Friend:

We learned late last night of the death of civil rights leader John Lewis. Representative Lewis was a champion of church-state separation, religious freedom and the rights of all minorities. It’s so very hard to say goodbye to him. Read my full statement here.

As AU’s Board Chair the Rev. Neal Jones wrote on Facebook last night: “All his life, John Lewis got in good trouble, and now he can finally rest. But we can't!”

Let me reassure you, Americans United is not resting. This week, AU was instrumental in another clear win for religious freedom. A U.S. District Court in New Mexico has rejected an Albuquerque-area megachurch’s request for a religious exemption to public health orders that temporarily limit both religious and secular gatherings.

The judge’s opinion extensively referenced not only AU’s friend-of-the-court brief, which argued that it would be unconstitutional to completely exempt religious gatherings from the orders, but also the oral argument delivered by AU Associate Legal Director Alex Luchenitser (by phone!). Read more about it here.

Even in these unprecedented and difficult times, we must adhere to the Constitution. That includes its protections against taxpayers being forced to fund religious activities and clergy salaries. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), created by the CARES Act COVID-19 emergency stimulus funding, is no exception. It’s been in the news a lot lately, so I want to affirm AU’s position: PPP funding of clergy salaries is a stark violation of the First Amendment's religious freedom protections.

Right after the CARES Act was signed into law, AU sent a letter to the Small Business Administration (SBA) expressing our concerns about the potential for violations of church-state separation, educated members of Congress about the problem, and opposed the rule by submitting formal comments. In the coming days, our policy team will be releasing an in-depth analysis of the available PPP data to determine the full scope of houses of worship, religious schools and other religious institutions that received taxpayer funds. Our initial findings are troubling to say the least.

In numerous press reports, I, AU VP of Public Policy Maggie Garrett and AU Senior Adviser Rob Boston have made it clear that taxpayers funding clergy salaries is a violation of church-state separation.

Let us all be inspired by the tremendous legacy of Rep. John Lewis to get active like never before. Here are a few things of many you can do: Follow @AmericansUnited on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and post about church-state separation and our country’s continued struggle to attain our promise of equality for all, tell some friends about the vital role Americans United is playing and urge them to support us, or write a letter to the editor in your local newspaper.

Thank you for being a valued member of AU’s movement, friend. I know that together, we can continue to defend our country’s fundamental promise of religious freedom.

In solidarity,