In September, Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser, Vice President of Outreach and Engagement Brian Silva, Events Manager Ashley Hunt-Martorano, Chief Program Officer Mariko Hirose and Church & State Editor Bruce Gourley collectively led panel discussions following screenings of the documentary “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy” in the cities of Kansas City, Tulsa, New York City and El Paso. AU chapters and local organizational allies sponsored the events. Drawing from Anne Nelson’s book, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, the film examines the secretive and highly influential Council for National Policy.
Laser and Vice President of Strategic Communication Andrew L. Seidel led a virtual event on “The Dangers of Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism” Sept. 24. The event was hosted by The New Republic and was moderated by investigative journalist Nina Burleigh.
State Policy Counsel Nik Nartowicz led a Sept. 29 panel discussion at Dartmouth College following a screening of the documentary “God & Country,” a film based on Katherine Stewart’s book The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Separately, Nartowicz spoke at the Sept. 22-24 Washington, D.C., conference of the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools on the topic of religion in public schools.
Hirose led a Sept. 15 presentation on Project 2025 for Livermore Indivisible.
Senior Adviser Rob Boston did a virtual event with the Humanists and Freethinkers of Fairfield County, Conn., Sept. 9 on the topic, “Responding to Christian Nationalism.”
The Orange County (Calif.) Chapter of AU hosted a Sept. 21 virtual event featuring Kate Cohen of the Washington Post. Cohen talked about her book We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too).