Take Action

Take Action

Here’s what you can do to promote the #VoteSecular movement:

  • Like us on Facebook at VoteSecular and follow us on Twitter @Vote_Secular where we will bring to your attention news stories about religion being improperly injected in government and education, or acts of hypocrisy by those who promote religion in the public sphere.
  • Tag appropriate tweets and posts with #VoteSecular to be an active part of the movement.
  • Share #VoteSecular Facebook posts, tweets, and memes on social media far and wide. Share photos of #VoteSecular at iconic locations — local landmarks, state capitals, etc. — to demonstrate that this is a national movement.

Here’s what else you can do to make a difference:

  • Find out who your elected representatives and candidates are and learn where they stand on secular issues.
  • Write, call and meet with your representatives to let them know you will no longer accept being ignored.

You can find out more about any of the action items listed above on our Resources page.

Why taking action is so important:

The United States of America was founded as a secular republic. The Founders of our country significantly formed the first government in the history of the world that did NOT establish religion. They hoped that by doing so, they might safeguard the ‘Freedom of Conscience’ of everyone, and they hoped the United States might avoid the ceaseless religious conflicts that had soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.

James Madison–who is considered the Father of the Constitution and the Architect of the Bill of Rights–expressed his interpretation of the First Amendment as a perfect separation between church and state. He observed that, The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia–on which the First Amendment is partially inspired and based–wrote that the First Amendment erected a wall of separation between church and state. He felt that Erecting the ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.

There are no higher authorities than Jefferson and Madison regarding how the First Amendment should be interpreted because they had the most influence on the fact of its creation and existence.

For well over 100 years, Supreme Court rulings have cited Jefferson’s interpretation that the First Amendment established a wall of separation between church and state.

For almost as long, Christian nationalists have been trying to tear down that wall, claiming that separation between church and state is a lie and a myth. They have been doing everything in their power to undermine the secular government our Founders gave us and set up a Christian theocracy in its place. While they have failed over-and-over again over the years to change or amend our Constitution in order to acknowledge a Christian God or Jesus Christ as the source of all authority and power in civil government (or other such language), they have succeeded in other areas….

In 1864, they were able to get the phrase In God We Trust on printed on coins. In 1956, they were able to make it our national motto, replacing the secular and inclusive motto our Founders gave us E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) with one that was religious and exclusive. Two years earlier in 1954, they were able to insert under God into the Pledge of Allegiance, changing it from a secular and inclusive statement to one that was religious and exclusive as well.

These efforts to make this country into a Christian theocracy continue to this day. These Christian Nationalists are engaged at every level of government, national, state, and local. They are the ones responsible for wanting to:

  • Erect 10 Commandment monuments in front of courthouses.
  • Have In God We Trust plastered on government buildings and vehicles.
  • Set up crosses at veteran memorials.
  • Sanction clearly sectarian prayers before city council meetings.
  • Try to get as much religion into public schools as possible.
  • Influence what is taught in public school science, history, and sex education classes to accommodate their religious views.
  • Deny a woman’s right of choice to decide what happens to her own body.
  • Deny equal civil liberties to those who are LGBTQ.
  • Deny the science of climate change.
  • And so on and on and on.

They are actively engaged in passing laws that affect everyone, and they are actively engaged in establishing their religion–however, whenever, and wherever possible–despite whatever the Founders intended.

Both Jefferson and Madison thought that the First Amendment would help protect the freedom of conscience and civil rights of every citizen, both thought that any entanglement between church and state would corrupt them both, and both thought that separation was absolutely essential in a free society.

This is why it’s important to fight for a secular government that respects all Americans’ freedom of conscience–for the religious and nonreligious alike–for a better, smarter, more modern government that maintains the Constitution’s principle of separation of Church and State.

Vote AGAINST public officials who inject religion into politics.

Vote FOR public officials who keep religion out of politics.

Vote Secular!

For more information about the “Separation of Church and State” see HERE.