Arkansas Among Worst States for Stigma and Discrimination Against Nonreligious People, Survey Finds
Little Rock, AR—May 5, 2020—Today, the civil rights organization American Atheists released Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, a comprehensive report drawn from the groundbreaking U.S. Secular Survey. Organized by a team of researchers and counting nearly 34,000 nonreligious participants, including 413 Arkansans, the U.S. Secular Survey is the largest ever data collection project on secular Americans and their experiences.
“At 75 million people, religiously unaffiliated Americans are as large a demographic as either Evangelical Christians or Catholics, and explicitly nonreligious people comprise a growing share of the population, yet before the U.S. Secular Survey there had been a lack of focused research on our community,” said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, who helped lead the project. “What we found shocked us. Discrimination and stigma against nonreligious Americans is widespread and extremely harmful, and it was most intense in very religious communities.”
With more than 7 in 10 Arkansas participants (71%) calling their community “very religious,” Arkansas ranks as the 5th most religious state. In January, American Atheists ranked Arkansas among the worst states in the country for religious equality. Similarly, Arkansas survey participants reported that Arkansas had the highest rate of stigma against nonreligious people in the country after Mississippi and Utah.
“Discrimination against atheists, agnostics, and nonreligious people is all too common in Arkansas, and I know it first-hand,” said Karen Dempsey, American Atheists’ Arkansas Assistant State Director and a plaintiff in the organization’s lawsuit against Arkansas State Senator Jason Rapert, who blocked Karen and three other Arkansas plaintiffs on government controlled social media for their atheism.
In the 2017 case, Packingham v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court recognized that platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide “the most powerful mechanisms available to a private citizen to make his or her voice heard.” However, 58.3% of U.S. Secular Survey participants reported negative experiences on social media due to their nonreligious identity.
“Senator Rapert targeted me for being nonreligious and violated my First Amendment rights,” added Karen. “It was not only yet another troubling display of Senator Rapert’s disregard for the Constitution, it was cruel, hurtful, and isolating—and has prevented me from voicing my opinions on key policy issues during Rapert’s conversations with my fellow Arkansans.”
The Reality Check report found that participants who had negative experiences on social media because of their nonreligious beliefs reported a 33% higher rate of depression than other participants.
“Christian supremacists like Jason Rapert are not only violating the Constitution, they are contributing to a culture of intolerance that is deeply harmful to nonreligious people,” said Nick Fish, president of American Atheists. “Seeing elected officials weaponize religion against the people they’re supposed to represent is disgusting.”
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If you have questions about Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America or the U.S. Secular Survey, our team is happy to connect you to our experts, researchers, and nonreligious people across the country who have compelling, unique stories to tell.
If you’re a member of the media and would like to get in touch with us, please reach out to Tom Van Denburgh, American Atheists’ Communications Director, by emailing tvandenburgh@atheists.org or by calling (862) 221-6547.
About Us
The U.S. Secular Survey and Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America are projects of American Atheists, a national civil rights group that represents the interests of atheists and nonreligious people in the United States. The survey and report were produced in collaboration with Strength in Numbers Consulting Group, a progressive research, evaluation, and strategy firm.