Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a

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nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that advocates for the disassociation of religion and religious organizations from government. The separation of church and state in the United States is commonly interpreted to be provided in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

, which states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Organization

Americans United describes itself as officially non-sectarian and non-partisan. According to ''The Praeger Handbook of Religion and Education in the United States'' "It includes members from a broad religious, and non-religious, spectrum, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists." Its national headquarters are in

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Its former executive director, Barry W. Lynn, is an ordained minister in the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran t ...

, as well as an attorney involved with civil liberties issues.

History

Americans United for Separation of Church and State was founded on January 11, 1948,"New Protestant Group Seeks Taylor Recall From Vatican". ''The Baltimore Sun''. January 12, 1948. p. 1. as Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State (POAU) by a coalition of religious, educational and civic leaders. It was made in response to proposals pending in the U.S. Congress to extend government aid to private religious schools, particularly Catholic parochial schools, which was at the time, and continues to be, the largest system of private schools in the United States. They believed that government support for religious education would violate church-state separation and force taxpayers to subsidize sectarian education. The decision was made to form a national organization to promote and defend this point of view. It successfully protested against the appointment of a U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. They denounced the Catholic Church for disdaining democracy in the U.S. and worldwide. Officially incorporated on January 29, 1948, the organization aimed to influence political leaders, and began publishing ''Church & State'' magazine in 1952 and other materials in support of church-state separation to educate the general public. Its original founding members were Charles Clayton Morrison, Glenn L. Archer, Edwin McNeill Poteat, G. Bromley Oxnam, and Joseph Martin Dawson.

Notable work

Americans United was one of three national organizations that opposed the teaching of

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...

in Dover, Pennsylvania, public schools. A federal judge struck down the policy in December 2005 (see '' Kitzmiller v. Dover''). AU supports the right for gays and lesbians to marry, and opposes laws that would permit government officials, such as county clerks, from invoking religious freedom when refusing to issue such marriage licenses. AU started a "Protect Thy Neighbor" project to oppose such conscience legislation. Americans United represented residents of Greece, New York, who opposed that town's practice of opening its council meetings with mostly Christian prayers. AU lost the case, '' Town of Greece v. Galloway'', when the U.S. Supreme Court held that legislative prayers do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After the decision was issued, Americans United launched Operation Inclusion to advocate for making prayers "inclusive". Americans United has worked to uphold the federal law that bars non-profit groups, including houses of worship, from intervening in partisan politics. In 1992, the group reported a New York church, the Church at Pierce Creek, to the

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(IRS) after the church ran newspaper ads telling people not to vote for

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. The IRS subsequently stripped the church of its 501(c)(3) determination letter. After the church filed suit in federal court to get the determination letter back, the court noted, "because of the unique treatment churches receive under the Internal Revenue Code, the impact of the revocation is likely to be more symbolic than substantial.... Contributions will remain tax deductible as long as the donors are able to establish that the Church meets the requirements of section 501(c)(3)." Churches do not need a tax-exempt determination letter to receive all of the benefits of tax-exempt status.

Reception by Catholic Church

In its first years, a main focus of AU's activity was opposition to the political activities of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and was thus seen by critics as a Protestant-based

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and its adherents. Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cul ...

organization. AU's executive director for 25 years, Barry W. Lynn, is a critic of religious fundamentalism on the

Christian right The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation ...

and described himself as a member of the

Christian left The Christian left, otherwise referred to as the religious left, is a range of Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel based on their interpreta ...

. Professor Daniel Dreisbach argues: :In the mid-20th century, the rhetoric of separation was revived and ultimately constitutionalized by anti-Catholic elites, such as...Protestants and other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State...who feared the influence and wealth of the Catholic Church and perceived parochial education as a threat to public schools and democratic values.Daniel L. Dreisbach, "The Meaning of the Separation of Church and State" in

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