Humanists Respond to Weekend of Christian Nationalism from Trump Officials
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sarah Henry, shenry@americanhumanist.org, (202) 238-9088
(Washington, D.C., October 14, 2019) – Leaders at the American Humanist Association are deeply troubled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s advancement of Christian leadership in a speech on Saturday, October 12th and the subsequent promotion of that speech on the homepage of the official website of the Department of State.
“While today may be a great day to be a Christian nationalist, it’s a terrible day to be a person who cares deeply about the United States of America, religious plurality and diversity, or true religious freedom,” noted Sarah Henry, a spokesperson for the nontheistic advocacy organization.
Pompeo’s remarks, which included noting that he “asks God for direction in [his] work,” and directly linked his work as one of the adminsitration’s top officials to his role as an “imperfect servant serving a perfect God,” echoed similar statements by current Attorney General William Barr given at University of Notre Dame’s law school on Friday, October 11, 2019.
Barr alleged that “secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion & traditional values.”
Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, said that, “the Trump administration’s flagrant promotion of Christian ideology is a gift to Christian nationalists. This religious favoritism is the kind of abuse of their duty to represent all Americans equally that demonstrates how fundamentalism is the driving force of this administration’s agenda.”
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The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.