Jacob Asay

I believe that the single biggest threat to religious freedom in the United States today is Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is antithetical to the constitutional ideal that belonging in American society is not predicated on what faith one practices or whether someone is religious at all.. At the center of it all is our public schools. There is an effort across this state and across this nation to bring religion into our public schools. We’ve seen this threat manifest in two primary ways: 1) Government funding of religious instruction; and 2) Censorship of curriculum and materials that don’t align with Christian nationalist ideology. This ideology is held overwhelmingly by white Americans, so it tends to exacerbate racial and ethnic differences. And what we’re seeing is an attempt to whitewash American history and erase LGBTQ people from public life, as well as critical race theory (CRT) and attempts to ban it. Examples include: History teachers aren’t sure how to cover slavery. English teachers are being told to remove from their curriculum books by Black authors about the Black experience. Librarians are being told to pull books from shelves. This bill will allow legislators- many of whom have zero background in Education, let alone Child Development, to be able to override the expertise and experience of educators in order to force their own views on an entire district and state. In summary: *The first two clauses of the First Amendment proclaim religious liberty: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Futher the clauses include: The guarantee that the government does not prefer religion over non-religion and does not favor one faith over others. This is commonly called the Establishment Clause because it prohibits the government from establishing an official religion of the United States.The right to religious belief and expression. This is commonly called the Free Exercise Clause because it gives us the right to exercise our faith or not. I believe: *People of all faiths and none have the right and responsibility to engage constructively in the public square. *One’s religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing in the civic community. *Government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over nonreligion. *Religious instruction is best left to our houses of worship and other religious institutions. I urge NH Legislators to vote NO. This bill will surely be fought all the way to the Supreme Court based on our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. It troubles me deeply that there are people in the NH Congress that seek to impose their religious values on others in clear violation of the law. Vote NO!