Freedom From Religion Foundation

When a spiffy, $621-million visitors center opened at the U.S. Capitol last year, a number of lawmakers were taken aback by what they didn't see: the words "In God We Trust." Doing what members of Congress do when they're upset, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the walls of the complex.

When a spiffy, $621-million visitors center opened at the U.S. Capitol last year, a number of lawmakers were taken aback by what they didn't see: the words "In God We Trust." Doing what members of Congress do when they're upset, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the walls of the complex.

Bill Ritter Jr. was not the first governor of Colorado to declare the first Thursday in May as a day of prayer. But he was the first to attend a celebration of the National Day of Prayer at the state Capitol, joining a crowd of several hundred Christians in 2007. His appearance at the event caught the attention of a Wisconsin-based atheist group, which has mounted a campaign its leaders hope will dissuade him and other governors from participating again.

Bill Ritter Jr. was not the first governor of Colorado to declare the first Thursday in May as a day of prayer. But he was the first to attend a celebration of the National Day of Prayer at the state Capitol, joining a crowd of several hundred Christians in 2007. His appearance at the event caught the attention of a Wisconsin-based atheist group, which has mounted a campaign its leaders hope will dissuade him and other governors from participating again.

The tradition probably began sometime in 1908, when a group of traveling Christian salesmen left the first Bibles in a Midwestern hotel as solace for other road-weary journeyers. Today, stocked in an estimated 95% of the nation's 2.5 million hotel and motel rooms, the Bible has become as much a fixture as color TV and miniature soap. But leaders of a national atheist organization based in Madison, Wis., say the Good Book is one amenity they can do without.

Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses. The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy -- both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist. The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments -- which substitute or supplement medical treatments -- on the same footing as clinical medicine.

A national atheist organization has asked the Boy Scouts of America to strike its requirement that Scouts believe in God after the expulsion of a scout who said he does not believe in a supreme being. "We believe this recent discriminatory action of the Boy Scouts of America is both legally and morally indefensible," Anne Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said in Madison, Wis. Paul Trout, 15, of Shepherdstown, W.Va.

The use of tax funds to help pay for a halfway house run by a religious organization is constitutional, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Wisconsin program that allowed Faith Works Milwaukee to receive government funds to run one of several halfway houses available to parole violators. The court compared allowing Faith Works to be part of the program with the use of vouchers for private school education.

In a sunny park overlooking the beach in Santa Monica, where a cool breeze blows in from the Pacific, the so-called war over Christmas has found its latest battlefield. Over almost six decades, a collection of Santa Monica's Christian churches have re-created the sprawling, life-sized Nativity scenes of Jesus Christ's birth. But this year, there's no room in the park. PHOTOS: Battle over Christmas displays Atheist groups objected to churches' use of the public Palisades Park to espouse a religious message and applied to the city of Santa Monica for their own spaces.

The very name provokes: the Freedom From Religion Foundation. If that's not in-your-face enough, try its publications, perhaps the Atheist Cookbook with recipes like "Chicken Salad With No Religious Nuts," or the CD "Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist," featuring gospel tunes with Bible-mocking lyrics. Or how about the bumper sticker proclaiming: "Nothing Fails Like Prayer." If it sounds outrageous, that is precisely the point.

The tradition probably began sometime in 1908, when a group of traveling Christian salesmen left the first Bibles in a Midwestern hotel as solace for other road-weary journeyers. Today, stocked in an estimated 95% of the nation's 2.5 million hotel and motel rooms, the Bible has become as much a fixture as color TV and miniature soap. But leaders of a national atheist organization based in Madison, Wis., say the Good Book is one amenity they can do without.

In a closely watched church-state separation case, a Bush administration lawyer urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to shield the president's "faith-based initiative" from legal challenges in court. U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said taxpayers who believe the White House is unconstitutionally promoting religion should not be accorded legal standing to sue in court.

Re "The Supreme Court narrowly protects Bush's 'faith-based initiative,' " June 26 This article barely touches on work the churches are doing in communities whose tax bases are too small, or overwhelmed by high demand, to support all the social services needed in those areas. These funds aren't going to religions, they are going to help substance abusers, the homeless and children. The churches just happen to be doing the heavy lifting.