“Happy Easter — He is Risen indeed! Today we celebrate the greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind. … Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life. And where there is life — risen life — there is hope.”
Does anyone know what this is from?
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, sent this email to the roughly 100,000 federal workers across the USDA.
This is not okay for a country that promises religious freedom.
If only this were some outlier or anomaly. Unfortunately, as you know well, it’s not. It’s part of a much broader assault on church-state separation coming out of this administration and the states.
I’ll list just a few more examples:
For instance, President Donald Trump’s so-called “Religious Liberty Commission” is stacked with ultra-conservative Christians, housed at the U.S. Department of Justice, and meets at the Museum of the Bible. At an April meeting, the commission’s chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, called church-state separation the “biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding.”
The Department of Defense, Department of Labor, and the Small Business Administration are holding monthly prayer services featuring almost exclusively Christian-only extremist speakers like Pastor Doug Wilson. A self described “theocratic libertarian,” Wilson thinks the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was a “bad idea.”
And then there are the states. Four states already require the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom, and in the last year, 19 more states have considered such laws. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April issued a terrible decision in AU’s lawsuit challenging the Texas law. The court found for the first time ever that this display is not coercive — in the words of the court, it just “puts a poster on a classroom wall.”
These Ten Commandments laws are just one piece of what we’re seeing around the country. There’s also Bible-infused curricula; private school voucher programs that fund primarily religious schools with public dollars; and the crusade to establish religious public schools.
If there was a time when we might have hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would be a backstop to this unconstitutional behavior, this is not that time. Over these past five terms since Trump solidified an ultra-conservative majority, the court has voted in favor of parties asserting religious rights 98 percent of the time. And to be clear, these cases are not about true religious freedom. They are about people demanding special permission to harm others, to take public money for religious ends, or to use government power to impose their beliefs. These are wins for religious privilege. Not surprisingly, this is the first court to contract, rather than expand, civil rights since the 1950s.
New mantra: ‘Less oy, more joy’
I know I’m dragging you down. It’s awful. I hear your disbelief, dismay, and disgust on a regular basis. And I share it.
That’s why I’m intrigued by a new mantra I have been hearing a lot these days. It goes like this: “less oy, more joy.”
I have witnessed this theme — not surprisingly given the words — in the Jewish community, as a response to today’s surge in antisemitism.
The idea is not about denial, or forced cheerfulness, or pretending the danger is not real. It’s certainly important to face the reality, let the threats motivate us to take action, and also to educate others about the situation — the oy part. That’s why I began where I did.
The point here is that the oy alone isn’t good for a people or a movement.
In the Jewish context, “less oy, more joy” means refusing to let antisemitism define the entirety of Jewish life. Yes, Jews must fight antisemitism. But they also must strengthen and celebrate Jewish life — Jewish community, Jewish traditions, Jewish identity.
Many other movements have their own version of this, too — like the LGBTQ+ movement, where queer joy and community celebration are seen as a form of resistance.
Black joy, too, is a thing. During a brief stint in my career as a consultant, my favorite client was a group called BMe, which stands for Black Male Engagement. In its own words, “BMe teaches institutions and individuals to define Black people and all people by their aspirations and contributions rather than by degradations and disparities. We don’t ignore what’s wrong with situations, rather we start with what’s right with the people.” There’s that theme again — don’t ignore the “oy,” but add joy.
It makes sense. If you refuse to accept false labeling, if you deeply value yourself and what you do have — and let others see that, if you refuse to let your opponents get you down or at least keep you down, if you seek out community, then you are more likely to live more fully, to fight back against your oppressors, and to do so more effectively.
I’m sold on this philosophy and I hope you are, too.
What does less oy, more joy look like in the context of our movement — at this time of immense challenge? Put another way, what is church-state separation joy? I’ll break it down into at least three pieces of what is an enormous pie of accessible joy.
Church-state separation joy includes: (1) having visible pride in the promise we are defending; (2) building a diverse community across differences; and (3) taking courageous action.
The joy of taking visible pride in the promise we are defending
What do I mean by this? Church-state separation joy means that even as the attacks on church-state separation come fast and furious, we must spend time celebrating our country’s promise of church-state separation — really pausing on it.
I’m going to model this right now: How cool is it that church-state separation is an American original? That we were the first country ever to have it. How many people even realize that’s true?
As my colleagues know, I feel joy every single time I read Thomas Jefferson’s reflections about the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that he authored, which was enacted in 1786 — a statute that is seen as the precursor of the religious freedom protections in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Religious freedom, Jefferson explained, was “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination.”
Imagine how radical that was back then! It’s American history 101. Our founders got some things very wrong, but they got this very right.
Church-state separation joy is celebrating George Washington’s letter to Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. Written in 1790, it famously says that the government of the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
It’s finding joy in the fact that in America, we all have freedom of belief — and celebrating what that means. That we can all live however we want and believe however we choose, so long as we don’t harm others. That’s who America is. It’s in our DNA. It’s who we are meant to be. And it’s awesome.
And yet, so many high-ranking government officials across this country today are spewing disinformation about church-state separation in an effort to write it completely out of our national story and redefine who we are.
Don’t let them!
This is where the visible part of pride comes in. Talk, write, teach, and preach about our country’s promise of church-state separation — and not just with pain about the current moment we’re in, but also with joy about the promise itself!
People deserve to know the truth about our founding ideals, and they will fight harder to protect something they understand is promised to them.
The joy of building diverse church-state separation communities
Building any church-state separation community is important, even when it’s all people from one belief system. Homogeneous groups have their own work and healing to do in this space. But when the community broadens to include a diversity of people, that’s where church-state separation comes alive.
Take SRF as an example. During SRF, you are pretty much guaranteed to share a meal with people who believe in fewer, different, or more gods than you do — or in no gods at all. You will attend workshops with people from different races, sexual orientations, and gender identities. You will hold the elevator door open for people from different regions of our country — and yes, even from different political backgrounds. You will even hold different views on some aspects of our issue.
And that’s the magic of SRF and our movement. We are so different — and yet we are all here to defend church-state separation and religious freedom.
Our diverse movement is a much-needed upper right now. It fosters hope. And it’s also critical to our power in fighting back. So don’t deny yourself or our movement the joy of building diverse church-state separation communities filled with differences! It’s a key part of our movement’s joyful resistance.
Finding joy by taking courageous action
When you take courageous action to defend church-state separation, you’re embracing your identity and living your values. And you’re inspiring others to join you. It’s absolutely another part of our movement’s joyful resistance.
The joy of taking courageous action looks different for different people. Some of you find this joy in joining your local No Kings rallies. Others of you find it by writing a letter to the editor about church-state separation in the newspaper.
If you’re a law student or a lawyer, you might enjoy offering to teach a class about church-state separation at a local elementary, middle, or high school. Americans United just developed three constitutional curricula for this exact purpose in partnership with the American Constitution Society.
Are you a book lover? Maybe you’d like to start a book club and discuss books related to church-state separation.
Perhaps you would have fun creating a lesson plan or study group for your house of worship or secular community?
And don’t forget the joy of building diverse church-state communities across our differences. That could look like an interfaith and secular partnership in celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Everyone can use this anniversary as a hook to celebrate church-state separation.
Our many plaintiffs in our legal cases have found joy by boldly challenging violations of church-state separation in their direct orbit. These brave plaintiffs are multifaith and nonreligious, younger and older.
I will never forget the church-state separation pride of the middle school boy I met in a Louisiana courtroom. He couldn’t wait to tell me that he wanted to be a plaintiff in our Ten Commandments lawsuit because he is worried about his Hindu friend, who believes in many gods and not just one.
What courageous action can you take to defend and protect church-state separation?
Commit to yourself right now that you will do your best to add some joy to the oy of this moment. It starts right here at SRF. Make some new friends. Learn something new. Share some wisdom. Feel the solidarity. Dance to the music!
Let SRF remind you not only of what we are against, but what we are for: one another, religious freedom, a country big enough for all of us — freedom without favor and equality without exception.