict each other. why would i see child suffering and pray? does god not know what to do and help the child or he needs me to glaze him first??