When he was campaigning, President Donald Trump campaigned hard among white Christian voters. An overwhelming number of the people who voted for him identify as Evangelical Christians.
As the Washington Post reported:
“White evangelicals are the religious group that most identifies with the Republican Party, and 76 percent of them say they are or lean Republican, according to a 2014 survey. As a group, white evangelicals make up one-fifth of all registered voters and about one-third of all voters who identify with or lean toward the GOP.”
So, I guess it’s no surprise that Trump quickly moved to relax restrictions on churches’ political activities.
This push toward religion is likely to psis off a growing portion of the American population: atheists. One study found that up to 20 percent of the American population is not religious.
Another survey found that roughly a third of Americans feel warmly towards atheists, while another third of Americans believe that an atheist should be banned from becoming president.
The stigma surrounding people who don’t believe in God is crushing the freedom of belief in this country. We are supposed to have freedom of religion, but it doesn’t always apply to atheists.
As an atheist, I think we should fight back against Trump’s Evangelicals and the religious policies he is trying to enact. The repeal of the Johnson Amendment goes directly against the Constitution under the guise of “religious freedom.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is suing the Trump administration over this new executive order. This allows churches and other religious organizations to endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status.
This is the kind of fighting back I like to see. Churches shouldn’t be allowed to get involved in politics, especially since they don’t pay taxes.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, an executive director with the FFRF, said:
“Trump is communicating to churches that his administration will not enforce the Johnson Amendment. The IRS needs clear direction that it must enforce the law equally.”
This is the kind of fighting that I like to see.
Here is Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, on why he couldn’t vote for Trump in the election (after the jump):
Featured image via Twitter.
