Although the mainstream media has given the story little attention, the U.S. State Department was recently forced to admit that the $500,000 grant they gave to Humanist International was used to promote atheism in Asia under the guise of “religious freedom.”

The Catholic New Agency (CNA) is reporting on an investigation taking place in the U.S. House of Representatives by the Foreign Affairs Committee regarding a $500,000 grant to Humanists International (HI), a coalition of “humanist, rationalist, secular, ethical culture, atheist, and freethought” organizations. According to the group’s website, part of its mission is to “encourage the growth” of humanism, which it defines as “a democratic and ethical life stance” that “does not accept supernatural views of reality.”

This is the same organization headed by Chief Executive Gary McLelland who has been vocal about his disdain for the Catholic church and said in a 2019 interview that he consider it to be his job to “combat the Vatican policies and to push against them.”

The State Department awarded the money to HI from funds made available under the 2021 program entitled “Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom Inclusive of Atheist, Humanist, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals.”

During an investigation of the possible misappropriation of this money, lawmakers discovered that the original Congressional Notification (CN) for the funds contained obscure language. As Rep. Michael G. McCaul (R), Chairman of the Committee, explains in a letter to the State Department, “The problem is that the CN stated merely that obligated funds would ‘be used to support international religious freedom programs globally’ and would ‘encourage broader societal tolerance toward religious minority populations.’”

As a result, money was discovered to have been funneled into a project designed to increase the influence of atheists abroad. When confronted over two years ago about this funding, the State Department claimed the money was only used for what they called “routine capacity building”.

After months of obfuscation, the Department has finally admitted to the funding, claiming to be “deeply concerned” about it. They insist that HI sent incorrect training materials when applying for the grant, saying there was nothing in the materials that indicated their plan to use these funds in a training program designed to promote atheism. It was only after the Committee demanded to see the materials that were used in the training program that the truth came out.

“To be sure, despite all of the evasions by the Department, it is now plain that the grant promoted atheism and expanded atheist networks abroad, while neglecting Christian and Muslim minorities who, unlike atheists and humanists, face real persecution in the relevant parts of South Asia,” Rep. McCaul wrote. “Indeed, the programming was designed to recruit new members of the grantee organization in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

Even though the Department promised to take immediate action to recoup the misused funds, concerned lawmakers such as Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey are taking matters into their own hands. Rep. Smith has introduced a bill to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Foreign Assistance Act to “prohibit preferential federal grant treatment for atheist groups.”

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