The bedrock democratic principle of separation of church and state is under unprecedented assault. While claiming to be victims of injustice, White Christian nationalists are cynically weaponizing the concept of religious freedom to advance a radical agenda that is eroding Americans’ rights and liberties to live freely in our society. While largely aimed at gender and reproductive justice and LGBTQ communities, these religious-based attacks are expanding in scope and starting to impact a wide range of rights, liberties, and communities.
The Rights, Faith & Democracy Collaborative (RFDC), an initiative of the Proteus Fund, educates and mobilizes philanthropy in order to raise and target desperately needed resources to diverse coalitions of state-based activists and organizations committed to realizing full inclusion and justice for those harmed by this wave of religious extremism. RFDC is one of a handful of donor collaboratives dedicated to supporting work at the intersections of faith and queer, gender, and racial justice. Our work maximizes the collective impact of funders to assist advocates and other allies, and advocates united in the belief that religious freedom should advance, not undercut civil rights, and separation of church and state is fundamental to a robust and inclusive democracy.
