CRANFORD, N.J. — Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, a national civil rights organization committed to safeguarding the absolute separation of religion and government, issued the following statement regarding the 2024 election results: Donald Trump has said, aloud and in public, that ‘Christians are the most important people.’ He embraces extremism, spreads disinformation, spews hate, and sows division and distrust. He has surrounded himself with zealots who have overtly and repeatedly proclaimed war against secular Americans and the values and institutions we care about the most. The incoming president and his allies have told us exactly what they’re planning to do with the power they will soon wield. Those plans are laid out in excruciating detail in Project 2025. And with nearly unchecked power over the White House, Congress, and federal courts, I fear that those plans will have devastating effects on millions of Americans. Christian nationalist candidates, fueled by culture war propaganda, may have prevailed this election cycle, but their policies did not. In seven of the ten states with abortion-related ballot measures, Americans chose to protect or expand access to reproductive health care. In Kentucky and Nebraska, voters yet again soundly rejected school privatization measures that would use public dollars to fund religious schools. And in California, Colorado, and Hawaii, voters affirmed their support for LGBTQ rights. Support for these and other ballot measures makes it clear the majority of Americans continue to oppose policies which elevate the beliefs of certain religious groups over the rights, wellbeing, and equality of all. For more than 60 years, American Atheists has fought against efforts to destroy our public schools, to rewrite our uniquely secular history, and to take away our constitutionally guaranteed liberties. This election only reinforces the urgency and necessity of our work — fighting in all fifty states and in communities all across the country, and building bridges with partners and allies who share our commitment to pluralistic, secular democracy. No matter how many times Donald Trump or the extremists he’s aligned himself with repeat the lies they tell about religion in America, the facts are still the facts: the United States is and has always been a secular nation, founded not on the Bible but a deliberately secular Constitution that American Atheists will proudly and vigorously defend. ###
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