The United States is a secular nation. We have a secular Constitution and Bill of Rights. While America is one of the most religious nations on the face of the 6,024-year-old earth :), we have freedom of and from religion. There is a wall of separation between church and state. Christians are free to practice their religion without government interference. This freedom, however, is not absolute. Churches are expected to follow building codes, fire laws, and health and safety mandates. Worshipping a deity doesn’t exempt them from their societal duties and obligations.
These things were universally understood by believers and unbelievers alike until the advent of the modern culture war. Today, millions of Evangelicals believe the United States is a Christian nation, that there is no separation of church and state, and the teachings of the Bible should be the law of the land.
Yesterday, Michael, a Christian (Evangelical?) blogger who spends his days raging against atheism, wrote a post titled What is Secular Privilege? Here Are Ten Everyday Examples. As you shall see, Michael whines and complains about his flavor of Christianity not being given preferential treatment.
Here are excerpts from seven of his examples of secular privilege:
Your Wages Aren’t Lower Because You are Religious
While I was unable to find any solid studies that compare the income of religious vs. secular people, this Pew Research survey found that atheists and agnostics have a higher household income than members of most religions. For example, while almost 60% of atheists have an income of more than $50,000 per year, only about 30% of Baptists do.
While the Pew data don’t measure religiosity itself, it is worth noting that the religious group with the highest household incomes also happens to be the least religious.
People Don’t Make Assumptions About Your Intelligence Because Of Your Religion
A common stereotype about religious people is that they are stupid.
You Don’t Feel Pressure To Represent Your Religion
Secular people never have to worry that if they make a mistake, people will assume they made it because secular people are less capable. On the other hand, if you belong to a religion, a mistake (intellectual or ethical) will be used as something that represents your religion. Being secular absolves you from this pressure to defy your religion’s stereotype so that your mistakes don’t hurt others of who share your religious faith.
Most Products Are Geared Toward You
A secular person can go into any corner convenience store to buy beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, or other secular goods and walk out with something that suits them. Religious people will not find religious items so readily available (like pocket Bibles or kosher food), reminding them that in the eyes of mainstream culture, they are invisible.
Most Media Is Geared Toward You
Secular people can feel fairly confident that they will see people like them represented on TV, in movies, in magazines, in books, and all over the Internet. The media is clearly secular, as one can easily watch Netflix all weekend and listen to the radio in their car all week, catch a movie on a Friday night, and read the newspaper every morning without being exposed to religious messages/themes/people.
Beauty Standards Aren’t Rigged Against You Because Of Your Faith
The rigid beauty standards depicted in the media harm all women, and that harm can be due to factors other than religion. But many religious women express their faith through modesty of dress. Some refuse to wear pants or makeup and others cover their heads. Yet the beauty standards of most women’s magazines, fashion designers, and the various ads found throughout the media portray women who are scantily dressed with lots of makeup. Secular women don’t usually feel the same pressure to uncover themselves and paint their faces.
A secular education for your child is free.
If you are a secular parent wanting your children to have a secular education, the government provides free schooling from ages 5-18. What’s more, these schools effectively have a zero-tolerance for any religious expression in the schools and the courts routinely enforce efforts to censor if a violation is uncovered. On the other hand, if you want your child to have an education that includes religious considerations and values, you will have to pay large sums of money. Assuming a modest tuition of $3000/year for K-8th grade, and $10,000/year for 9th-12th grade, religious parents can end up paying $67,000 for something that secular parents get for free. Of course, since many religious parents cannot afford such an education, they are forced to send their children to secular schools that promote secular values and outlooks.
It would seem to me that anyone who is honestly and seriously interested in social justice would pay attention to secular privilege and seek to check it. But alas, no one in the social justice movement is willing to acknowledge even the existence of secular privilege. Could it be because the social justice movement itself champions and defends secular privilege? After all, we know in the atheist community, there is a huge overlap among anti-religious activism and social justice activism. And could it thus be that their posturing about social justice itself is just self-serving deception?
I will leave it commenters to dissect and eviscerate Michael’s whine. I do, however, want to address his claims that most products and media are geared towards secularists. My first thought was “are you fucking kidding me?” Where does Michael live? In a deep, dark cave somewhere? Everywhere I look, I see Christian churches, Christian TV, Christian radio, Christian blogs, Christian podcasts, Christian books, Christian movies, Christian kitsch, etc. I live in rural northwest Ohio. There are hundreds of Christian churches, many of them Evangelical, within 30 minutes or so of my home. Everywhere I look, I see Jesus hanging out street corners like prostitutes selling their wares.
Countless business owners advertise the fact that the dead Jesus is their business partner. The fish sign and the cross are prominently displayed in advertising, letting local Christians know Jesus changes oil, cleans carpets, repairs cars, gives massages, and roofs/paints houses. These business owners deliberately cater to the dominant religious demographic. I’ve yet to see an ad geared towards secularists, atheists, agnostics, or other non-Christians. Why? Business is all about making money. Why limit your potential pool of customers? A smart business owner caters to everyone. Personally, I don’t support businesses that explicitly advertise themselves as Christian. I let one such business owner know I wouldn’t be frequenting his establishment. The owner let me know that he didn’t need any business from atheists and libtards. His store later went out of business. Would income from secular and atheist customers have saved his business? Probably not. The owner was an all-around asshole, so I suspect that’s the reason his business closed. That said, I did feel a sense of satisfaction when I saw his storefront empty.
Earlier this week, the Village of Ney (where I live) fielded a request for information about opening a medical marijuana facility in town (more on this in a future post). The mayor and council, all of whom are Christians, rejected the request out of hand. Why? Though left unstated, I am sure their Christian beliefs and personal moral standards led to them rejecting this request. Jesus doesn’t toke dope, right? End of discussion.
I see nothing in our secular society that limits the ability of Christians to make money, worship Jesus, or metaphorically masturbate to their heart’s content to the triune God of the Bible. Of course, Christians such as Michael want and demand more than religious freedom. They want preferential treatment. Most of all, they want every knee to bow to Jesus, the Bible, and Donald Trump. Theocracy is the goal.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Michael does a wonderful job in continuing the stereotype of the less than intelligent Christian in his lies. And gee, working in reality may indeed allow some non-believers to make more money.
Christians have so much to bear: They are informed of their uselessness and filth by the God they think wrote a book for them and they admit how miserably lost they are…. Is it any wonder that this self-harm translates into a sense of persecution in the world? My goodness, they harm themselves with their beliefs and then sense that others are not sympatico, that others believe human beings must help human beings, that ‘God(s)’ seem to reduce otherwise reasonable folk to sheep, unable to maintain their independence of thought, unable to embrace the world and respect others, fleeing common sense and Science.
My older brother, an evangelical, says: “We shouldn’t worry at all about COVID-19. We should be ready to face God. If God calls us, we should be ready!”
This kind of disregard for basic self-care is foundational Christianity as it is practiced in the evangelical world.
How could it ever be possible for an evangelical to feel supported by other human beings when they have abdicated self-care, when they have decided to think of themselves as rubbish without a ‘God’. I care for my evangelical brother and want him to get vaccinated and have some protection for himself and others. But he thinks God is informing him. So now, the mandate to be vaccinated becomes unreasonable to him and Science is wrong. He is able through his denial to set aside his responsibility for himself and others and to spread the virus as if it was another common-cold and not a worldwide pandemic that has often overwhelmed our medical/hospital resources. That is okay to him. ‘God’ is on his side.
This Michael fellow conveniently overlooks the fact that ‘religious entities’, the church, exists as tax-free in our culture. Tax-free! I’m quite sure Michael would be able to explain how that too is the Devil’s work and a plot to harm believers.
There are those, among believers, who still retain some common sense and know that they should be vaccinated and wear masks in public situations to help defeat COVID-19. I support not their belief in a magical being but in their actions to care for themselves and others. Being a Christian does not make it impossible to care for yourself and others but it puts you at risk of being more readily exposed to evangelicals and their extreme views. Christians are apt to gang up on others and use their beliefs to defeat prgressive ideas. In Ney, the area where Bruce resides, the local government is dominated by backward Christian authorities, elected officials who reject medical marijuana access even though it has been shown to help conditions that may not respond to other meds/treatments. They reject this opportunity to help those suffering because GOD! They spread outdated ideas about cannabis and reject progressive attitudes being allowed and tested. They would prefer we go back in time and they fear and distrust progress as a the devil working in the world to fool human beings, not help them. In fact, it is the elected officials of Ney who perpetrate harm on behalf of ‘God’, using the word ‘God’ to resist allowing people to get help, to be cared for. Have these politicians done any reading about the develoments in cannabis as medicine? Of course not… They are bullies for God, thugs in uniform who are convinced they know better. They suppress freedom and wave flags to ‘prove’ they are right. They suggest the ‘real’ USA is Christian and that is their heart intent and purpose, to force all of us to comply with their vision of the world. The paranoid idea that the secular world is putting Christians in danger is more than a bit of projection: Christians put themselves at risk and then want us all to climb aboard their ship called Denial and float blissfully backward in time.
“while almost 60% of atheists have an income of more than $50,000 per year, only about 30% of Baptists do”
Higher education tends to dispel religious belief, therefore highly-educated people are less likely to be religious, and higher education statistically correlates with higher income. I don’t know why Michael didn’t think of this, but I’ll tentatively refrain from assuming it’s because he’s stupid.
“if you belong to a religion, a mistake (intellectual or ethical) will be used as something that represents your religion”
People constantly assume that all atheists represent atheism and that bad things done by one atheist — for example, Stalin was an atheist, and Stalin was a tyrant, therefore atheism implies tyranny. Even though it’s completely ridiculous because atheism, unlike a religion isn’t a coherent ideology but merely a lack of belief in something. It’s like arguing that because Stalin didn’t believe in unicorns, his evil reflects on all people who don’t believe in unicorns.
Products/media — I live in the largest city of the least-religious state in the US, so I don’t see the religious dominance of local media that you see in rural Ohio. Religious books and other specialized religious products are widely available, though. They aren’t predominant, but they exist.
“most women’s magazines, fashion designers, and the various ads found throughout the media portray women who are scantily dressed with lots of makeup”
Market forces. They’re in the business of making money. If burqas would sell magazines, they’d be full of pictures of burqas.
I can tell you that in the Southern Baptist church I grew up in the women did NOT skimp on their makeup, and they wore the best clothing they could afford.
I personally know doctors, lawyers, college professors, and other professionals who are religious (very few are evangelicals though – and most are private about their religious practices).
It sounds like this guy views not being in a position of dominance as oppression. Sorry, dude, we live in a diverse nation. Not everyone wants your particular religion shoved in their faces 24/7.
I feel like these not jobs want a fundamentalist Christian version of Saudi Arabia, and I am here to prevent them from turning my nation into that.
[QUOTE]While I was unable to find any solid studies that compare the income of religious vs. secular people, this Pew Research survey found that atheists and agnostics have a higher household income than members of most religions. For example, while almost 60% of atheists have an income of more than $50,000 per year, only about 30% of Baptists do.
While the Pew data don’t measure religiosity itself, it is worth noting that the religious group with the highest household incomes also happens to be the least religious.[/QUOTE]
I wonder if they’ve stopped to consider why non-religious people have more money? Could it be they’ve not limited their education to fields that, outside of a niche, offers little tangible real-world benefit?
I’m not even sure how he’s interpreted the Pew Research. The chart in his post has Jews (that he terms the least religious, for reasons I’d love for him to elaborate) has the highest earners on average by far, unless he’s looking exclusively at the $50,000-$99,000 bracket. If he’s adding together that column and the $100,000+ column, 68% of Jews (surely he counts that as religion?) earn upwards of $50,000 per year! 70% of Hindus earn the same. The Episcopal Church and Presbyterian Church also have more earners of $50,000 or more than atheists or agnostics, or does not Michael not count them as Christians? As I said, I don’t know how he’s interpreting the data and I might be flawed in my interpretation.
Christian products, really? Where does this dude live where he can’t find these things? Where does he exist where he can’t find Christian programming? As far as I know, most Christians of his ilk live in a bubble where they shut out non-Christians. His ideas are laughable to those of us who would prefer not to have Christianity pushed into our face every day.
Re “A secular education for your child is free.”
This is true, but it is also true for Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Rastafarians, etc. Their children can get their secular education for free. I can’t imagine there would be a difference between secular physical education and Christian physical education. What about English instruction, would Christian English instruction be different? What about accounting? Physics? Chemistry?
Can you imagine, just imagine, the chaos if the public school system were to provide religious education? What would they teach? Would they provide Jewish education to Christians, Christian education to Buddhists? And would atheists get a period off in those schools? (I have a note from my Mom!).
Imagine if they just did Christian education. There are tens of thousands of sects of Christianity. Could any curriculum not run afoul of a large fraction of those? Are we going to have Trinity Wars again, with unitarians against trinitarians?
Do these people even know what the Hell they are saying?
Exactly. If they want a religious education, why should that be state-funded? Where does that end? I dread to imagine how many different Christian denominations exist within a 100 mile radius!
My initial reaction to Michael’s post is, shut the fuck up! “Help, help, I’m being repressed!”
The income thing has already been covered here. Not to mention that when I was a Christian, we gave about 20% of our income to the church and other ministries. It wasn’t until we quit doing this that we got out of debt! We were part of the seed sowing, prosperity gospel. The only ones who prospered were the ones that people were giving money to.
Like others have said, where the fuck do you live that you can’t find Christian products??? Every Target, Walmart, Kroger, Walgreens, etc where I live sells bibles and books by Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, etc. There is Christian fiction, Christian love stories, Christian coloring books, everywhere. Not to mention a church or two every quarter mile. The city I live in has about 800 Christian flavored churches. Mosques, synagogues, Buddhist temples, and places that welcome unbelievers number less than 10 each. My public library does not have ONE book by an atheist author. Not one! Again, where does Michael live? My city is not an exception to this shit.
As far as tv stations that I can pick up through the “air”, there are twice as many Christian channels as the others.
And his distorted view of public schools in this country is insane. My children went to public school. EVERY teacher they had was a Christian. Every teacher I know that teaches in a 50 mile radius of where I live is a Christian. You don’t think that bleeds into how the curriculum is being taught?!?! Ugh! And, it is not the public school’s job to teach kids about religion. That is up to the parents and whatever religious group they belong to.
Secular privilege my ass!
This guy… wow.
My public library’s atheist books selection could fit into a medium suitcase. The religious section? Two rows, 40 feet long and 7 feet high, stuffed full. My local Walmart has almost no best selling novels by famous authors, but shelves of Christian novels, self-help books, Bibles, and coloring books. And no science or atheist books. Our streaming services show a lot of religious shows. Churches everywhere, often giving out books and videos for free. Kosher food is in the supermarket for those who want it.
But no, for people like him, nothing less than total domination of the world will ever be good enough.
I wish he was right, that Christians were actually oppressed, but secularism is just a pluralistic society’s way to not favor any particular religion. Everything that is done is to allow the American experiment to prosper another generation. Free education? If you have a Republic that uses democratic processes to enact laws, you must have an educated populous. We don’t allow every town to elect their own district religion, because we don’t want to be like 1700s Europe where religious wars were ubiquitous.
Contrary to the oppressed thesis of the pastor, the miasma of the Christian majority is ever-present. It’s on the currency, and it is now the national motto. Go through the plethora of cable channels, welcome to the prosperity gospel. A church pay taxes? No way, even multi-million dollar “parsonages” are exempt. The problem is most of this “religion” is just fleecing the flock, and of course feeding the illusion that the United States is a Christian country. Guess again, signed way back in 1796 when many of the founding fathers were still living, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” And AMEN to that!
Michael, stop whining about “beauty standards.” If someone chooses to dress a certain way, fine. If the fashion community dresses differently, obviously it isn’t their fashion community and getting upset about it is a waste of time and emotional energy. No one’s forcing modest dressers to invest in clothing and makeup they don’t want, or to keep their TV on fashion shows all night.
(Personally I can’t stand makeup, high heels or monstrously large purses, but some people can rock that look and I wish them the best.)
I like how he threw in kosher food there as an attempt to make it seem like he’s not just about Team Jesus. Dollars to doughnuts he doesn’t even know 1) any actual Jews, 2) what kosher actually means, and 3) whether or not its availability is an issue for most Jews in the US. And he doesn’t give a shit about other religions anyway–notice he didn’t reference halal food. Christianity has been the dominant cultural force in the western world for 1500 years; his whining about secularism being somehow privileged just because Christian favoritism isn’t federally supported in this country is beyond ludicrous.
Michael responds:
https://shadowtolight.wordpress.com/2022/01/27/atheist-denies-secular-privilege/
As you shall see, he totally missed the point of my post, and he has no understanding of sarcasm and hyperbole. Just about what I’d expect from a Fundamentalist.
Bruce,
His commenter’s have practically the same response as he does. Only one or two them have rad anything here. One even says you left Christianity due to being “hurt”. From what I can tell he didn’t try to read anything. “Micheal” and his followers aren’t worth the time to look at his blog.
Kevin, in particular, seems to have a real problem with me.
I wrote a post about their comments here:
http://brucegerencser.net/2022/01/an-example-of-how-evangelicals-respond-to-atheists-who-say-something-they-dont-like/
https://religionnews.com/2022/05/12/study-girls-raised-by-jewish-parents-outperform-christians-academically/ The person complaining about secular privilege perhaps should not have pointed to those statistics. If nothing else, if someone does decided to convert to some type of religious belief system, if this person looks at the income achievement part of non-believers and certain religious groups, that person might think ” Become a Baptist and doom myself to earning less income and my girls underperforming academically in comparison to those of Jewish parents, maybe that isn’t such a good idea”.
What do secularists like the Freedom From Religion do when there is a Nativity in public? Or a cross in public? Or a Ten Commandments? Yes,that’s right they whine. We have our religious holidays,Christmas,Easter,and Thanksgiving,treated with disrespect in the retail industry,advertising,and radio songs due to secular privilege. You call it whining due to that privilege,but we call it standing up for our freedom of religion. You must be religious yourself,because you believe calling it whining will stop it. It will only make it worse.
Public spaces are governed by the establishment clause and the separation of church and state. FFRF, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Americans United, and the ACLU all strive to protect our constitutional rights. If private citizens or businesses want to advertise their religion, have at it (but I won’t do business with you). However, government is secular, representing everyone, and not just your cult.
The United States is not a Christian nation. As a secular state, it is expected that the state remain neutral when it comes to religion.
Your religious freedom faces absolutely zero danger in this country. No one anywhere in any part of the United States limits your religious freedom. In fact, your religious freedom is hyper protected by governments and courts big and small. It is, in fact, constitutionally protected. So..yeah..your religious freedom is as strong as it ever has been.
Yet your religious clan is trying to regulate me everywhere, from school board and libraries all the way up to federal courts and legislatures. If you have a public gathering in a public space espousing your particular twist on religion, then it’s freedom. If I join others to call for equality and acceptance of LGBTQ people, your lot calls it perversion and stomps their feet and demands we be stopped by any means necessary. Some of your clan even call for killing those they hate.
So yeah, sure, your suffer so much religious persecution when someone says the Ten commandments should not be in a public space. Meanwhile, I will stand here and decide if going to the bathroom ( no matter which I choose) is worth the risk.
So yeah, you’d said it, it’s your privilege showing here, and your whining in not protecting freedom, but is. Actually fighting to keep the “others” from gaining equality with you.
There is a word for that…hmmmm…
Len, those holidays don’t belong exclusively to believers. My own household, and my mom & dad’s household, always celebrated Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving without any religious elements.
Religious symbols on private land, funded by individuals or a church group, are fine. The problem starts when taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for displays that promote someone else’s religion. The commons are for everyone, not just the people in your particular church.
Christmas
noun
Christ·mas ˈkris-məs
often attributive
Synonyms of Christmas
1
a Christian feast on December 25 or among some Eastern Orthodox Christians on January 7 that commemorates the birth of Christ and is usually observed as a legal holiday
Easter
noun
Eas·ter ˈē-stər
a feast that commemorates Christ’s resurrection and is observed with variations of date due to different calendars on the first Sunday after the paschal full moon
Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789
Thanksgiving Proclamation
[New York, 3 October 1789]
By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
A religious holiday is not a privilege especially when the secular dictionary defines it as Christian 🙂 as does President George Washington. It’s called Thanksgiving,so who are you giving thanks to? It’s called Christmas,and notice the word Christ,which means without Him you celebrate “mas” which makes no sense. The privilege as I stated is with the secular on those holidays as evidenced by 95% of what is sold and advertised during those 3 holidays being in favor of the secular,as is the Christmas songs on the radio. In the U.S.,Christians represent over 70% of the population,while secular stands at just over 22%,so mathematically Christians should be marketed and advertised to during Easter,Thanksgiving and Christmas because they are the far larger percentage. Which means they are disparaging a religion for financial gain.
I know of the Christian connection to these holidays. That does not change the fact that I, and a lot of other people, do not observe them for religious reasons.
I say again: The tax dollars of a non-believer should never, ever be used to support religious activities. Pay for your own fucking delusion-fests and stop picking our pockets.
Len: “Which means they are disparaging a religion for financial gain.”
Zoe: Sort of like our ancestors who slaughtered the Indigenous communities that existed here before we did. Disparaging their religions, their creator . . . all for financial gain.
Now that the war is over and our atrocities behind us, let us ask the Lord to forgive us. Let us forget. And let us eat thanking Almighty God that we survived. Amen.
Len, there’s an old saying that for those accustomed to privilege equality seems like oppression. That’s what’s happening in the US. Secularism is fighting back against Christian privilege, that has been so taken for granted that it does appear like it’s an attack. It’s not. It’s an attempt to push back the entirely unjustified incursion of Christianity into every part of the culture and it’s a battle that has to be fought relentlessly.
America’s founders did not intend for there to be a separation of God and state, as shown by the fact that all 50 states acknowledge God in their state constitutions.
http://www.churchsermon.org/library/true/church&state.htm
Len—The Founders wanted to separate religion from government. Religion is whatever people believe their deity to be and how they worship said deity. Most of the Founders were believers and thought they were guided by what they believed in. However, they remembered the religious wars of England, France and other European countries and would therefore have understood that mentioning God would render the discussion of God and government subject to someone’s interpretation of God. So they were careful to write, in the Bill of Rights, that one religion wouldn’t be favored over another.
If states mention God in their constitutions, it has nothing to do with the intention of the Founders.
The God referred to in state constitutions isn’t religion specific, and might just as easily refer to Islam or whatever. As MJ Lisbeth points out, the Founders were absolutely determined to ensure that there was no repeat of the religious turmoil that existed in Europe because of the mingling of church and state, and so they wrote the separation into the Constitution. If you think otherwise you are wrong. The link you provide is a desperately poor, low level, citation that is of no authority.
There is little use in trying to convince an evangelical. I was once one. There was an impenetrable wall between logic and superstition for me. It only came down when I began to honestly consider the facts.
People who have privilege don’t realize they have it. That might be the single most important lesson I learned during my gender affirmation process.
Then there are the corollaries to that piece of wisdom. When people who have privilege see others gaining, let alone exercising, the same privilege (I.e., achieving equality), the privileged see the previously not-privileged enjoying the same rights as “privilege” that has come at their expense. Thus, they want to revoke the newly-won rights of those who were oppressed.
I know. I experience the results every day. Like Sage, depending on where I am, I have to think about where or whether to use the bathroom—and whether I might be “doxed” or worse by someone doing “the Lord’s work.”