Editor’s Note: Americans United’s 2025 Student Contest asked high school and college students to reflect on this two-part prompt: How and why do religious and/or nonreligious groups, on their own or together, advocate for the separation of church and state? How have they been successful, and what does their example mean for present and future advocacy for the separation of church and state? The two first-place winning essays are published below. The essays do not necessarily reflect the views of Americans United.
First-place high school essay contest winner: Cole Richardson
February 2025, the White House Faith Office was established with the express intent to “honor and enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty and to ending any form of religious discrimination by the Federal Government.” This action appears prudent, as nearly a quarter of all hate crimes in the United States are religiously motivated, with both antisemitism and Islamophobia on the rise.
However, the two government officials placed in charge of this office, Paula White and Jennifer S. Korn, are evangelical Protestants. In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, White noted that part of her goal with this office is “to make our nation what God established it to be.” This statement indicates a clear leaning towards Protestantism— and Christianity in general — within the federal government, whose concern with “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” seems misguided. Christians, who account for roughly 62% of the U.S. population, make up only 8.7% of all religious hate crime victims, according to Pew Research Center and the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics.
Although it is important to prevent hate crimes against any demographic, overblowing the amount of discrimination Christians face enables the government to justify measures that ignore separation of church and state for the sake of protecting Christians from imagined persecution. This is no secret, with the president himself remarking, “Let’s forget about that for one time,” in reference to questions about the separation of church and state.
These efforts impact both religious and non-religious groups negatively, reminding us why it is key to maintain separation of church and state for both secular and religious reasons. LQBTQ+ people have had their rights restricted by policymakers motivated by Christian beliefs and values, while Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, and many others in our great nation are largely ignored in efforts to end religious discrimination, despite accounting for over 88% of all religiously motivated hate crime victims.
As a Jewish teen attending a large public school, I have experienced countless instances of antisemitism: simple Holocaust and Nazi jokes, along with the occasional push or shove, and as such, I believe in separation of church and state to promote religious equality. As an American who enjoys history and values the freedoms given to us through our Constitution, I believe in separation of church and state out of principle and patriotism. As the brother of a trans man who is having to face the over 120 new pieces of anti-trans legislation on the books in our nation, I believe in the separation of church and state to prevent those I care about from being oppressed by lawmakers motivated by faith, not by the Constitution they are bound to.
Throughout my time in high school, I have continually stood up for the rights of students to maintain religious freedom within public school. When an English teacher of mine offered students extra credit if they helped decorate his classroom for Christmas — an opportunity not available to Muslim and Jewish students, whose beliefs prevent them from participating in holiday ceremonies or activities of other faiths — I and other disgruntled students brought our concerns to the administration, who helped rectify the issue. As a member of San Diego Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee, I have worked my hardest to ensure all faiths are represented fairly and accurately in San Diego classrooms.
I am certainly not the first American to be concerned with religion infiltrating our politics. In fact, Roger Williams, a devout minister and British colonist, founded the Rhode Island colony with complete religious freedom in 1636, marking the beginning of secular government in what would later become the United States. Later on, the representatives at the Constitutional Convention who consisted of Deists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and many various Christian denominations, enshrined the separation of church and state into our nation’s Constitution. These men, a plurality of faiths, agreed on something important: Religions that emphasize free will and the importance of choosing to turn to God should support a secular government so people can gain an earnest – not coerced or state-sponsored — faith.
Additionally, their devotion to enlightenment ideals and recent escape from Britain’s tyranny inclined them to provide U.S. citizens with as many freedoms as possible. The separation of church and state, as enforced under our Constitution (and more specifically the Establishment Clause) prevents Congress and all lower legislative bodies from passing any law towards an “establishment of religion.”
This wording not only prevents the government from systemically attacking single religions, but also stops them from elevating or endorsing others. Ensuring both sides of the freedoms given through the Establishment Clause is critical: Much effort is placed into ensuring religious minorities are not oppressed by our government, yet equal attention must be given to ensuring certain faiths are not protected and supported unduly.
More recently (in a historical sense, at least), numerous groups have popped up to combat rises in Christian Nationalism over the past several decades. Two of these groups, the Interfaith Alliance and Americans United (AU), have worked through coalition-building and legal measures to keep America free for decades. Last year, both groups signed an agreement to protect the Johnson Amendment, a key piece of U.S. Tax Code that prevents nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing any political campaigns. In the 2025 Supreme Court case Chiles v. Salazar, Americans United affirmed the efficacy of diverse coalitions by uniting 26 religious organizations — from Baptists and Reform Jews to Hindus and progressive Muslims — to defend a law protecting LGBTQ+ youth. The work of the Interfaith Alliance and AU demonstrate how crucial continued legislation and collaboration are to protecting our religious liberties.
First-place college essay contest winner: Sophia Fortuniewicz
Goat sacrifices. Blood-drinking rituals. Candles circled in a forest clearing at the witching hour. That’s what most people imagine when they hear “Pagan,” or “Satanist,” or “Witch.” But the truth is much less dramatic. I, and many other Pagans, share the same values as many mainstream religious groups: spiritual freedom, community, respect for nature, and awareness of the consequences of one’s actions.
Like many other things, the media emphasizes what sells and silences what doesn’t, but the misconceptions this feeds are only one aspect of the problem that ultimately results in discrimination against religious minorities, like Pagans, in the military, workplace, schools, and prisons. Therefore, it is imperative to defend the separation of church and state with voices that can cut through the brush and branches of misunderstanding and ignorance.
For years, Pagans, secular allies, and interfaith coalitions have worked to keep one religion from dominating all others. Their efforts in court cases, public awareness campaigns, and religious freedom advocacy provide an example for how others can continue the struggle for Americans’ right to practice their beliefs without discrimination.
The roots of this advocacy run deep. When the government favors one religion through public land crosses, religious monuments in public areas, and school prayer requirements, those of us who follow a different spiritual path may be viewed as suspicious or even dangerous just for being in the public eye. That pressure shows up early. In one case, a Michigan high school banned a Wiccan student from wearing a pentagram until a lawsuit forced the district to lift the ban — an example of how institutional rules can strengthen unconscious bias unless challenged.
According to the Interfaith Alliance’s “Healthy Boundaries Between Religion and Government,” these episodes explain why nonreligious groups and minority-faith communities frequently form alliances: The separation of church and state is the common ground that prevents the government from policing beliefs and safeguards pluralism for all.
The most effective advocacy happens when coalitions or group alliances form. 2007’s “Pentacle Quest” is a prime example. After years of rejecting the Wiccan pentacle for military grave markers while approving many other symbols, the Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to add the pentacle to its official list of permitted emblems. The settlement came after coordinated work by the Lady Liberty League and Circle Sanctuary with Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Courts have also affirmed that minority faith practitioners must be accommodated in closed institutions where people cannot simply “opt out.” In Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Ohio prisons must respect inmates’ religious exercise, including Wiccan and other minority faith practices, under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Meanwhile, reporting on the Brandi Blackbear controversy shows how suspicion toward Pagan students can escalate into discipline and litigation, another reminder that rights often need to be defended both in public and in the court system. [Editor’s note: In 1999, Oklahoma teenager Brandi Blackbear was suspended from school amid accusations she cast spells that caused a teacher’s illness.]
Even with these wins, challenges persist. In the armed forces, for example, the pathway to chaplaincy depends on recognized endorsing bodies. Despite demand, Pagan chaplains are still uncommon because of a structural barrier: no Pagan organization is currently listed on the Department of Defense list of ecclesiastical endorsers. And beyond the military, state-church conflicts continue to surface, such as efforts to mandate Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, often requiring new lawsuits from secular and interfaith coalitions to maintain neutrality.
The lesson for present and future advocacy is straightforward. First, form wide alliances: The pentacle case was successful because Pagan organizations joined forces with well-known church-state organizations, fusing legal knowledge with personal experience. The second tactic is to combine litigation and public education to promote legal rights and cultural awareness. Insist on formal recognition in government lists and policies, such as the VA’s emblem catalog, as this will prevent ad hoc exclusion later on.
Misconceptions about Pagans may linger like whispers in the wind, but the truth is more concrete and far more universal: Almost everyone wants the freedom to practice or not practice their beliefs without fear or interference. The separation of church and state is about ensuring no single tradition stands on a podium above the rest. The record, from school cases to prison rights to veterans’ headstones, shows that when minority faith communities, secular allies, and interfaith partners work together, religious coexistence is a result that can be read in court opinions, policy lists, and the names carved in stone long after their fight is over.
First-place high school video winner: Nya Long
A high school student from Frisco, Texas, Nya Long begins her video by addressing the new state law that mandates all Texas public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. “The idea of the government installing this religious text while prohibiting all others deeply concerns me,” Nya narrates. “And I am not the only one,” she adds, before applauding the multifaith and nonreligious families throughout the state who are challenging the law in court in lawsuits filed by AU and allies.
Nya celebrates groups like AU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation for their work to protect religious freedom for all. “I participated in the Americans United contest because I believe a secular government is crucial to our way of life and should be advocated for,” Nya told AU.
First-place college video winner: Alannah Estvander
“A lot of people hear separation of church and state and think it’s anti-religion,” is how Alannah Estvander, a student at Thiel College in Pennsylvania, begins her video. “But actually, it protects everybody, no matter what you believe in. And in 2025, we’re seeing a lot of moments where that protection really matters.”
Alannah then discusses several church-state separation issues that were in the news the past year — including the Supreme Court’s deadlocked decision in the case of what would have been the nation’s first religious public school in Oklahoma; the Trump administration’s misleading guidance for federal employees about religious freedom in the workforce; and the Ten Commandments display law in Texas.