Freethought Radio – July 23, 2026

The Trump administration is whitewashing American history in Philadelphia. Federal Judge John E. Jones tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 2005 trial leading to his landmark decision barring “intelligent design” from public school science classes.

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FFRF lambastes new DOJ guidance expanding religious privilege 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is criticizing the U.S. Department of Justice’s newly issued guidance on religious liberty.

The Justice Department today released updated guidance replacing its 2017 memorandum on federal religious liberty protections and directing federal agencies to broadly accommodate religious exercise in employment, contracting, rulemaking, enforcement actions and grant programs. It also instructs agencies to proactively review regulations and policies for potential impacts on religious liberty and elevates religious interests throughout the federal administrative process. This is a sweeping effort to expand religious privilege throughout the federal government while further eroding the constitutional principle of church-state separation.

While the guidance purports to protect religious liberty, FFRF says it overwhelmingly emphasizes a favorable interpretation of the rights of religious believers and organizations while giving little attention to the constitutional rights of those who do not share those beliefs.

“This so-called religious liberty guidance is really a roadmap for privileging conservative Christianity at the expense of the constitutional rights of everyone else,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “Rather than reminding federal agencies that the First Amendment protects both the free exercise of religion and the prohibition against government establishment of religion, the Justice Department has produced a one-sided manifesto that treats religious belief as a trump card over neutral laws, civil rights protections and government accountability.”

The updated memorandum repeatedly cites recent Supreme Court decisions to support expansive religious exemptions, endorses broad protections for religious organizations that discriminate in hiring and federal contracting, encourages agencies to accommodate religious objections whenever possible and instructs regulators to proactively consider religious liberty concerns throughout the rulemaking process. It also emphasizes parental rights over children’s religious upbringing and reinforces the doctrine of church autonomy.

“The Constitution protects religious liberty, not religious privilege,” Elliott remarks. “This guidance instructs agencies to keep stretching the law in one direction, toward broader religious exemptions, while giving short shrift to the constitutional rights of everyone affected by those exemptions.”

FFRF notes that the memorandum repeatedly privileges religious organizations in their dealings with the federal government. It directs agencies to preserve religious hiring exemptions even when organizations receive federal grants or contracts and states that religious entities generally cannot be required to choose between taxpayer funding and adhering to their religious beliefs. The guidance further embraces an expansive view of government religiosity, declaring that “religious activity in the public square and private religious expression by government employees cannot be proscribed via heckler’s veto” and citing John Adams’ oft-quoted statement that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people” despite the Constitution itself containing no religious requirement for citizenship or government.

The guidance also directs agencies to consult with the White House Faith Office and the Department of Justice on religious liberty questions before finalizing regulations or enforcement actions.

“The Constitution protects religious freedom for everyone, including the millions of Americans who are nonreligious,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Religious liberty means the government cannot favor one faith over another, or religion over nonreligion. This guidance instead elevates the demands of religious organizations above the public interest and the equal rights of others.”

FFRF warns that the guidance is likely to embolden efforts to seek religious exemptions from civil rights laws, workplace protections and other generally applicable legal requirements, allowing religious entities to claim preferential treatment while shifting burdens onto employees, beneficiaries and members of the public.

“The Department of Justice should be defending the First Amendment in its entirety, not transforming it into a tool for advancing Christian nationalist priorities,” Gaylor adds. “True religious freedom flourishes only when the government remains neutral on matters of religion.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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Secular Leaders Gather on Capitol Hill to Champion Reason, Constitutional Democracy

WASHINGTON – Members of Congress, national secular leaders and advocates joined together in a Capitol Hill reception room Tuesday evening for the third annual Congressional Reason Reception, celebrating the Congressional Freethought Caucus, reason, constitutional democracy and the growing visibility of nonreligious Americans in public life. The American Humanist Association, Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Secular Coalition for America hosted the evening filled with wit and humor, with leaders of the secular movement and keynote speaker Mary L. Trump.

The reception is a celebration of reason and joy in public life, serving as a secular alternative to the dour and sanctimonious National Prayer Breakfast, as debates over Christian Nationalism, religious exemptions and the separation of church and state continue to shape national politics. Organizers said the event demonstrates that Americans who value secular government are increasingly organized and visible on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jared Huffman, co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, has called it “a boozy alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast.”

“Our country was founded on freedom of religion and church-state separation. No wannabe king or theocratic sycophant hellbent on controlling people through religious extremism will change that,” said Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Jared Huffman. “Folks from all walks of faith – or none at all – came together to celebrate something far more American: a government run by reason, freedom of conscience, and the Constitution. That’s what the Reason Reception is all about. No matter how hard Christian nationalists fight to overturn democracy and force their extremism on the American people, we will be here defending church-state separation and our fundamental rights.”

“Every year, some of the most reasonable people I know assemble to highlight the essential role that reason plays in protecting democracy, liberty, progress and justice for all,” said Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Raskin. “The Congressional Reason Reception celebrates and revives the spirit of Tom Paine and Ben Franklin and our Enlightenment Constitution, which cast off centuries of religious fanaticism and dogma, Holy Crusades, witch trials, Inquisitions and theocratic rule to usher in a new era of self-government, reason and democracy. Congratulations to our honorees, Katherine Stewart and Alison Gill, who are doing fine work to champion reason and common sense in our own time.”

“All you need to do is read the Declaration of Independence to understand that our Founders did not want and did not intend for this to be a religious country,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici in her remarks at the reception. “And now, when you look at what is happening with this administration and with Republican MAGA colleagues, they want this to be a white Christian nation. And it is not, and we will not let that happen. With your voices here and across the country we will stop that from happening. We want the next generation to know that this is a country where you are free to believe in religion or free to not believe in religion.”

“When I first came into Congress eight years ago, someone told me that religion is what politicians talk about when they don’t want to talk about ethics,” said Rep. Sean Casten in his remarks at the reception. “And there is a deep truth there. I think the inverse of that is equally true, that if you talk about ethics, people think you’re talking about their religion. And I think there’s a power there. There’s an ability there. What I think you challenge us to do, and what we have to challenge ourselves to do, is to speak about ethics and morality in a way that doesn’t fall back on those religious texts.”

“We’ve been on a very dark path for a very long time,” said Mary Trump in her keynote remarks. “So we need to do a better job of explaining to people why allowing religion and government to become intertwined is fatal to the American experiment on the one hand and detrimental to the pursuit of our freedoms on the other.

“We have the benefit, those of us in this room, of reason, of perspective. A lot of people who have made the choices they’ve made and voted the way they have voted don’t have those luxuries. So we, from the benefit of where we stand, need to extend these people grace, because that way I truly believe we can make common cause with people who, in the grand scheme of things, have suffered as much from their choices as others have. And I think that’s the way forward.”

“Thomas Paine called it ‘the cause of America’: the conviction that free minds, working together through reason, could govern themselves better than any king or church ever had,” said Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. “The evening’s’s room, packed with members of Congress and humanists from across the country, was proof that cause is still alive. Now we take it to statehouses, school boards, and every corner of this country, and build the nation Paine imagined: one where reason and compassion govern together, and empathy is not a matter of faith, but of conscience.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast tells everyone who isn’t the right kind of Christian that they don’t quite count as Americans. We reject that,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “This country belongs to all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, and no one needs to bow their head to belong here.”

“This reception is called the Congressional Reason Reception, and I think that’s fitting not because reason belongs to secular Americans alone, but because reason belongs in public service,” said Steven Emmert, Executive Director of The Secular Coalition for America.

The Congressional Reason Reception coincides with the growing strength of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which now counts 37 members, and reflects a secular movement that continues to gain ground on Capitol Hill.

The evening also recognized recipients of the Age of Reason Award and Common Sense Award for their contributions to advancing secular government and freedom of conscience.

“I don’t need to tell you that 250 years after Thomas Paine helped launch the American Revolution, our democracy is in crisis,” said Katherine Stewart, recipient of the Age of Reason Award in her remarks at the reception. “This is no time for the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot. This is the time to fight like hell for our country and our founding ideals of equality, pluralism, reason, justice, and the rule of law.”

“We need courts that are fair, unbiased, and that will uphold the Constitution, and enforce our rights and protect our democracy–not ignore it to salute their political or Christian Nationalist agenda,” said Alison Gill, recipient of the Common Sense Award, in her remarks at the reception. “And the Congressional Freethought Caucus plays an especially important role in showing the harms caused by this Christian Nationalist agenda and pushing back against it. So I truly want to thank you all for this award, and I hope that together we will keep making progress to reform the courts and restore our democracy.”

Organizers said the growing attendance at the annual reception and the expanding Congressional Freethought Caucus reflect increasing recognition that Americans of every faith and none deserve equal representation in public life.

###

American Humanist Association:

The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

Freedom From Religion Foundation:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

The Secular Coalition for America:

The Secular Coalition is a group of diverse organizations representing atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nonreligious Americans. The Secular Coalition for America is a dedicated lobbying organization within the Coalition, whose mission is to advocate for the equal rights of nonreligious Americans and defend the separation of religion and government.

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Defending The Indefensible: God’s Endorsement Of Biblical Slavery

Pastor says U.S. is not a Christian country, but he’s wrong about why

Polite Christian thinks the star of David was a comet

FFRF demands that Fla. sheriff’s office stop coercive inmate baptisms

Screenshot courtesy of Christian Broadcasting Network

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office that a recent event where it baptized inmates was a grave constitutional violation. 

A Christian Broadcasting Network article reports that the Sheriff’s Office (headquartered  in DeFuniak Springs, Fla.) recently partnered with First Apostolic Church of DeFuniak Springs and New Life Church of Santa Rosa Beach with the apparent purpose of baptizing inmates at Walton County Jail and encouraging them to convert to Christianity. According to the July 15 article, 69 inmates were baptized at Walton County Jail in the coordinated “mass baptisms” organized by the Sheriff’s Office and the two churches. Furthermore, these churches have partnered to hold mass baptisms at other jails before, indicating that the Walton County Sheriff’s Office was aware of the churches’ intentions. The baptisms appeared to have taken place on jail property. Inmates are photographed in the article being baptized by Walton County Sheriff’s Office employees. 

The sheriff’s office public information officer, Corey Dobridnia, told reporters that part of the office’s “mantra” is “trying to make men and women who are incarcerated in our jail better people, and introducing them to the Lord. And then being baptized is sort of a rebirth for them.”

FFRF is demanding that the Walton County Sheriff’s Office immediately put a stop to this unconstitutional promotion of religion.

“By organizing and hosting inmate baptisms, the sheriff’s office is unconstitutionally favoring religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson Jr.

A correctional facility is an inherently coercive environment and inmates and detainees are literally a captive audience. When the Walton County Sheriff’s Office entangles itself with religion and makes it clear that it’s encouraging inmates to convert to Christianity, inmates will no doubt feel pressured to convert and participate in religious activities to be seen as cooperative and well behaved. Inmates and detainees who are aware of the Sheriff’s Office’s promotion of Christianity will not genuinely feel free to refuse to participate in its religious activities. This is constitutionally impermissible. 

Law enforcement must be even-handed and avoid any appearance of bias towards some citizens, and hostility towards others, the FFRF letter emphasizes. Walton County Sheriff’s Office employees can practice their personal religion any way they wish when acting in their personal capacities. However, they are not permitted to use the machinery of government and taxpayer money to promote their personal religion to inmates or the wider community. The Sheriff’s Office’s promotion of religion and conversion to Christianity needlessly marginalizes the 38 percent of Americans who are non-Christians, including the nearly one in three adult Americans who are religiously unaffiliated.

To comply with the First Amendment and to protect the rights of all inmates held in Walton County Jail, FFRF is asking that the sheriff’s office halt inmate baptisms.

“First Amendment violations in incarceration facilities are particularly egregious, given the abuse of a literal captive audience,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “The right to be free from religious coercion is not stripped from a citizen when they are in prison. These baptisms must stop immediately.” 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members and several chapters across the country, including nearly 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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FFRF co-hosts secular gathering on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress, national secular leaders and advocates joined together in a Capitol Hill reception room Tuesday evening for the third annual Congressional Reason Reception.

The reception celebrated the Congressional Freethought Caucus, reason, constitutional democracy and the growing visibility of nonreligious Americans in public life. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Humanist Association and the Secular Coalition for America hosted an evening filled with wit and humor, with leaders of the secular movement and keynote speaker Mary L. Trump.

The reception has served as a celebration of reason and joy in public life, a secular alternative to the dour and sanctimonious National Prayer Breakfast as debates over Christian nationalism, religious exemptions and the separation of church and state continue to shape national politics. Organizers said the event demonstrates that Americans who value secular government are increasingly organized and visible on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, has quipped that it is “a boozy alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast.”

“Our country was founded on freedom of religion and church-state separation. No wannabe king or theocratic sycophant hellbent on controlling people through religious extremism will change that,” says Huffman. “Folks from all walks of faith — or none at all — came together to celebrate something far more American: a government run by reason, freedom of conscience and the Constitution. That’s what the Reason Reception is all about. No matter how hard Christian nationalists fight to overturn democracy and force their extremism on the American people, we will be here defending church-state separation and our fundamental rights.”

“Every year, some of the most reasonable people I know assemble to highlight the essential role that reason plays in protecting democracy, liberty, progress and justice for all,” says Freethought Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “The Congressional Reason Reception celebrates and revives the spirit of Tom Paine and Ben Franklin and our Enlightenment Constitution, which cast off centuries of religious fanaticism and dogma, Holy Crusades, witch trials, Inquisitions and theocratic rule to usher in a new era of self-government, reason and democracy. Congratulations to our honorees, Katherine Stewart and Alison Gill, who are doing fine work to champion reason and common sense in our own time.”

“All you need to do is read the Declaration of Independence to understand that our Founders did not want and did not intend for this to be a religious country,” says Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. “And now, when you look at what is happening with this administration and with Republican MAGA colleagues, they want this to be a white Christian nation. It is not — and we will not let that happen. With your voices here and across the country, we will stop that from happening. We want the next generation to know that this is a country where you are free to believe in religion or free to not believe in religion.”

“When I first came into Congress eight years ago, someone told me that religion is what politicians talk about when they don’t want to talk about ethics,” says Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill. “And there is a deep truth there. I think the inverse of that is equally true, that if you talk about ethics, people think you’re talking about their religion. And I think there’s a power there. There’s an ability there. What I think you challenge us to do, and what we have to challenge ourselves to do, is to speak about ethics and morality in a way that doesn’t fall back on those religious texts.”

“Trump has learned that to say ‘God’ or ‘gun’ gets you votes,” says Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. “And as I said in committee today, he is totally irreligious and doesn’t have any idea of Matthew. Being in legislatures and congresses has taught me a lot about religion because so many people use it. … Trump knows nothing about it. He is so obviously areligious. He really should be here with us, the other heathens. But he uses God to get votes, which is a corruption of God. And all about Christian nationalism is a corruption of Christian.”

Mary Trump, the keynote speaker, remarks: “We’ve been on a very dark path for a very long time. So we need to do a better job of explaining to people why allowing religion and government to become intertwined is fatal to the American experiment on the one hand and detrimental to the pursuit of our freedoms on the other. We have the benefit, those of us in this room, of reason, of perspective. A lot of people who have made the choices they’ve made and voted the way they have voted don’t have those luxuries. So we, from the benefit of where we stand, need to extend these people grace because that way I truly believe we can make common cause with people who in the grand scheme of things have suffered as much from their choices as others have. And I think that’s the way forward.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast tells everyone who isn’t the right kind of Christian that they don’t quite count as Americans. We reject that,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “This country belongs to all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, and no one needs to bow their head to belong here.”

“Thomas Paine called it ‘the cause of America’: the conviction that free minds, working together through reason, could govern themselves better than any king or church ever had,” says Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. “Last night’s room, packed with members of Congress and humanists from across the country, was proof that cause is still alive. Now we take it to statehouses, school boards, and every corner of this country, and build the nation Paine imagined: one where reason and compassion govern together, and empathy is not a matter of faith, but of conscience.”

Steven Emmert, executive director, The Secular Coalition for America, says, “This reception is called the Congressional Reason Reception and I think that’s fitting not because reason belongs to secular Americans alone, but because reason belongs in public service.”

The Congressional Reason Reception coincides with the growing strength of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which now counts 37 members, and reflects a secular movement that continues to gain ground on Capitol Hill.

The evening also recognized recipients of the Age of Reason Award and Common Sense Award for their contributions to advancing secular government and freedom of conscience.

“I don’t need to tell you that 250 years after Thomas Paine helped launch the American Revolution, our democracy is in crisis,” says Katherine Stewart, recipient of the Age of Reason Award. “This is no time for the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot. This is the time to fight like hell for our country and our founding ideals of equality, pluralism, reason, justice, and the rule of law.”

“We need courts that are fair, unbiased, and that will uphold the Constitution, and enforce our rights and protect our democracy — not ignore it to salute their political or Christian Nationalist agenda,” says Alison Gill, recipient of the Common Sense Award. “And the Congressional Freethought Caucus plays an especially important role in showing the harms caused by this Christian nationalist agenda and pushing back against it. So I truly want to thank you all for this award, and I hope that together we will keep making progress to reform the courts and restore our democracy.”

Organizers said the growing attendance at the annual reception and the expanding Congressional Freethought Caucus reflect increasing recognition that Americans of every faith and none deserve equal representation in public life.

Freedom From Religion Foundation:
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

The Secular Coalition for America:
The Secular Coalition is a group of diverse organizations representing atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nonreligious Americans. The Secular Coalition for America is a dedicated lobbying organization within the Coalition, whose mission is to advocate for the equal rights of nonreligious Americans and defend the separation of religion and government.  

American Humanist Association:
The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which — without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces — encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

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FFRF: Incoming Texas comptroller must abandon reported religious litmus test

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that incoming Texas Comptroller Don Huffines immediately disavow reported plans to judge state employees based on their beliefs.

According to reports, Huffines recently told top staff that his priorities in the workplace would be “Jesus, family and work,” and indicated that employees would be judged on how Christian they are when he decides whether to retain them after taking office. FFRF warns that any religious test for public employment is blatantly unconstitutional.

“If these reports are accurate, they describe an astonishingly blatant violation of the Constitution,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public employment is not conditioned on religious belief, and no government official has the authority to impose a Christian litmus test on state employees.”

FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler has sent a letter to Huffines asking that he immediately rescind any such policy and make clear to employees that there are no religious requirements for serving in the Office of the Comptroller. If he is unwilling to do so, FFRF insists that he should decline the appointment.

The Constitution is unequivocal on this point. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office. At the same time, Article I, Section 4 of the Texas Constitution likewise bars any religious test as a qualification for public office. In Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that neither the federal government nor any state may constitutionally require a person to profess or reject a religious belief as a condition of public service.

The Supreme Court has also repeatedly affirmed that the First Amendment requires government neutrality between religion and nonreligion. Favoring Christians in hiring or retention decisions sends an unconstitutional message that non-Christians and nonreligious citizens are second-class participants in their own government.

“The Texas Comptroller’s Office serves every Texan, not just Christian Texans,” Ziegler adds. “Employees should be evaluated on their competence, integrity and job performance, not whether they subscribe to the religious beliefs favored by their boss.”

The comptroller’s office itself states that it “serves virtually every citizen in the state.” Yet roughly one-third of Texans are not Christians, including approximately 26 percent who identify as religiously unaffiliated. These Texans are equally entitled to compete for and hold public employment free from religious discrimination or coercion.

Beyond violating the Constitution, any effort to favor Christian employees or penalize non-Christian employees could expose the state to liability under federal and state employment discrimination laws.

FFRF is calling on Huffines to publicly clarify that no employee will be judged, retained or dismissed based on religion and that the office will comply fully with its constitutional obligation to remain neutral on matters of faith.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 41,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including 1,800 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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In 2026, atheists make up only 0.066% of the federal prison population

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There are 153,834 people in the U.S. federal prison system as of May 30, 2026 and exactly 101 of them identify as atheists. Those self-described atheists make up a mere 0.066% of the federal prison population.

That’s according to a Freedom of Information Act request I filed with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

I’ve made similar requests in the past and the numbers have been roughly the same each time, though this year’s numbers are the lowest I’ve ever seen. That suggests this proportion isn’t changing even as the percentage of non-religious Americans in the general population has (mostly) increased over the past two decades. (Self-identified atheists now represent about 5% of the population. “Nones” are about 29%.)

More to the point, it means the presence of atheists in U.S. federal prisons is significantly lower than what we find in the general population.

For the sake of comparison, Protestants (of all stripes) represent about 40% of America, but only 16.3% of federal prisoners.

Catholics are 19% of the population, but 11.8% of federal inmates.

Muslims are 1% of the population, but 10.0% of those inmates.

The religion of 3.1% of federal inmates is “Unknown.”

Why such big discrepancies? Because 37.0% of federal inmates have no stated religious or non-religious label at all.

Humanists in federal prison

In 2015, because of a lawsuit filed by the American Humanist Association, the federal prison system agreed to acknowledge “Humanism” as a religious option, allowing nonreligious inmates to identify with that label and receive the same perks afforded to religious inmates, such as access to meeting space and the ability to discuss their beliefs with large groups. (“Atheists” do not receive the same opportunities.)

What do we know about the inmates in federal prison who identify as “Humanist” (rather than “atheist” or anything else)?

There are 51 inmates who use that label, representing a mere 0.033% of the total inmates. Even if all of those people identified as “atheist” instead of “Humanist,” that combined group would still make up less than 0.1% of the federal prison population.

These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt

There is bound to be a temptation to suggest these numbers show that atheists are more moral than religious people. But I would avoid saying that for a variety of reasons.

1. We don’t know why all of these people ended up in prison. The reasons are often much more complicated than we imagine. When you consider that high poverty rates, low formal education levels, and plain old racism are significant factors in incarceration rates, and that religious belief tends to correlate with many of those factors, it makes little sense to argue that atheists are better people using these numbers. Many of the same factors that help people ditch their faith also help them avoid the kind of decisions that lead to prison, whether it’s formal education or higher income levels. It’s not that religiosity and criminality are correlated, but rather that systemic problems and socioeconomic disparities in our justice system overlap with the kind of people who rely on religion to get through life.

2. All of these religious affiliations are self-reported. We don’t know how many atheist or Humanist prisoners fall into the categories of “No Preference,” Other, or Unknown. Hell, for all we know, some of them may have said they were “Catholic” because that’s the faith in which they were raised. There are also benefits to claiming you’re religious in prison that have nothing to do with the afterlife, and it’s possible that inmates who don’t believe in God (or don’t think about God at all) are either unfamiliar with the term “atheist” or unaware that they could use the “Humanist” label while also getting the perks of religious membership.

3. There are benefits for former inmates who are religious. There’s no shortage of stories of former inmates who receive shorter sentences or special perks or parole in part because they “found God” while behind bars. It also makes for a more inspirational story. While many of those anecdotes are undoubtedly true, it’s possible inmates cling to a religious label because they believe they’ll be perceived as better people. A Pew Research Center report from 2012 quoted a prison chaplain who said a lot of religious “switching” occurred behind bars, but those decisions were “primarily privilege based and not religiously based in my experience.” In other words, some prisoners said they were religious to get the benefits associated with it, not because they changed their theology. On the flip side, it’s also possible that some devout believers were so ashamed to admit their faith (and their hypocrisy) that they simply said they were non-religious, as if that might explain their crimes. We’re taking all this information at face value without the ability to dig deeper.

4. The data only take into account the demographics in the federal prison system. There are many more prisons out there at the state level, and I do not have the religious demographics of that population.

5. It’s unclear when this information was acquired. Was it when the prisoners were first admitted into prison? What if they changed their minds while in prison? How well does it reflect their current thinking about God? We simply don’t have those answers. If you’re just a nominal Christian (the sort of person who goes to church on Christmas and Easter but doesn’t care much beyond that), you might not go out of your way to make sure your religious label is Christian in order to access the benefits that come with it.

Why these numbers are still useful

Even with all those caveats, though, this information is enormously helpful for the general public because it counters the assumption that “immoral” atheists are found at higher rates in prison than in the general population.

Sociologist Phil Zuckerman wrote a book in 2019 called What It Means to Be Moral: Why Religion Is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life (affiliate link), in which he talked about why atheists were undoubtedly coming out ahead on questions of morality:

In terms of who supports helping refugees, affordable health care for all, accurate sex education, death with dignity, gay rights, transgender rights, animal rights; and as to who opposes militarism, the governmental use of torture, the death penalty, corporal punishment, and so on—the correlation remains: The most secular Americans exhibit the most care for the suffering of others, while the most religious exhibit the highest levels of indifference.

The pandemic worked the same way; atheists were overwhelmingly on the side of science, vaccines, face masks, and social distancing while white evangelicals were… not. To put that another way, the things white evangelicals usually claimed as evidence of their morality didn’t actually show anything of the sort.

That line of reasoning applies to serious crimes as well. If you’re religious, the thinking goes, you would never do something so awful as to land you behind bars. Those who do such things aren’t real Christians, they argue. But when Protestants make up approximately 16.3% of the federal prison population, and Catholics represent 19%, and Muslims represent 10.0%, which we now know they do, it’s much harder to argue all of those people are exaggerating their beliefs.

And when finding an openly non-religious inmate in prison becomes as tough as finding a needle in a haystack, it’s much harder for Christian apologists and pastors to argue that faith is necessary to keep people on a righteous path.

These numbers are also helpful because it forces people to have a deeper discussion about our prison system as a whole and the role religion plays before and after anyone enters it. Handing prisoners a Bible will not make them better people. Requiring them to meet with religious chaplains, or listen to visiting ministers, or participate in Bible studies when they don’t actually believe any of that won’t make them better people.

In a statement, American Atheists’ Legal Director Geoffrey T. Blackwell told me, “the U.S carceral system continues to treat faith-based programming as the default solution for rehabilitation and recovery.” He said we have to work to make sure all prisoners “have access not only to sectarian choices but to comparable and meaningful secular alternatives.” AA President Nick Fish added: “Within a system that assumes religion, there is no incentive—and, too often, very real risk—in identifying as an atheist.“

They’re right to note the path to redemption does not necessarily go through God. As Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Chris Line told me in response to this data, “prisons should provide meaningful secular programming and support alongside religious options. If a number of incarcerated people are nonreligious—or simply don’t identify with a faith—they should have equal access to rehabilitation, counseling, recovery programs, and community that aren’t tied to religion.”

For anyone interested in the federal prison religious demographics, along with a breakdown for each federal prison, you can see the information here.