News from the Week March 28 – April 1, 2022


Friend:

The rising threat of Christian nationalism has drawn much-needed new attention in recent weeks, as well it should. Americans United has been in the thick of the effort to expose this existential threat to our democracy, helping journalists, elected officials, students and others understand the connection between religious extremism and attacks on our freedoms.

On Wednesday, I joined U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and AU’s new VP of Strategic Communications, Andrew L. Seidel, for a forum at Rutgers Law School sponsored by the American Constitution Society. The students were very engaged in a discussion about how church-state separation protects so many issues they care about—including LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, and racial justice.

We spent a lot of time talking about Christian nationalism, given Rep. Raskin’s membership on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Andrew’s role as an organizer and co-author of “Christian Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection,” a recent report by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom From Religion Foundation: [link removed]. The report inspired last month’s Congressional briefing organized by the Congressional Freethought Caucus, of which Rep. Raskin is a co-founder: [link removed]. The Washington Post covered the briefing as the “biggest Congress-related event on the topic in years.” You can read that article here: [link removed].

The Los Angeles Times also recently reported on Christian nationalism, namely on its role in the latest wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the states: [link removed]. Recent examples of these cruel bills include the “Don’t Say Gay” bill signed this week by Florida’s governor and a series of measures in Texas to isolate and stigmatize transgender youth. I told the columnist that the extremism we’re seeing in those two states is the “canary in the coal mine”: “What we see is the White Christian nationalist movement coming for all marginalized communities who have made strides in recent years. No one is safe.”

Christian nationalism also factors into other recent news. In newly exposed text messages between former President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, she pressured Meadows to nullify the results of the 2020 presidential election. With religious conviction, he repeatedly assured her the outcome they sought would come to pass: “This is a fight of good versus evil... Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs.”

In The Atlantic, journalist David French zeroed in on that quote, writing that the pair, “didn’t just approach the election fight with religious zeal; they approached it with an absolute conviction that they enjoyed divine sanction”—echoing what we also know to be true about many of the insurrectionists.

It’s all evidence of the emboldened Christian nationalist movement that, with your support, Americans United continues to fight every day. Thankfully, the vast majority of Americans—including Christians and faith leaders—support church-state separation as the shield that protects religious freedom for all of us.

As a welcome palate cleanser, I invite you to listen to the words of the Bremerton clergy who are speaking out in support of students’ religious freedom and the Bremerton School District in AU’s upcoming Supreme Court case: [link removed]. Faith leaders like the Rev. Kathleen Kingslight, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bremerton, who said “the separation of church and state is so important. It is the gift that our Constitution has given us and we don’t want it destroyed by cases like the one that we’re facing right now.”

To that, I think even the nonreligious among us can say a heartfelt, “Amen.”

With hope and gratitude,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO


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Bremerton Faith Leaders Rally Around Constitution, Not Coach:
Hear from the Bremerton faith community—the people who are on the ground dealing with the division sown by the coach and his attorneys in the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District Supreme Court case. These faith leaders are supporting Americans United and students' religious freedom.
READ MORE » [link removed]

Supreme Court Weighs Religious Freedom On Death Row:
The Supreme Court ruled that Texas violated John Henry Ramirez's religious freedom when the state refused to let Ramirez's pastor pray over and lay hands on him when he's executed. It's the latest in a series of Supreme Court cases relating to the role of clergy within the execution chamber.
READ MORE » [link removed]

In North Carolina, A Baptist Church Turned Sunday Services Into A Campaign Rally For A U.S. Senate Candidate:
During a recent service at Winkler’s Grove Baptist Church in Hickory, N.C., attendees could be forgiven for believing they had stumbled into a campaign rally instead of a church service when Pastor Paul Deal invited Mark Walker, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, to speak from the pulpit.
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Get Involved—Check Out AU’s Upcoming Events:
Find additional details and a full list of events at [link removed]

April 16, 7 p.m. ET (Virtual & In Person): “Resisting the Religious Right’s Efforts to Privatize Public Schools,” with public education advocate Teri Sorey. Presented by AU’s Orange County Chapter. RSVP here: [link removed]

April 26, 7:30 p.m. ET (Virtual): “Post-Argument Town Hall: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.” Presented by AU. RSVP here: [link removed]


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