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

GOP Senator Rand Paul’s religious litmus test for public service should alarm us all In the News

GOP Senator Rand Paul’s religious litmus test for public service should alarm us all

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmon denounces Sen. Rand Paul's baseless opposition to Dilawar Syed’s nomination to serve as deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Louisville Courier-Journal

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

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

Covid mask and vaccination mandates aren’t Christian persecution In the News

Covid mask and vaccination mandates aren’t Christian persecution

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons writes about the responsibility that world religions have to support mask and vaccine mandates.

NBC News

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

Religious Americans Demand Climate Action Report
Calls for climate action and Line 3 pipeline protest signs are seen during a faith gathering and prayer circle in Minnesota, June 2021. (Getty/Kerem Yucel/AFP)

Religious Americans Demand Climate Action

Faith groups across the board are advocating for climate justice, including through the investments in the bipartisan infrastructure framework and reconciliation packages.

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Maggie Siddiqi

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

21 Faith Leaders To Watch in 2021 Article

21 Faith Leaders To Watch in 2021

From climate change to gun violence to civil rights, religious leaders are having a positive impact on all areas of American public life.

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Maggie Siddiqi

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

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