Citing rise of ‘Christian nationalism,’ Secular Democrats unveil sweeping recommendations for Biden

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A Democratic group dedicated to representing secular values unveiled a slate of recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration on Monday (Nov. 30), outlining a sweeping agenda designed to roll back many of President Trump’s actions involving religion and to “restore a vision of constitutional secularism.”

The 28-page document, crafted by the Secular Democrats of America PAC, is being presented to the incoming administration by Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin and Jared Huffman — both co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

The SDA’s agenda offers a wide range of policy recommendations to push back against the so-called “Christian nationalist movement,” which the the group describes as an “extraordinarily well-funded and well-organized” phenomenon whose “extreme and sectarian agenda (was) on constant display under the Trump-Pence administration.”

The group offered several recommendations to help “reframe” concepts of patriotism in ways that are more inclusive. Among them were encouraging politicians to avoid terms like “God and country”; promoting non-theistic and humanistic chaplains in the military; including nonreligious representatives at interfaith gatherings; and suggesting the use of the country’s onetime unofficial motto “E Pluribus Unum” — Latin for “out of many, one” — instead of the motto adopted in 1956, “In God We Trust,” which the the group argues excludes nontheists and polytheists.

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