(RNS) — Atheist and humanist groups are suing Mississippi over the state’s “In God We Trust” license plate, calling it unconstitutional and seeking alternatives that don’t require additional fees for Mississippi drivers.

In a federal complaint filed Tuesday (June 22) in Mississippi U.S. district court, American Atheists, the Mississippi Humanist Association and three nonreligious Mississippi residents claim the state’s license plate violates nonreligious people’s freedom of speech by forcing them to display the religious message on their vehicles.

“The phrase ‘IN...

D. Anthony Alvarez ’21, a member of the Harvard Latter-day Saints Student Association, has attended religious services at the same congregation off campus since he arrived at Harvard as a freshman.

This semester, Alvarez said he still attends services at that same congregation. Amid Covid-19, though, he must sign up to attend ahead of time, don a mask, and eschew singing, which can spread infectious particles.

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Darrin Johnson would like nothing better than to rid the Black community of organized religion.

 The way Johnson sees it, Black people “don’t need outside beliefs or higher powers.”

“We have power,” Johnson said. “We are powerful entities. We just need to use that power.”

As an organizer with his local Black Lives Matter chapter, Johnson, an atheist, has sometimes felt a bit uneasy meeting in churches and working alongside pastors, who, like him, are calling for Black liberation.

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, has joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

Launched in 2018, the caucus seeks to promote secular government, separation of church and state, freedom of conscience and policy “based on reason, science, and moral values,” and to oppose discrimination against nonreligious people, or the so-called nones.

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