Atheist group accused of bullying American public schools

Chiqui Guyjoco Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group, is accused of bullying American public schools as the group warns that student field trips to a creationist museum is in violation of the separation of church and state.

Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky | Creative Commons/Jelson25

According to Christian Today, the group has emailed letters to Brookville High School in Dayton, Ohio; Jackson Independent School District in Jackson, Kentucky; and the Big Beaver Falls School District in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania threatening legal actions for the supposed unconstitutional students' trips to Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.

"Public schools may not advance or promote religion," reads a letter from FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler to Nicholas Subashi, legal counsel for the Brookville Local Schools, as reported by the Christian News Network. "Bringing students on a field trip to a religious venue is a blatant promotion of religion," it adds.

The group also asks the school districts to cancel their upcoming trips to the Creation Museum and to refrain from scheduling and planning any such trips in the future.

On the other hand, Ham explains that the group is only bullying public schools because FFRF doesn't want students to learn about other interpretations of evolution other than the scientific theory. He reasons that the educational trip to the creation museum will only be a violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution if the teachers were to teach their students that what they see in the creation museum is the only truth.

"Public school officials should neither personally endorse nor diminish the museum's view, but rather present our beliefs objectively," Ham told Christian Today.

According to its website, FFRF is a nonprofit educational charity and claims to be the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep the religion and government separate. The group has 23,700 members across the country and is based in Madison, Wisconsin.