Illustration by Jena Luksetich from Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers is published with permission.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

Over the last dozen or so years in Iowa, we have seen a new assault on citizens’ rights, putting the future of our state in a precarious situation. It seems every other week there are reports and new sets of statistics tarnishing what was once a sterling record for Iowa on the well-being of its citizens. We have seen Iowa lose its destination status for those looking for an excellent public education as well as a dearth of coverage for mental health care. Iowa now ranks the worst in the country for OB/GYN coverage per capita and is consistently cited as an example of what not to do when it comes to stewardship of our waterways.

On top of these dire statistics, we are also seeing unprecedented assaults on the civil liberties of Iowans, from banning books in schools (and prompting at least two costly lawsuits because of it) to banning transgender Iowans from participating in sports to restricting the right to privacy and health care for half of the state’s population.

Things aren’t going so great for many Iowans, and the future may actually look darker for our most vulnerable people. However, it should be noted that while most of the policies that fueled these trends came from one side of the political aisle, there is actually a more concrete and direct golden thread throughout the changes that have come to Iowa.

That golden thread is the erosion of the wall between church and state.

Time and again when the rights of Iowans have been under assault, religious organizations have consistently supported these efforts and have framed them in strictly religious terms. This was true back when Iowa was among the first in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The backlash against the Iowa Supreme Court’s Varnum decision was swift, with religious organizations marshaling large and eventually successful campaigns to unseat the justices who were up for retention the following year. 

The well-funded campaign against the justices used expressly religious terms. Sectarian Christian organizations like the Iowa Christian Alliance, FAMiLY Leader, National Organization for Marriage, and the American Family Association marshaled nearly all the resources used to oust the justices.

History repeated itself in 2023, when Governor Kim Reynolds signed the misnamed “fetal heartbeat bill” at a FAMiLY Leader event. The near-total abortion ban replaces scientific medical reasoning and civil rights consideration with religious dogma and faith-based claims, marking another intrusion of church into the affairs of the state. Just this week, Reynolds endorsed Christianity over other religious traditions and excluded those with no faith from her consideration when she encouraged “all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display – the true reason for the season.”

Yet again we are seeing religious organizations and churches forming alliances with groups like “Moms for Liberty” in order to replace access to information and science-based education with religious indoctrination and conspiracy theory misinformation. The trend continues with the “bathroom bill” Republican lawmakers approved and Reynolds signed this year. It bars transgender Iowans from using a school bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity. This is a more egregious example as opposition to the bill came from professional medical, legal, civil rights, education, community, and even some religious groups.

The only folks in favor of taking away the rights of Iowans were some religious groups, particularly those now demonstrating an outsized influence on government by using that same erosion of church and state to push sectarian Christian tenets and principles into government. On one hand we have science and secular government in favor of protecting rights; on the other, we have groups like The FAMiLY Leader. This is not just a recent development; historically religious groups, particularly white Christian Nationalist ones, have often been at the heart of the most egregious attacks on human and civil rights in the United States. That trend continues today.

This is not to say that all religious groups or religious people are responsible for the negative trajectory Iowa has been on. Far from it. There are champions for civil and human rights in every corner of the state and from every background. Some sitting legislators, who are themselves religious and even members of clergy, stand in stark and direct opposition to these examples of bigotry above and are strong supporters of church state separation. They recognize that for every Iowan to have the most liberty and happiness possible, we cannot have church and state melded into one; theocracy is literally un-American and un-Iowan.

The actions of groups like the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and even entire denominations like the United Methodists (which has lost about one-fifth of its membership over acceptance of LGBTQ+ people!) show that being religious doesn’t mean that you ought to be tarred with the same brush as Christian Nationalists.

While it is crucial to highlight the negative consequences of the erosion of the separation between church and state, it is equally important to recognize the positive contributions many religious groups and individuals bring to our communities. Throughout Iowa’s history, religious organizations have played pivotal roles in charitable work, community development, and providing support to those in need. Many individuals find solace, purpose, and a sense of belonging through their religious beliefs, fostering a rich tapestry of cultural diversity in our society.

It is essential to distinguish between the actions of specific religious groups that enrich our communities and the potential negatives of religious influence in the political sphere. Emphasizing the need for a robust separation between church and state does not diminish the positive impact of religion in individuals’ lives or the broader community. By fostering a respectful coexistence between religious and secular perspectives, we can work towards a society that upholds both individual freedoms and collective well-being.

However, we must also recognize that the secular groups are not assaulting the wall between church and state. All of these attacks are coming from exclusively religious sources for exclusively religious reasons. Every time there is an attack on the rights of Iowans, whether it be the right to marry or the right to read a book or the right to health care access or even the right to use the bathroom, the opposition is always the same familiar Christian religious groups.

In contrast, secular groups have historically been on the side of expanding civil and human rights. When we look at the data and actions taken by the “nones”—those with no religious affiliation, including atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists, the fastest growing “religious” demographic—no other demographic has a better track record on rights. From Thomas Paine (a staunch secular abolitionist) to the formation of American Atheists (whose leader championed women’s equality in the 1960s) through today, the data overwhelmingly shows that secular groups lead the way on human rights. Groups like the ACLU, Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, and One Iowa champion the rights of all Iowans and find themselves opposite religious groups in their fights for those rights.

This phenomenon goes beyond organized groups. Pew Research has shown that the demographic that has the most consistent position in favor of egalitarian and science-based reasoning are the “nones.”

Secular groups are not looking to bar religion from the public arena. That would be as impossible as it would be un-American. Rather, the goal is to keep the government secular, in order to protect everyone’s rights. As the data and history demonstrate, the more the wall between church and state erodes, the worse it is for equality under the law, the worse it is for human rights, and the worse it is for an accountable and transparent government. Religious doctrine having an outsized influence on the government has resulted in a worse outcome for Iowa by any of the measures that we find valuable and important to us. Essentially, the more religion and faith-based reasoning we have in government, the worse off we all seem to be.

The solution is to rebuild that wall of church-state separation, for Iowa to go back to its roots and lean on science, reason, and empathy to build a better state and future for all. This work will involve all of us, religious and non-religious alike, but it is also going to take some tough looks inside of ourselves and at what faith means to us in the public square.

If we want to follow that golden thread back to where Iowa used to be regarding civil and human rights, we must repair that wall. That will mean challenging many of our preconceived notions about religion and what it means to us to have a government that respects and represents us all. It will also mean unraveling a lot of religious beliefs and influence on our legislature.

Our Liberties We Prize, and Our Rights We Shall Maintain means all Iowans. Not just Christian, not just atheist. Not just gay or straight. Not just Black or white. It means all Iowans. If we want to live up to our state’s motto, we will need to keep in check the faith-based groups that are assaulting them while supporting secular groups that protect them.