Project 2025

Published: March 1, 2025

In July 2024, the Interfaith Alliance published a detailed analysis of “Project 2025,” a sweeping policy manifesto authored by the Heritage Foundation and more than one hundred conservative groups. The 922‑page plan lays out hundreds of executive actions and policy recommendations aimed at consolidating power in the presidency and reshaping the federal government along a narrow religious and ideological line【364449537505205†L128-L145】. Although the plan is not officially tied to any campaign, 32 of its 38 authors served in the previous Trump administration【364449537505205†L138-L141】.

Project 2025’s goals are explicit: concentrate power in the executive, achieve long‑held conservative priorities and pursue a hardline religious‑right agenda【364449537505205†L142-L145】. Its authors argue that U.S. law should be informed by Christian nationalist teachings and morality【364449537505205†L147-L156】. The document calls for restrictions on reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights and seeks to blur the boundaries between church and state【364449537505205†L160-L166】.

Why this matters

Religious freedom is not the freedom of one group to impose its worldview on everyone else. It is the promise that people of all beliefs can live and worship without government interference. Project 2025 would undermine this principle by prioritising one theological perspective at the expense of others【364449537505205†L116-L119】. Americans of diverse faiths and none have a stake in preserving a secular, pluralistic government.

Our tradition of separating church and state is rooted in the Constitution. By attempting to codify a particular Christian morality into law, Project 2025 would erode not only religious freedom but other fundamental rights — from bodily autonomy to equal protection. The plan’s authors may say they are securing “God‑given rights,” but rights that apply only to a select few are not rights at all; they are privileges【364449537505205†L147-L166】.

The path forward

Facts, not fear, must guide our response. The danger of Project 2025 lies in its substance, not in who wrote it. We owe it to ourselves and our neighbours to read the plan, understand its implications and spread the word. Support organisations that defend separation of church and state, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State or the Interfaith Alliance. Attend school board meetings and oppose policies that impose a particular religious view on public education. Vote for representatives who respect pluralism and the Constitution.

As the “We Rise” manifesto reminds us, authoritarianism often cloaks itself in words like “order” and “tradition.” We must be alert to proposals that promise moral certainty while stripping away the freedom to think, believe and love differently【819044182704204†L137-L159】. Our strength lies in unity across differences. Together we rise — not to tear down faith, but to ensure that faith cannot be weaponised to control others.