Friend:

It’s not every day that the Speaker of the House of Representatives attacks you on Fox News. That happened on Sunday, May 17, the morning of Trump’s “National Jubilee of Prayer” — a government-sponsored event, on public property, that combined all-Christian faith leaders (with one Orthodox Rabbi) and government officials. 

We explained a few days before the event that this was going to be “less a ‘Jubilee of Prayer’ than a ‘Jubilee of Christian Nationalism.’” We weren't wrong. 

Fox News Host Shannon Bream read other parts of my statement denouncing the Jubilee to Mike Johnson on air. “If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish in our country. Instead, they continue to threaten this foundational principle by advancing a Christian Nationalist crusade to impose one narrow version of Christianity on all Americans.” That was some good airtime!

In response, Johnson said we want to “pretend as if we’re not a nation that was dedicated originally to God,” and immediately cited the words “In God We Trust” as displayed in the House of Representatives to make his point. Perhaps Johnson doesn’t realize that he disproved his own propaganda — those words weren’t adopted as the national motto until 1956 or carved in the House until 1962. 

I spent that morning on C-SPAN chatting with the host and viewers about the event and the importance of church-state separation. (MS NOW covered both Johnson coming for AU and my C-SPAN appearance.) I appreciated when the first caller, Dan, a Republican from Arizona, said he agreed with me and warned against his “fellow Republicans … pushing for Christian influence in government” because the separation of church and state is not a partisan issue, but an American ideal. 

Velma, a Republican caller from Kentucky, argued that AU’s mission and our fight against Christian Nationalism is Anti-Christian. I hope she listens to my Crossroads podcast chat with The Very Rev. Randy Hollerith of the Washington National Cathedral. We talked a lot about Christian Nationalism and the reverend’s verdict was pretty simple: “It’s idolatrous!”

As I’ve written here before, I sometimes struggle with the term Christian Nationalism, both because there are non-Christians in that movement too and because many Christians do not think it has anything to do with Christianity. But it can be a useful and accurate term for what we are up against: an ideology that falsely proclaims America was founded as a Christian nation and must return to those roots. The silver lining: more Americans than ever know what Christian Nationalism is, and recognize it as a threat to our pluralist democracy.

Whatever we call it, I promise that Americans United will not stop fighting. This month, Americans United, with our partners at Democracy Forward and Bryan Schwartz Law, took Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the USDA to court for treating her employees like her flock.   

Rollins had sent 100,000+ USDA employees a proselytizing Easter email promoting her personal religion and “our faith” that “Jesus has been raised from the dead,” the latest in an escalating series of coercive communications.

Trump is not Jesus. Agencies are not churches. Cabinet heads are not government preachers.

Not on our watch. With this most recent filing, we are now at seven cases to halt the flood of Christian Nationalism from this administration. And we hope other brave federal workers will come forward to defend their rights and the Constitution alongside Americans United. 

We’re not backing down. To the contrary, thanks to you, our movement is growing bigger and stronger every day. Let’s continue, together, to blaze a path forward for this nation for the next 250 years. One that honors our country’s promise of church-state separation and the freedom to live as ourselves and believe as we choose — for everyone. 

With hope and determination,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

This is a selection of just a few of AU's recent media appearances.

Find additional details and a full list of events here. 

May 1-3, 2027 (Virtual & In Person): The Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF) is a collaborative conference that will unify supporters, activists, organizers, policy and legal experts, academics, political and religious leaders, and committed people of faith and of no religion to fight for religious freedom. Learn more.

This is a selection of AU's most popular recent blogs; find all of our blogs here.

• Foundation to Freedom: Reflections from SRF 2026: AU’s Conference & Partnerships Manager Adriyanna Andrèus gives her reflections on the 2026 Summit for Religious Freedom.

• Announcing the 2026 David Norr Youth Activist Award winner: Learn about the Texas youth-led organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), which won AU's 2026 David Norr Youth Activist Award.

• Belonging should not be determined by belief: Youth Organizing Fellow Mehar Thakur highlights how the First Amendment's separation of church and state allows immigrants to build lives without fear that their faith makes them outsiders.