Project 2026: Restore the Wall: Reclaiming the Separation of Church and State

As with all Project 2026 writing and ideas, this is just a starting position. Nothing is fixed in concrete, but we must start making a plan. Project 2025 has been in progress for 50 years, and the GOP has been playing the long game. We need to have a plan in place. Opinions, ideas, and suggestions are all welcome.

The wall separating church and state was not an afterthought of the Founders; it was their firewall. Forged by men who knew firsthand the violence of religious establishment, it was designed to protect not just democracy from dogma, but religion from the corrupting hand of power.

Even deeply religious founders, like Roger Sherman, agreed that civil government should not serve the church, nor vice versa. America was meant to be pluralistic, not pious by decree.

Restore the Wall: Reclaiming the Separation of Church and State

“History furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.”
— James Madison

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
— Thomas Jefferson

For nearly 250 years, the United States has maintained a bold, radical promise: that religion and government must remain separate, not just in policy, but in principle. That promise is now under siege.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s tactical. A coordinated, well-funded Christian nationalist movement is exploiting courts, school boards, and state legislatures to transform religious belief into law. They are building a theocracy from the bench to the ballot box, one ruling at a time.

Project 2026 doesn’t just aim to defend the wall between church and state. We’re here to rebuild it.

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A Founding Principle, Not a Footnote

The U.S. Constitution didn’t merely allow for religious diversity; it insisted on it. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause makes it crystal clear:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Yet today's Supreme Court, emboldened by decades of strategic judicial stacking, is erasing this line, one decision at a time. This is not neutrality. It is preferentialism, cloaked in liberty but born of ideology.

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Legal Reality: What’s Been Lost

In 2022, the Court officially abandoned the Lemon Test—the standard used for decades to evaluate whether government actions improperly entangle church and state. In its place: a vague appeal to "historical practices and understandings."

In Kennedy v. Bremerton, this decision upheld a public school coach leading prayers on the 50-yard line. Suddenly, government employees were reframed as private citizens during school-sponsored events.

The result? A green light for state-sanctioned religiosity cloaked in free speech.

Key Cases Accelerating Church-State Entanglement:

• Trinity Lutheran v. Comer (2017) – Public funding for religious school playgrounds.

• Espinoza v. Montana (2020) – Vouchers for religious schools cannot be excluded.

• Carson v. Makin (2022) – Maine must fund religious education via tuition programs.

• Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022) – Public prayer at public school events is permitted.

This is not neutrality. This is an establishment of religion in slow motion.

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What the Founders Actually Said

Jefferson and Madison didn’t mince words. And they weren’t alone:

“The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” — Treaty of Tripoli, 1797, under President John Adams

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion… ours is but one of a thousand systems.” — Thomas Jefferson

“The number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood… have been manifestly increased by the total separation of Church and State.” — James Madison

Even the deeply religious George Washington refused to issue proclamations of prayer, wary of state intrusion into faith.

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Refuting the Theocratic Playbook

“The Founders were religious—so the nation should be too.”

True, but they feared state-imposed religion more than unbelief. Religious belief was to be protected, not privileged.

“Letting prayer back into schools is religious freedom.”
When teachers or coaches lead it, it’s coercion, especially for students of different or no faith.

“Religious schools deserve public funding.”
Not when they discriminate based on gender, orientation, or belief. No public dollar should fund exclusion or indoctrination.

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Real-World Examples

• Ohio’s EdChoice Program
  Over 90% of funds go to religious schools, many of which teach creationism and exclude LGBTQ+ students.

• Texas State Curriculum Standards
  Rewritten to emphasize Moses over Madison and downplay slavery’s role in U.S. history.

• Florida’s Hope Scholarship
  Public funds diverted to private religious education under the guise of bullying prevention.

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How Other Nations Do It

The takeaway? Theocracy degrades both liberty and belief. Secularism protects them.

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Religious Rule Makes Life Worse

States with the deepest religious-right entrenchment (e.g., Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana) consistently rank lowest:

• Education funding

• Maternal and infant health

• Life expectancy

• Poverty reduction

More church in government doesn’t lead to moral clarity. It leads to public failure wrapped in piety. Moral posturing is not moral policy. Sanctimony does not yield justice.

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What Project 2026 Will Do

1. Codify a Federal Ban on Religious Instruction in Public K–12
Via the Secular Schools Protection Act, tied to Title I funding.

2. Enforce Political Neutrality in Religious Nonprofits
Restore the Johnson Amendment with teeth, including a public accountability portal.

3. End Public Funding for Discriminatory Religious Schools
Enact the Faith Funding Fairness Act: no taxpayer support without full inclusion.

4. Reestablish a Constitutional Standard for Church-State Separation
Introduce the 21st Century Lemon Standard—centered on neutrality, equity, and pluralism.

5. Create Oversight Bodies
DOJ’s Church-State Watch Office
White House Council on Religious Freedom Integrity

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Want to Go Deeper? *Read This:

Founding Documents

• The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom – Thomas Jefferson

• Memorial and Remonstrance – James Madison

• Treaty of Tripoli – U.S. Senate, 1797 - PDF Download

Recommended Books

• The Godless Constitution – Kramnick & Moore

• The Power Worshippers – Katherine Stewart

• Unholy – Sarah Posner

• American Crusade – Andrew Seidel

• God in the White House – Randall Balmer

Trusted Advocacy Orgs

• Americans United for Separation of Church and State

• Freedom From Religion Foundation

• Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty

* Books are linked are uncompensated and some may only be available used.

ALSO: Fuck Amazon.

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Final Word: This Is Not About Faith. It's About Freedom.

We are not anti-religion. We are anti-theocracy.

When politicians fund pulpits with public money, when courts privilege Christian orthodoxy over pluralism, when schools are used to indoctrinate instead of educate, we are no longer a democracy.

Let’s be clear:

The wall of separation is not an attack on faith. It’s the only thing that protects it.

Go back to the beginning: