About
Secular Democrats of America is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that represents secular Democratic individuals and organizations. We advocate for secular governance, promote respect and inclusion of nonreligious Americans, and mobilize nonreligious voters. We support and empower our members with the resources, training, and support network they need to make an impact.
Our Story
What is a Secular Caucus?
A secular caucus is a group, organization, or meeting of individuals within a political party or legislative body who share the common cause of:
1) Protecting the separation of religion and government as the best guarantee of religious freedom for all Americans; and
2) Empowering the nonreligious to have an equal voice in our culture and our politics, alongside people of faith.
Secular Caucuses provide their members with the tools and resources they need to organize for power, including electing champions of religious freedom and secular democracy to office.
While the Secular Democrats of America represents Secular Caucuses within the Democratic party, there is also a Congressional Freethought Caucus and an Association of Secular Elected Officials. We are hopeful that soon there will be Secular or Freethought Caucuses in legislative bodies throughout the country.
Why join a Secular Caucus?
Mobilizing a secular voting bloc
While nonreligious and religiously unaffiliated Americans are not a monolith, they are largely united on issues such as the climate crisis, civil rights, immigration, and more, making for a powerful Democratic voting bloc. They comprise the single largest religious demographic in the Democratic party, growing from 19% in 2007 to one in three today.
The nonreligious made up 17% of the electorate in 2018 and have the potential to deliver millions of votes to the Democratic party in 2020 and beyond. Secular Caucuses are leading from the ground up, presenting an agenda that, in partnership with our faith allies, will restore religious freedom and secular democracy in America while advancing a progressive agenda that aligns with the Democratic party platform.
“Religiously unaffiliated
Americans made up 17%
of the electorate in 2018″
Taking back religious freedom
It is past time for the Democratic party to take back the mantle of religious freedom from the GOP, which has exposed its hypocrisy for all to see by supporting Donald Trump. Christian Nationalists have found willing participants in the Republican party who will join their crusade to destroy the wall of separation that protects religion from government, and government from religion.
Secular Caucuses, while advancing a positive vision of pluralism and secular democracy, are on the frontlines fighting Christian right’s agenda. We won’t stand by as they siphon taxpayer dollars into private religious institutions, establish Christianity as the de facto “American” religion, and undermine hard-won civil and human rights in the name of “religious liberty.”
70% of the religiously unaffiliated voted for Democrats in 2018
One quarter of our service members in the Armed Forces are religiously unaffiliated
Eliminating the Stigma of being Nonreligious
Christian Nationalists have been perpetuating the myth of the “Christian nation” and waging culture wars for decades in their quest for political and cultural dominance, often stoking fear and anger toward the nonreligious. Stereotypes and misconceptions about the nonreligious, particularly about atheists, are commonplace even within progressive circles.
One quarter of our service members in the Armed Forces are religiously unaffiliated, yet “there are no atheists in foxholes” and “god and country” are common refrains that continue to stigmatize and exclude the secular community. The stigma of being nonreligious is pervasive, and Secular Caucuses provide a platform through which Democrats can eliminate the stigma association with being nonreligious, participate in meaningful interfaith coalitions that are inclusive of the secular community, and organize to elect more openly nonreligious candidates that will champion our secular values.
What does a Secular Caucus stand for?
One nation, indivisible
Inclusion of the Nonreligious and Religiously Unaffiliated
We advocate for inclusion of nonreligious, nontheistic, and religiously unaffiliated people. This includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, skeptics, spiritual but not religious, and Ex communities. This “secular community,” while broadly diverse, is united by shared values.
Until all religious minorities, including the nonreligious, are respected, included, and no longer subjected to a religious litmus test to be considered American, our nation is not living up to the Constitution or our nation’s ideals of pluralism and individual freedom.
All faiths and none
Interfaith Collaboration
We celebrate and strive for pluralism and peaceful coexistence among people of all faiths and none. We welcome the support and partnership of the faith community and invite them to work with us to ensure America lives up to its ideals of religious freedom for all.
Religious freedom is a shield, not a sword
Advancing Religious Freedom
We advocate for a religious freedom that protects the freedom of religion as vigorously as one that protects freedom from religion. Free exercise of belief and the liberty to express one’s conscience is a critical constitutional right, however no one has the right to harm others in the name of religious belief. We seek to dismantle the policies that do not respect the do-no-harm principle, and to challenge the cultural and political narratives used to justify those policies.
Democracy, not theocracy
Defending our Secular Democracy
We believe that the increasing entanglement of religion and government is a threat to democracy itself. Christian Nationalists have mobilized under the radar for decades, siphoning tax dollars to religious institutions that are above the law, convincing many Americans that we are a “Christian nation,” and enacting policies at all levels of government that roll back our rights in the name of “religious liberty.” We are organizing to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Secular Democrats of America: Our Caucus Network
Click on your state to join an established or up-and-coming caucus in your area. No activity in your state? Become a member of the Secular Democrats of America, and we’ll let you know when secular Democrats are organizing in your state—or work with you to make it happen!