AU Associate Vice President for Communications Liz Hayes didn't know the phrase 'Christian nationalism' when she was in high school, but she felt it nonetheless – the impression that she was somehow less patriotic, less American because she wasn’t Christian like she assumed everyone else was.

From her experiences as a Jewish kid in a predominantly Jewish public school in Philadelphia, to living and working in Israel where there is no formal division between religion and state, AU Vice President for Strategic Communications Naomi Paiss became a strong supporter of religion-state separation.

AU Senior Adviser Rob Boston, who attended both public and private religious schools, had an instinctive understanding that it was simply wrong for public school teachers and staff, who are agents of the state, to sponsor or pressure anyone to take part in religious activity.