8.4 - Good News: Obama signs law to include non-believers in protections against religious persecution

Good News: Obama signs law to include non-believers in protections against religious persecution

Next: A couple of weeks ago, President Obama signed legislation that for the first time extended protections against religious persecution to people with non-theistic beliefs, including those who subscribe to no religion at all, including, in the words of the bill, "non-theists, humanists, and atheists."

Note what's particularly important: This is not some executive order, this is a law passed out of Congress with bipartisan support. It intends to offer greater protection to believers of all sorts around the world, but the specific inclusion of non-believers in that protection is an historic first.

The inclusion of that language was the result of a four-year lobbying effort by the American Humanist Association, which celebrated the bill's passage.