FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is comedian and television host Stephen Colbert for defending state-church separation during a recent podcast appearance.
Colbert has recently been in the news following the cancellation of his widely popular “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which many have deemed a political move. In late July, Colbert appeared on the “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin” podcast, hosted by an American Jesuit priest, where he discussed the separation of state and church and lamented how its downfall would hurt not only his country but also his Catholic faith.
“If the United States stopped existing, because everything stops existing, eventually,” Colbert began. “If it stopped existing, my church would not.”
“But what frightens me about knocking down the separation of church and state is not what it does to my country, as much as I don’t want that to happen for my country, is that what it does to my faith,” Colbert added. “It’s not getting religion into politics, it’s getting politics into my religion.”
He continued, asserting, “If you’re a Christian nationalist and the nation fails, sounds like you got a pretty bad Christ over there. Sounds like you got a weak Christ over there. You know what I mean?”
“What does it say about the message of the Gospel if a mere market fluctuation could damage the reputation of the Lord? Come on,” Colbert concluded. “That’s why you have to keep the separation of church and state. This is not a Catholic nation because the Catholic Church is not about nations.”
Last week, Colbert’s network, CBS, and its parent company, Paramount Global, announced that “The Late Show” will be canceled after one final season, citing financial necessity as the reason. This followed the news that Paramount agreed to pay President Trump a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with his 2024 election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.
Even more troubling, the settlement and Colbert’s cancellation come at a time when Paramount is pursuing a multibillion-dollar merger with media production company Skydance, which will notably need approval from Trump’s government regulators. Press freedom advocates argue that Paramount’s recent actions are clear efforts to appease Trump’s outrage against the network and to yield to Trump’s executive power. Trump’s attacks on American media, including efforts to defund public media broadcasters like NPR and PBS, are explicitly outlined in Project 2025 and are rooted in Christian nationalism and authoritarianism. Public outrage is crucial to ensure that these attacks do not go unchallenged.
We thank Colbert for calling out the Christian nationalists who are trying to erode the wall between state and church. Although Colbert is open about his Catholic faith, he remains a staunch supporter of state-church separation. Public figures, including those who are religious, must speak out against the Trump administration’s attacks on the constitutional separation of state and church.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.