Christian Nationalism Meets a Stubborn Secular Majority | Column

This is an atheist column.

Christian nationalism is having a loud moment in American politics. Yet the quiet story is that most Americans still want church and state kept apart.

That tension frames a new book by Congressman Jared Huffman, the only openly humanist member of Congress. Its title, No Prophets, is a plain statement of intent.

Christian nationalism versus the numbers

Huffman argues that a movement fusing faith and state power threatens democracy itself. He co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which pushes for policy grounded in reason and evidence.

The polling is on his side. Pew Research finds that 54 percent of Americans in 2026 say the government should enforce the separation of church and state. That is a majority, not a fringe.

The counter-pressure is real, though. A federal Religious Liberty Commission this year declared religious freedom under attack. Critics say such bodies often defend privilege rather than freedom.

Why non-believers should pay attention

For atheists and the non-religious, the stakes are personal. When a state adopts one faith as its own, everyone outside that faith becomes a second-class citizen by definition.

Separation of church and state is not hostility to religion. It is the opposite. It protects the Baptist and the Buddhist and the atheist alike by keeping government neutral between them.

That neutrality is the hard-won achievement of the Enlightenment. It is easy to take for granted and easier still to lose, one exemption and one endorsement at a time.

The heartening fact is that the secular majority has not vanished. It is simply quieter than the movement trying to override it. Quiet majorities, however, still have to show up and be counted.

See also our column on secularism and religious freedom.

Fact basis: Column grounded in Religion News Service reporting on Rep. Jared Huffman’s book No Prophets, Pew Research Center 2026 polling on church-state separation, and coverage of the federal Religious Liberty Commission. Views are the author’s.