Friend:

I’m filling in for Rachel this week while she meets with AU’s Board of Trustees to continue planning for AU’s future. I’m excited to report that even as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second spring, AU’s work on multiple fronts is going full-steam ahead.

As you might have seen in our Church & State magazine cover story this month, AU’s Youth Activists are preparing to carry the fight for church-state separation into the future. Our first-ever 10 Youth Organizing Fellows meet every month to sharpen their church-state separation advocacy skills and strategize about how best to continue AU’s mission and outreach to the next generation.

You can learn more about AU’s Youth Fellows and their work here.

One of the key items that all of AU’s activists and volunteers are focused on now is the Do No Harm Act, a piece of legislation that will ensure religious freedom cannot be misused to harm others. This week, in our webinar “The Do No Harm Act: What It Is and Why We Need It,” AU’s experts walked through the bill’s specifics and history, from its origins to where we are today, and shared tools that you can use to help educate others about the bill.

If you weren’t able to attend live, I urge you to watch the webinar here to learn more about this crucial legislation.

Earlier this month, I wrote an op-ed for The Hill about this very bill – and I had quite a lot to say, given that I was there to witness President Bill Clinton sign the law that the Do No Harm Act seeks to repair. You can read “It’s time to fix an important religious freedom law” right here on The Hill’s website.

And last but not least, don’t forget to check out AU’s Stop School Vouchers campaign, which launched last week. This digital campaign, complete with a brand-new AU online ad that highlights the voices of students in the private school voucher debate, makes it clear that forcing taxpayers to fund private religious education is a fundamental violation of religious freedom and church-state separation. Check it out right here.

Thanks for being with us and making all of these projects possible, friend.

Sincerely,