WASHINGTON – Members of Congress, national secular leaders and advocates joined together in a Capitol Hill reception room Tuesday evening for the third annual Congressional Reason Reception, celebrating the Congressional Freethought Caucus, reason, constitutional democracy and the growing visibility of nonreligious Americans in public life. The American Humanist Association, Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Secular Coalition for America hosted the evening filled with wit and humor, with leaders of the secular movement and keynote speaker Mary L. Trump.
The reception is a celebration of reason and joy in public life, serving as a secular alternative to the dour and sanctimonious National Prayer Breakfast, as debates over Christian Nationalism, religious exemptions and the separation of church and state continue to shape national politics. Organizers said the event demonstrates that Americans who value secular government are increasingly organized and visible on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jared Huffman, co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, has called it “a boozy alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast.”
“Our country was founded on freedom of religion and church-state separation. No wannabe king or theocratic sycophant hellbent on controlling people through religious extremism will change that,” said Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Jared Huffman. “Folks from all walks of faith – or none at all – came together to celebrate something far more American: a government run by reason, freedom of conscience, and the Constitution. That’s what the Reason Reception is all about. No matter how hard Christian nationalists fight to overturn democracy and force their extremism on the American people, we will be here defending church-state separation and our fundamental rights.”
“Every year, some of the most reasonable people I know assemble to highlight the essential role that reason plays in protecting democracy, liberty, progress and justice for all,” said Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Raskin. “The Congressional Reason Reception celebrates and revives the spirit of Tom Paine and Ben Franklin and our Enlightenment Constitution, which cast off centuries of religious fanaticism and dogma, Holy Crusades, witch trials, Inquisitions and theocratic rule to usher in a new era of self-government, reason and democracy. Congratulations to our honorees, Katherine Stewart and Alison Gill, who are doing fine work to champion reason and common sense in our own time.”
“All you need to do is read the Declaration of Independence to understand that our Founders did not want and did not intend for this to be a religious country,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici in her remarks at the reception. “And now, when you look at what is happening with this administration and with Republican MAGA colleagues, they want this to be a white Christian nation. And it is not, and we will not let that happen. With your voices here and across the country we will stop that from happening. We want the next generation to know that this is a country where you are free to believe in religion or free to not believe in religion.”
“When I first came into Congress eight years ago, someone told me that religion is what politicians talk about when they don’t want to talk about ethics,” said Rep. Sean Casten in his remarks at the reception. “And there is a deep truth there. I think the inverse of that is equally true, that if you talk about ethics, people think you’re talking about their religion. And I think there’s a power there. There’s an ability there. What I think you challenge us to do, and what we have to challenge ourselves to do, is to speak about ethics and morality in a way that doesn’t fall back on those religious texts.”
“We’ve been on a very dark path for a very long time,” said Mary Trump in her keynote remarks. “So we need to do a better job of explaining to people why allowing religion and government to become intertwined is fatal to the American experiment on the one hand and detrimental to the pursuit of our freedoms on the other.
“We have the benefit, those of us in this room, of reason, of perspective. A lot of people who have made the choices they’ve made and voted the way they have voted don’t have those luxuries. So we, from the benefit of where we stand, need to extend these people grace, because that way I truly believe we can make common cause with people who, in the grand scheme of things, have suffered as much from their choices as others have. And I think that’s the way forward.”
“Thomas Paine called it ‘the cause of America’: the conviction that free minds, working together through reason, could govern themselves better than any king or church ever had,” said Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. “The evening’s’s room, packed with members of Congress and humanists from across the country, was proof that cause is still alive. Now we take it to statehouses, school boards, and every corner of this country, and build the nation Paine imagined: one where reason and compassion govern together, and empathy is not a matter of faith, but of conscience.”
“The National Prayer Breakfast tells everyone who isn’t the right kind of Christian that they don’t quite count as Americans. We reject that,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “This country belongs to all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, and no one needs to bow their head to belong here.”
“This reception is called the Congressional Reason Reception, and I think that’s fitting not because reason belongs to secular Americans alone, but because reason belongs in public service,” said Steven Emmert, Executive Director of The Secular Coalition for America.
The Congressional Reason Reception coincides with the growing strength of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which now counts 37 members, and reflects a secular movement that continues to gain ground on Capitol Hill.
The evening also recognized recipients of the Age of Reason Award and Common Sense Award for their contributions to advancing secular government and freedom of conscience.
“I don’t need to tell you that 250 years after Thomas Paine helped launch the American Revolution, our democracy is in crisis,” said Katherine Stewart, recipient of the Age of Reason Award in her remarks at the reception. “This is no time for the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot. This is the time to fight like hell for our country and our founding ideals of equality, pluralism, reason, justice, and the rule of law.”
“We need courts that are fair, unbiased, and that will uphold the Constitution, and enforce our rights and protect our democracy–not ignore it to salute their political or Christian Nationalist agenda,” said Alison Gill, recipient of the Common Sense Award, in her remarks at the reception. “And the Congressional Freethought Caucus plays an especially important role in showing the harms caused by this Christian Nationalist agenda and pushing back against it. So I truly want to thank you all for this award, and I hope that together we will keep making progress to reform the courts and restore our democracy.”
Organizers said the growing attendance at the annual reception and the expanding Congressional Freethought Caucus reflect increasing recognition that Americans of every faith and none deserve equal representation in public life.
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American Humanist Association:
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.
Freedom From Religion Foundation:
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
The Secular Coalition for America:
The Secular Coalition is a group of diverse organizations representing atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nonreligious Americans. The Secular Coalition for America is a dedicated lobbying organization within the Coalition, whose mission is to advocate for the equal rights of nonreligious Americans and defend the separation of religion and government.