Dear Friend,
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow atheists in Oregon and Washington, and the honor of speaking at California Freethought Day. The people I met out on the West Coast shared in common something I’ve heard from folks from all corners of the country: concern about the threat of radical religious nationalism.
That danger isn’t confined within the ruby-red borders of Florida, Texas, or Oklahoma. It’s all around us. But my travels remind me that so, too, are secular Americans determined to resist.
Whether we call ourselves atheists, agnostics, humanists, nones, or none of the above, nonbelievers now account for nearly a third of the population. We’re a growing demographic and a rising political force. When we show up — at the ballot box, in legislative hearings, and on the street — we make a difference.
I know that can be hard to remember, especially for our members in rural areas. It’s much easier to look around and despair… at U.S. citizens being detained, visa-holders being expelled, perceived political enemies being indicted, and all the attacks against immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, universities, the free press, and any individual or organization whose existence or viewpoint contradicts this administration’s narrow-minded and nationalist agenda.
But despondency is what fuels authoritarians. In my California remarks, I mentioned scholars Samuel Perry and Philip Gorski, who explain a key feature of White Christian Nationalism in their recent book The Flag and the Cross. They call it “the Holy Trinity” of freedom for a select few, order imposed on everyone else, and violence against anyone who dares dissent.
That’s an ideology that opposes the very idea of democracy, is hostile to any form of pluralism, and is fundamentally anti-American. Yet, the extremists who espouse it are in charge now, stomping their feet on our Constitution, acting like kings, rolling out the red carpet for dictators, and imposing a singular and sanctimonious worldview on us all — all while calling us radicals and claiming we hate America.
Just two days ago, speaking on the Senate floor, Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) specifically called out American Atheists as being “radical” and “anti-America.” Barrasso didn’t pick our name out of a hat. It was selected from a list of over 200 No Kings partners — including faith groups, environmental advocates, and veterans — because he and too many others still think “atheist” is a scary slur and that our mere presence is The Most Un-American.
Otherizing our organization and nonreligious Americans at large in an effort to preemptively discredit what could be the largest mobilization of opposition to authoritarian abuses in U.S. history is what’s un-American. Because there is nothing more American than being a free-thinking, free-speaking, and critically-inquiring dissenter who defies autocrats and demands better.
American Atheists is proud to be a partner of No Kings and to stand with millions of Americans today in resisting the kind of absolute and unimpugnable rule our forefathers waged and won a revolution against. As Thomas Paine wrote in The American Crisis: “Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and repulse it.”
Almost 250 years later, our nation again faces a common danger we must unite to overcome if our secular democratic republic is to endure. We atheists must stand in solidarity with those targeted today — not only so that they may stand with us tomorrow, but because this fight is not against Christians or Trump; it’s a struggle between an exclusionary and dangerous ideology and all of us who believe in something better.
American Atheists was founded in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, an era that showed us ordinary people, armed with nothing but their conviction and commitment to justice, could overcome state-sanctioned oppression. The progress made was only possible because of overlapping networks of support and partnership.
Black faith leaders, young students, workers’ unions, and Americans of all colors and creeds joined together in that fight for justice. Their solidarity was no accident. It was a deliberate and necessary collaboration to ensure people know their struggles for justice and equality are inextricably linked.
White Christian Nationalists seek to isolate and divide with their villainizing, dehumanizing, and fear-mongering rhetoric. But the simplest, most effective counter is to prove them wrong through relentless, visible solidarity. Our secular values demand we move beyond rhetoric and into action — working local elections, participating peacefully in demonstrations, testifying in state legislatures, and showing up persistently if only to ask, “How can I help?”
Every act of kindness and solidarity chips away at their hateful narrative, humanizes our movement, normalizes our full participation in society, and proves that we’re Americans through and through, too — democratic, diverse, and dissenting when we need to be.
Our nation’s founders fought a revolution for freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, and freedom from tyranny. And while I don’t believe in a higher power, I do believe in a higher calling: doing all we can to defend those hard-won rights against one of the greatest threats we’ve seen in generations.
There is no cosmic force bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice. That slow, steady march of progress will only continue forward if each of us rises to meet this moment with the same courage and determination that defined the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution itself.
Our team is answering that call, and I hope you’ll join us today however you can — whether it’s attending a No Kings rally near you or donating $25, $45, or $100 in support of our work.
In solidarity, now more than ever,
Nick Fish
President
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