The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its Sacramento chapter are back at the California Capitol to counter religious displays at that legislative shrine.

The Greater Sacramento Chapter of FFRF has put up the whimsical "nativity" cutout depicting three Founding Fathers (and the Statue of Liberty) gazing in adoration at a "baby" Bill of Rights. A sign reads: "At this Season of the Winter Solstice, join us in honoring the Bill of Rights, adopted on December 15, 1791, which reminds us there can be no religious freedom without the freedom to dissent." It ends: "Keep religion and government separate!"

FFRF has installed the display as a direct response to a Christian nativity that went up again this year, placed there by the religion-promoting Thomas More Society.

FFRF was spurred into action due to this religious intrusion into the epicenter of lawmaking of the most populous and significant state in the country. The display representing the freethought perspective went up on Dec. 17 and will be up through Dec. 27.

"It is not cool to have such religious pageantry in the heart of state government," says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "If blatantly devotional exhibitionism is allowed in, there must be 'room at the inn' for our irreverence and freethought."

FFRF thanks its local chapter, the Greater Sacramento Chapter of FFRF, for helping bring a secular viewpoint before the residents of the Golden State.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 31,000 members and several chapters across the country, including over 3,900 members in California and a chapter in Sacramento. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.