13/09/2025
Freethinkers, Atheists, pagans, minority religions in the US such as Hinduism, women and LGBTQIA people have good reason to fear the antics of the Trump administration, writes Geoffrey T. Blackwell of American Atheists, the largest non-religious representative group in the US. He writes "
On Monday, the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) met for a second time at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., though it was less a meeting and more a monologue by President Trump. Among his most alarming remarks:
“We will protect the Judeo-Christian principles of our [nation’s] founding.”
“We have to bring back religion in America… stronger than ever before.”
“We are one nation under God, and we always will be.”
He also announced the Department of Education “will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools,” where students, he said, are being "indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda.” No details have been released, apart from this recent blog post by Franklin Graham for the Education Department’s Center for Faith, but American Atheists is watching closely and prepared to respond.
The now-archived guidance from the Biden Administration’s Department of Education makes it crystal clear: Nothing prohibits public school students from praying. Even Graham acknowledges, “prayer in schools is still constitutionally protected.” So what will the new guidance say? What more do Trump and his allies want? Well, not to protect students’ “freedom to pray” but to roll back the religious freedom protections in Engel v. Vitale (1962), which struck down state-sanctioned prayer in public schools, and undo Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the cases that ended teacher-led, devotional Bible reading in public schools — and were the genesis of American Atheists.
In other words: This isn’t about advancing all students’ liberties, but subjugating non-Christians by allowing teachers, administrators, and politicians to impose their (Christian) religious beliefs onto developing minds in publicly funded classrooms.
We’re already seeing this play out at the state level. Earlier this month, after a new law established daily school time for prayer and religious reading, Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton urged students to recite the Lord’s Prayer “as taught by Jesus Christ,” and wrote: “In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up… Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth…”
Paxton’s comments came only a couple of weeks after Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who chairs the RLC, threatened to expel lawmakers who didn’t stand for a Christian invocation.
At Monday’s RLC meeting, the White House also announced its new “America Prays” initiative, which invites one million Americans to pray for the country one hour per week in preparation for next year’s semiquincentennial. Listed among the “initial participating organizations” is one Jack Posobiec, a far-right extremist and conspiracy theorist who welcomed the “end of democracy” at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference and has repeatedly promoted anti-semitic slogans.
And the White House is now officially and openly endorsing platforms like Pray.com (Christian) and the Hallow app (Catholic). (For just $69.99/year, you can enjoy Morning Psalms with Bishop Barron, who sits on the RLC!) It has also uploaded a “Prayers and Proclamations Throughout American History” PDF to promote the false Christian Nationalist narrative that: “From the birth of our nation, America has been strengthened and sustained by people of prayer.”
It will not surprise any reader to learn the “America Prays” narrative erases nonreligion, freethought, minority faith traditions, not to mention the First Amendment’s prohibition on establishing a religion. Even the page’s centerpiece image is a misrepresentation: a 1976 painting, “The Prayer at Valley Forge,” which the artist himself admitted was plainly symbolic and unsubstantiated by the historical record.
At a time when political violence is on the rise and political leaders are hard at work rewriting history, American Atheists remains steadfast in preserving our nation’s long, proud, and uniquely secular legacy.
Every day, our staff and volunteers are working across the country to protect nonsectarian public schools, to block unconstitutional religious mandates, and to ensure religious liberty remains a right for all of us — not a privilege for a select few. We know the real danger to our democracy is not the imagined persecution of some believers but the actual erosion of the First Amendment's promise to every American: the absolute separation of church and state.
But we cannot overcome this threat without the continued support of readers like you. Please donate today to help defend our secular past and secure its future. "
