An atheist columnist called on non-believers to boldly share their secular opinions and "normalize" atheism if they wanted to stop America's "drift into theocracy," in her Tuesday opinion piece for the Washington Post.
Kate Cohen made the case that Christians, in particular, were using their faith as a destructive force in society. Believers act as if they're above the law and use their beliefs to discriminate against others, she argued. Cohen pointed to state measures against transgender treatments for minors, Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, and several cases where the Supreme Court upheld the religious liberties of Christians.
"You don’t have to be an atheist to think that religion should not shape public policy or that believers should have to follow the laws that everyone else does. You don’t have to be an atheist to see that Christian nationalists are using ‘religious liberty’ to perpetuate much of the discrimination Americans suffer today," she wrote in her opinion column.
It's time for atheists to stand up and push back against this trend, she urged.
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"[A]theists can do one thing about the country’s drift into theocracy that our religious neighbors won’t: We can tell people we don’t believe in God," she wrote. "The more people who do that, the more we normalize atheism in America, the easier it will be — for both politicians and the general public — to usher religion back out of our laws."
The columnist urged progressive Christians to abandon their claims of belief in God, if they really just held a respect for spiritual concepts, otherwise they were contributing to the "dangerous" influence the religious have in this country.
"In fact, when certain believers wield enough political power to turn their God’s presumed preferences into law, I would say it’s dangerous to claim you believe in ‘God’ when what you actually believe in is awe or wonder. (Your 'God is love' only lends validity and power to their ‘God hates gays.’)," she said.
While atheists may feel outnumbered in this country, she claimed there were actually more atheists in American than most people realize, but an anti-atheist stigma in the culture led to atheists being undercounted.
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A growing number of Americans –18%– say they are neither religious nor spiritual, a recent Gallup poll found. That is twice the proportion Gallup measured when it first asked this question in 1999, the company reported.
Once atheists start being more open with their beliefs, it gives "permission" for parents to be "honest" with their children about God, and removes permission for Christians "to be cruel to fellow human beings based on Bible verses," she argued.
"Consider that your honesty will allow others to be honest, and that your reticence encourages others to keep quiet. Consider that the longer everyone keeps quiet, the longer religion has political and cultural license to hurt people. Consider that the United States — to survive as a secular democracy — needs you now more than ever," the columnist added.
The columnist made a similar plea last year, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She encouraged atheists to boldly share the message that America is not "a Christian nation."
"Make it clear that, to you, no legitimate public policy can be based on the supposed wishes of a supernatural being," Cohen urged, before concluding, "America is not and has never been a Christian nation. Keeping it from turning into one may be up to us."
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