2026 college essay contest: 3rd place — Alexander Safranak

Make America democratic again

FFRF awarded Alexander $2,500.

By Alexander Safranak

When I was a child, my alarm clock was the sound of the call to prayer echoing and reverberating off the tall futuristic buildings of the Middle Eastern nation I called home. The Middle East is a place where religion is woven into every aspect of the culture, so that it is illegal to express self-identity or rebuke the teachings of the Quran. Religion was law and law was religion, flowing into each other like the confluence of two powerful rivers.

I remember comments and questions and concerns my family would receive from relatives, friends and strangers with unsolicited opinions, probing and condemning my parents’ choice of raising American kids in a place that has “no separation of church and state” that “treats women so poorly,” that “doesn’t allow for freedom of religion.” What my parents understood was that, at least, in the Middle East, the expectations and rules were clear. I would argue that this is better than in the United States where religious freedom is more deceptive.

Religion is something that is and should be completely personal. The United States disguises itself as accepting of all, believers and nonbelievers. It touts that religion is a personal issue and will not interfere with your secular life, but if you take a closer look at the United States, we are not a country with freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Our national currency has “In God We Trust” printed on it, and our Pledge of Allegiance proclaims “one nation, under God.” We have a president that regularly states things like “Faith is more powerful than government” and “We have to have religion, and it suffered greatly over the last few years, but it’s coming back. It’s coming back strong.” If church and state are separate, then why are governmental institutions and figureheads espousing religion and God?

In response to Trump saying “you just can’t have a great country if you don’t have religion,” I believe the opposite. Great countries exist around the world that do not impose religion on their citizens. In fact, research shows that the countries with the happiest, safest and least corrupt statistics in the world, namely the Scandinavian countries, are highly secular. In terms of greatness, it is our democracy and civil liberties that make our country great, not the amount of religion we have.

Religion historically has been the root cause of humanitarian tragedies from the Crusades to the Salem Witch Trials to 9/11. Therefore, we must strive for democratic ideals and not religious beliefs in moving our country forward. Studies show that as separation of religion and state increases, the level of democracy also increases.

My journey of freedom from religion started as the son of a church secretary, meaning my butt was in a pew every Sunday morning (granted, it was a very liberal pew), to an expat living in the Middle East, and finally to an atheist teenager who realizes that all religion ever seems to do is cause divisiveness and conflict among people. When I think about what makes this country great, it is not religion but the freedom for me to pursue happiness and to be who I want to be regardless of my religious beliefs or lack thereof.

I firmly believe that if Americans didn’t have the barrier of religion segregating us, we could truly be a “great” county. Religion does not make our country great, it makes us fractured. Since our current president is so fond of walls, he should look back at Thomas Jefferson’s views which state: “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”

Alex, 19, attends Bradley University with plans to major in game design and psychology.

“Some of my interests include gaming and tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons,” Alex writes. “I enjoy giving back to the community through volunteer work with my fraternity, Theta Xi. We have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and the local zoo.”