On March 5, Americans United hosted a SRF365 Webinar titled “Trump’s First 45 Days: Hope in Action for Rights & Religious Freedom.” Panelists were Alessandro Terenzoni, vice president of public policy for Americans United; Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality; Antonio Ingram, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and Fish Stark, executive director of the American Humanist Association.
On March 13, former AU Youth Organizing Fellow Leland Dale Murphy testified against Texas House Bill 3, proposed private school voucher legislation that would shift public school funding to private, predominantly religious Christian schools.
The most recent We Dissent podcast — hosted by secular women attorneys, including AU VP and Legal Director Rebecca Markert — dropped on March 19 and features AU Associate VP of Public Policy Dena Sher. Podcast sponsors are Americans United, American Atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Via Zoom on March 30, Bruce Gourley, editor of Church & State magazine, addressed the Secular Community of SW Florida. He touched on the history, context and present-day threats posed by Christian Nationalism.
AU Call to Action!
AU is monitoring more than 250 state legislative bills that would threaten true religious freedom by, in part:
- Unconstitutionally promoting religion by allowing chaplains in public schools; requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms; requiring schools to offer classes dedicated solely to the Bible; and allowing censoring of library books, classroom materials or curriculum based on religious beliefs.
- Using taxpayer dollars to fund private, mostly religious schools through private school voucher programs.
- Ban abortion and restrict access to critical reproductive health care, imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.
- Misuse religious freedom to discriminate against people where they work, where they shop, or when they try to get needed health care, which especially harms LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, women and nonreligious people.
Click the link below to contact your state legislators and tell them to uphold church-state separation and protect religious freedom for everyone.
Urge Your State Legislators to Protect Church-State Separation