Finding hostility at federal level, atheists plan to put political focus on state laws
Group’s president says states will be the bulwark against Christian nationalism

The nation’s leading politically active organization of atheists hasn’t exactly given up on the trifecta of the incoming Donald Trump administration, a Republican Congress and a Supreme Court with a conservative majority. But a report that the group, American Atheists, published this month makes clear that it will be focusing its efforts at the state level.
One reason the group sees hope in state capitals is that some states have “access to robust direct democracy options like ballot initiatives“ where the group’s political agenda — which includes abortion access and the removal of religious indoctrination from public education — has public support.
Said Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, in his introduction to the report:
With the re-election of Donald Trump, these states will continue to be the only bulwark against increasingly extreme attacks on our secular community and our rights. The federal government, including the federal courts, will not be viable forums to vindicate our rights. Rather, the fight will occur in 50 state capitals.
The flip side is that some of the worst developments have occurred in states where white evangelicalism has strong influence, he also suggested:
The acute threats posed to individuals living in these states are horrific and cannot be overstated. But the threats posed by white Christian nationalists extend even further — they’ve set their sights on undermining the institutions that are cornerstones of our communities and serve all Americans in a non-partisan, non-sectarian way. Whether that’s defunding public schools through privatization, injecting propaganda into classroom curricula, or attacking the foundations of our democracy itself, the white Christian nationalist movement is not satisfied with the damage they’ve already done.
The bulk of the report, called the 2025 State of the Secular States, focuses on existing laws and constitutional provisions in the 50 states along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The report says that the American Atheists organization saw 2024 as a year “marked by particularly visible and persistent efforts to push religious ideology into public schools” with more of the same likely to come this year.
And while the atheistic group made clear that the expansion of religious influence in education was among its top concerns, it also cited several other areas where it sees religion as having undue influence, among them the expansion of privileges for religious organizations that aren’t available to other groups. Additionally, although laws relating directly to availability of abortion, gender-affirming health care and vaccination1 aren’t directly tied to the religious freedom or establishment clauses of the First Amendment, the atheists see laws relating to such practices as being examples of the undue imposition of religious values on people who may not share the religion of lawmakers.
Agenda contrasts with that of religious right
It shouldn’t be surprising that the atheists’ agenda is almost a mirror image of the agenda of the religious right: Looking through a list of the issues that atheists see as important, you’ll have a difficult to impossible time finding areas of agreement other than general support for the concept of the First Amendment.
Overall, the atheists’ assessment of the state of the states is a pessimistic one: In analyzing current laws, the group was able to find only 15 of the 52 states and territories with what it terms “strong protections for religious equality”: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Meanwhile, the atheists see 12 states as occupying a middle ground that includes “basic separation of religion and government” but with few laws to protect individuals from what the group sees as religion-based harm: Alaska, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The remaining 25 states offer “special privileges” and do little beyond the basics to provide for church-state separation, inthe group’s view. In addition, the atheists note, several states “promote false Christian nationalist narratives” and/or otherwise enshrine religious views into law.
The classification of status on religious issues coincides almost perfectly with the nation’s red/blue divide: Every one of the states that American Atheists gave its high rating to are generally viewed as blue (Democratic) or purple (mixed), and every state that the group gave its low rating to are generally viewed as red (Republican).
Education seen as major issue
Although the organization didn’t explicitly prioritize its concerns in the the report, it seems to be the most alarmed about legislation affecting education.
The group said the “terrible” 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which a high school football coach was allowed to publicly pray on the football field, has made it more difficult for school districts to prevent religious encroachment. Here are some of the concerns raised by the group:
Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma school head, came under sharp criticism: “Christian nationalist and State Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly sought to impose his agenda on schools. ... Walters also assembled a committee of white Christian nationalists and revisionist historians to revise the state’s social studies curriculum standards, which could have a significant long-term impact on education in Oklahoma.”
Educational materials provided by PragerU, which the group called “biased,” were approved for use in schools in Texas, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Montana, Arizona and Florida.
Provisions allowing for the use of chaplains in public schools are “an avenue through which Christian nationalists hope to push religion into secular public schools.”
Universal school vouchers “have the potential to significantly undermine public education by diverting an increasing amount of taxpayer funds to pay for private, religious education year after year.”
The report called released-time programs coercive and undermining of public education.
The view of the report is that nonmedical exemptions to vaccination mandates are a risk to public health.