Structural Reform and Governance

Religion and Faith

Advancing a progressive vision of religious liberty and partnering with faith communities in support of all CAP’s crosscutting priorities

Protesters hold up signs that read "All Religions Welcome Here" in protest of the Trump administration's travel ban. (Getty/Win McNamee)

What We're Doing

Domestic religious liberty

We advance a progressive vision of religious freedom that affirms church-state separation and protects the rights and safety of religious minorities. We resist attempts to redefine religious liberty as a license to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and people seeking reproductive health care.

International religious liberty

We advocate for religious freedom around the world as part of an interdependent universal human rights framework that includes LGBTQ+ rights and access to reproductive health care.

Partnerships with faith communities

Religious Americans are actively involved in advocacy for the just and equitable America envisioned by CAP’s five crosscutting priorities. We partner with faith-based organizations to harness their power for progressive change.

The Religion and Faith team advances a progressive vision of religious liberty and partners with faith communities in support of all CAP’s crosscutting priorities

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Partners

We partner with a range of faith-based organizations at the national, state, and local levels. The following list is not comprehensive, and we invite other organizations to reach out if there are ways we can collaborate.

Auburn Seminary

Auburn equips leaders with the organizational skills and spiritual resilience required to create lasting, positive impact in local communities, on the national stage, and around the world.

Faith in Public Life

Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality, and the common good.

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

NETWORK works to create a society that promotes justice and the dignity of all in the shared abundance of God’s creation.

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is a movement of progressive Jews across the country who are fighting for justice and equality for all.

Sojourners

Sojourners articulates the biblical call to social justice to inspire hope and build a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.

Muslim Advocates

Muslim Advocates works in the courts, the policymaking process, and the public dialogue so American Muslims and all people can live free from discrimination.

Sikh Coalition

Through the community, courtrooms, classrooms, and Congress, the Sikh Coalition works to protect the constitutional right to practice your faith without fear.

Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism works to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Reform Jewish community to advocate for social justice.

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is building a moral fusion movement to address interlocking injustices.

Faith in Action

This national community organizing network gives people of faith the tools that they need to fight for justice and work toward a more equitable society.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Americans United for Separation of Church and State advances the separation of religion and government as the only way to ensure freedom of religion.

Interfaith Alliance

Interfaith Alliance is the only national interfaith organization dedicated to protecting the integrity of both religion and democracy in America.

The Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School

This project is a law and policy think tank based at Columbia Law School that promotes social justice, freedom of religion, and religious plurality.

National Council of Jewish Women

The National Council of Jewish Women is a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action.

Emgage

Emgage educates, engages, and empowers Muslim American communities through educational events, voter initiatives, and leadership development.

Church World Service

This faith-based organization transforms communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement, and disaster.

Friends Committee on National Legislation

The Friends Committee on National Legislation lobbies Congress and the administration to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship.

Catholics for Choice

Catholics for Choice is a nonprofit organization that lifts up the voices of the majority of Catholics who believe in reproductive freedom.

Interfaith Power & Light

Interfaith Power & Light inspires and mobilizes people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change.

Islamic Relief USA

Islamic Relief USA provides relief and development and works to empower individuals in their communities and give them a voice in the world.

Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus

Sadhana empowers Hindu American communities to live out the values of their faith through service, community transformation, and targeted advocacy work.

American Atheists

American Atheists fights for religious equality for all Americans by protecting the wall of separation between state and church created by the First Amendment.

Coalitions

We partner with a range of faith-based coalitions. The following list is not comprehensive, and we invite other coalitions to reach out if there are ways we can collaborate.

Washington Interfaith Staff Community

This network includes more than 70 Washington offices of national religious bodies and faith-based organizations. CAP is a cooperating agency.

Faith for Equality

The Faith for Equality coalition comprises more than 120 organizations working to advance the dignity of LGBTQ people.

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice brings the moral force of religion to protect and advance reproductive health, choice, rights, and justice.

Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence

Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence is a coalition of more than 50 faith-based organizations that together represent tens of millions of religious Americans.

Faithful Democracy

Faithful Democracy is a coalition of congregations, faith-based organizations, and religious leaders with a shared concern about the state of our democracy.

The Religious Equality and Liberty Coalition

The Religious Equality and Liberty Coalition brings together policy advocates across multiple progressive justice movements to advance religious liberty.

Featured work

About our team

The Center for American Progress is unique among many progressive organizations in understanding the role of religious communities in advancing progressive change. CAP originated its faith team shortly after the organization’s founding in 2003. Our team works to harness the power of religious communities to advocate for CAP’s five crosscutting priorities. We also support CAP’s mission by defending the rights and safety of religious minorities in the United States and around the world, while resisting attempts by Christian nationalists to redefine religious freedom as a license to discriminate.

Latest

Compact View

Confronting Antisemitism in America Past Event
An exterior picture of Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.

Confronting Antisemitism in America

Join leaders from the Jewish community as we explore the rise of antisemitism in America.

Online via Zoom

A Look Back on the Biden Administration’s First Year on Religious Liberty Past Event
People protest the Muslim travel ban outside of the US Supreme Court in Washington, USA on June 26, 2018.

A Look Back on the Biden Administration’s First Year on Religious Liberty

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion of the Biden administration's efforts to protect the rights and safety of religious minorities and the nonreligious, here and around the world, and to safeguard the nation’s separation of church and state.

Online exclusive

Covid vaccine and mask mandates expose alt-right Christian hypocrisy In the News

Covid vaccine and mask mandates expose alt-right Christian hypocrisy

Maggie Siddiqi explains why in the face of a deadly pandemic, religion must not be used as an excuse to avoid lifesaving vaccination and mask requirements.

NBC News

Maggie Siddiqi

The Pro-Democracy Faith Movement Past Event

The Pro-Democracy Faith Movement

Join us on December 15 to hear from prominent faith leaders about America’s pro-democracy faith movement. They will share their vision for what it takes to build a more inclusive democracy based on their wisdom traditions rooted in hope, resilience, and systemic transformation.

Religious Organizations Are Integral to the Fight Against Gun Violence Report
Chaplain speaks after Harlem peace walk.

Religious Organizations Are Integral to the Fight Against Gun Violence

Religious organizations and people of faith across the country are working to heal their communities and prevent gun violence through support for broader reforms.

Maggie Siddiqi, Benjamin Fleisher

Biden-Pope Francis visit couldn’t come at a better time In the News

Biden-Pope Francis visit couldn’t come at a better time

Authors Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons and Maggie Siddiqi discuss why President Joe Biden's meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican is an important opportunity for the two leaders and a chance for Biden, in particular, to refocus on what drives his administration.

NBC News

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Maggie Siddiqi

Personal Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Article
The sun rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City as people walk through the Empty Sky 9/11 memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 24, 2021. (Getty/Gary Hershorn)

Personal Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Staff and fellows at the Center for American Progress share how 9/11 changed their lives.

Center for American Progress staff and fellows

How an upcoming Supreme Court decision on ‘religious freedom’ could undermine religious freedom In the News

How an upcoming Supreme Court decision on ‘religious freedom’ could undermine religious freedom

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons and David Key urge communities of faith to pay attention to the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia and its potential implications for religious freedom.

Baptist News Global

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, David Key

Conservatives opposing the Equality Act don’t speak for most people of faith, and they know it In the News

Conservatives opposing the Equality Act don’t speak for most people of faith, and they know it

Author Guthrie Grave-Fitzsimmons examines the opposition to the Equality Act by members of the religious right and argues that they do not speak for the broader religious community, which overwhelmingly supports LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.

NBC News

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

The Pro-Democracy Faith Movement Report
An imam holds hands with a Jewish faith leader during a press conference with an interfaith coalition of faith leaders on the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election and rising hate crimes outside the Masjid Muhammad, The Nation's Mosque, in Washington, November 2016. (Getty/Jim Watson/AFP)

The Pro-Democracy Faith Movement

CAP brought together diverse religious leaders to explore the values underpinning the faith community’s support of democracy.

Maggie Siddiqi, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Carol Lautier

Connecting the Dots: How the Trump Administration Misuses Religious Freedom To Create a License To Discriminate Video

Connecting the Dots: How the Trump Administration Misuses Religious Freedom To Create a License To Discriminate

This video examines how the Trump administration is expanding religious exemptions in an attempt to gut civil rights protections and codify discrimination against people of minority faiths, women, and people who are LGBTQ.

Maggie Siddiqi, Kurt Mueller, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, 1 More Sharita Gruberg

Trump’s new HHS rule will harm far more people than you realize In the News

Trump’s new HHS rule will harm far more people than you realize

Maggie Siddiqi writes about the harm possible under a new rule proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Religion News Service

Maggie Siddiqi

9 LGBTQ Faith Leaders to Watch in 2019 Article
The Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart delivers a prayer at a vigil in support of the Equality Act in Washington, D.C., May 2019. (Mackenzie Harris/Faith in Public Life)

9 LGBTQ Faith Leaders to Watch in 2019

These nine LGBTQ faith leaders work to resist injustice and articulate a moral vision for the United States.

Emily London, Maggie Siddiqi, Luke Wallis

HHS Budget Would Fund Discrimination at Expense of Civil Rights Enforcement Article
OCR Director Roger Severino, center, and then-acting HHS Secretary Eric Hargan, right, watch Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) speak at a news conference announcing the creation of a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division on January 18, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Getty/Aaron P. Bernstein)

HHS Budget Would Fund Discrimination at Expense of Civil Rights Enforcement

President Trump’s HHS budget request to Congress slashes funding for civil rights enforcement and patient privacy protections while increasing funding for religious exemptions.

Sharita Gruberg

Religious Liberty Should Do No Harm Report
People take part in a candlelight vigil at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., March 2018. (Getty/Tasos Katopodis)

Religious Liberty Should Do No Harm

Policymakers should ensure that religious liberty extends to all Americans—and that it is not misused as a license to discriminate.

Emily London, Maggie Siddiqi

Faith Leaders Rally in Support of the Equality Act Video

Faith Leaders Rally in Support of the Equality Act

Faith leaders across the United States are showing support for the Equality Act, a bill that would grant members of the LGBTQ community consistent protections.

Kurt Mueller, Emily London, Rob Keithan, 1 More Laura E. Durso

Reclaiming Religious Freedom Article
An interfaith candlelight vigil remembers victims of the Holocaust, New York, January 2016. (Getty/Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket)

Reclaiming Religious Freedom

The right to religious freedom is an essential American protection, yet it has been distorted in recent years to cause harm and discrimination.

Emily London, Maggie Siddiqi

People of Faith Support LGBTQ Equality in a Philadelphia Child Welfare Case Article
A reverend of a Unitarian Universalist church in Massachusetts leads a song with other participants rallying in support of the DREAM Act. Unitarian Universalist leaders are just some of the people and organizations of faith who have signed on to support LGBTQ equality in a Philadelphia child welfare case. (Getty/Scott J. Ferrell)

People of Faith Support LGBTQ Equality in a Philadelphia Child Welfare Case

Religious organizations and people of faith affirm that LGBTQ individuals should be allowed to adopt and foster children from child welfare organizations without facing discrimination.

Emily London

Efforts by Women of Faith to Achieve Gender Equality Article
Led by Bishop Minerva Carcaño (third from left), a father and son join people from various Christian denominations at the constituent office of former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) while lobbying for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, October 8, 2013, in Washington. (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)

Efforts by Women of Faith to Achieve Gender Equality

Women of faith have played an integral role in the fight for gender equality in myriad ways, including feminist theology, leadership in houses of worship, advocacy for immigrants and refugees, and more.

Rachel Koehler, Gwen Calais-Haase

The Intersection of Youth Activism and Faith-Based Values Article
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez stands with other students during the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018. (Getty/AFP/Jim Watson)

The Intersection of Youth Activism and Faith-Based Values

Young people’s involvement in faith-based activism is not new, and their work fighting for righteous causes should be supported.

Emily London, LaShawn Y. Warren

Religious Liberty for a Select Few Report
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on

Religious Liberty for a Select Few

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ guidance is already empowering appointees throughout the administration to attack the equality and legal protections of LGBTQ people, women, and religious minorities.

Sharita Gruberg, Frank J. Bewkes, Elizabeth Platt, 2 More Katherine Franke, Claire Markham

Progressive Policy Wins in the Omnibus Article
The U.S. Capitol dome is framed by the flowers of a Saucer Magnolia tree, March 19, 2018. (Getty/Bill Clark)

Progressive Policy Wins in the Omnibus

Congress’ spending deal makes a number of important policy advances—although it shamefully leaves Dreamers behind.

Center for American Progress

10 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2018 Article
Hundreds of people gather for a candlelight vigil following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 2017. (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)

10 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2018

Follow these 10 faith leaders for a moral vision and strong resistance to injustice.

Gwen Calais-Haase, LaShawn Y. Warren

Tales and Truth in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Arguments Article
Charlie Craig, left, and David Mullins touch foreheads after leaving the Supreme Court, which heard <em>Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission</em>, December 5, 2017, in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Tales and Truth in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Arguments

A ruling for Charlie Craig and David Mullins would dispel three key misunderstandings and underscore the dignity of LGBTQ people.

Claire Markham

God, Roy Moore, and Faith in the Resistance Podcast

God, Roy Moore, and Faith in the Resistance

This week, Michele and Igor chat with two guests and discuss the intersection of religion and politics, specifically Christian nationalism and the pairing of progressivism and faith.

Michele L. Jawando, Igor Volsky, Sally Tucker, 2 More Jack Jenkins, Rachel Rosen

Masterpiece Cakeshop Ruling Could Turn Back the Clock 50 Years Article
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., is seen at sunset, October 2017. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Masterpiece Cakeshop Ruling Could Turn Back the Clock 50 Years

The case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court is not about cakes or even just the LGBTQ community; it’s a fight for civil rights and the kind of society Americans want to live in.

Frank J. Bewkes, Billy Corriher

In 2016, White Evangelicals Acted More White Than Evangelical Podcast

In 2016, White Evangelicals Acted More White Than Evangelical

Michele and Igor chat with author Reza Aslan about Tuesday's elections and the role of religion in the Trump movement.

Michele L. Jawando, Igor Volsky, Sally Tucker, 1 More Rachel Rosen

Mississippi Faith Leaders Fight Discrimination Video

Mississippi Faith Leaders Fight Discrimination

Faith leaders in Mississippi combat a discriminatory bill targeting members of the LGBTQ community.

Claire Markham, Sejal Singh, Andrew Satter, 1 More Aki Suzuki

Faith and Reproductive Justice Voices on the Contraception Mandate Video

Faith and Reproductive Justice Voices on the Contraception Mandate

Faith and reproductive justice leaders speak out against President Trump’s rule to deny women contraceptive coverage.

Jamila Taylor, LaShawn Y. Warren, Andrew Satter

Who Seeks Religious Accommodations to Providing Contraceptive Coverage? Article
Any effort to deny access to affordable contraceptive care is an infringement on women’s reproductive rights and justice, March 2014 (AP/Charles Dharapak)

Who Seeks Religious Accommodations to Providing Contraceptive Coverage?

New data show that for-profit corporations make up the majority of entities seeking exemptions from providing no-cost contraception under the Affordable Care Act.

Laura E. Durso, Sharita Gruberg, Jamila Taylor, 1 More Theresa Chalhoub

How the Religious Liberty Executive Order Licenses Discrimination Article
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during his interview with The Associated Press, July 28, 2017, at the National Police Headquarters in San Salvador, El Salvador. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

How the Religious Liberty Executive Order Licenses Discrimination

Far from maintaining the status quo, the religious liberty executive order permits Attorney General Sessions to remove protections that Americans rely upon in everyday life.

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, Sharita Gruberg

Wage Discrimination: Behind the Numbers Article
A plaintiff, center, speaks after a news conference in the field office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to announce a settlement in their case in Denver, February 2016. (AP/David Zalubowski)

Wage Discrimination: Behind the Numbers

Understanding the breadth of wage discrimination charges is critical to ensuring that the United States pursues solutions responsive to the diverse needs of workers.

Jocelyn Frye, Kaitlin Holmes

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