Friend:

“This feels different, like the start of something big.” I heard variations on that sentiment a lot as Americans United wound down the inaugural Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF) last weekend. We designed SRF as the hub for our collective fight to protect religious freedom, church-state separation, and the issues that depend on them. Our guiding principle for this first SRF was “small but exceptional.”

I’m proud to say that, thanks to the work of AU’s staff, the excellence of our SRF speakers and presenters, and the engagement of the hundreds of advocates who joined us in Washington, D.C., and online, we shattered our expectations! (If you weren’t able to attend, or you want to experience it again, check out this video of SRF highlights.)

There were so many standout moments from SRF that will live with me for the rest of my life. Here are just a few: 

• Kicking off SRF from the main stage Saturday morning, leading the diverse crowd in a call-and-response chant of “One Nation, All Beliefs” as we launched our campaign to spur a national recommitment to keep church and state separate. If you haven’t already, sign the pledge today!
• My deep and heartfelt conversations about church-state separation, religious freedom and democracy with actors Bradley Whitford and Amy Landecker, who joined us on Capitol Hill for SRF’s Lobby Day to urge U.S. Senators to support the Do No Harm Act. Bradley and Amy are passionate advocates for church-state separation, and I’m so grateful that they’re adding their voice to our cause – including signing our pledge!
• Our brilliant keynote speakers – author, professor and podcaster Bradley Onishi, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Kierra Johnson, and author and investigative journalist Katherine Stewart – as well as many other experts who joined us to speak powerfully about church-state separation, its connections to issues like reproductive freedom and LGBTQ equality, and how all of these issues are threatened by Christian Nationalism. 
• The diversity and intensity of our movement that was so vividly represented by the SRF attendees. We are a community of people who don’t look the same, don’t share the same belief systems, are all different races, ages and sexual orientations, genders and gender identities. But we celebrate rather than reject our differences. We are committed to creating spaces to learn more about each other, where certainty gives way to wonderful complexity, where we shatter binaries, where we are all true Americans.

Above all, SRF drove home that we have the ability, the will and the momentum to achieve the country we all dream of – a country of freedom without favor and equality without exception. And we all agree that it cannot be achieved without separation of church and state. SRF helped to show that we can create … no, that we ARE creating this dream – together. 

With hope and determination,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO