Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose state was ranked first in the nation for religious freedom this year, said that increasing alienation and loss of community among Americans pose grave threats to religious liberty in the United States.

Sanders’ office announced Tuesday that Arkansas scored this year’s top spot for religious liberty in the First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy’s Religious Liberty in the States index, which evaluated 50 legal protections across 20 safeguards states can adopt to uphold religious freedom.

Earning a score of 89.2%, Arkansas joined Tennessee this year as the only two states to receive the index’s first-ever “excellent” rating.

During a Tuesday phone interview with The Christian Post, Sanders attributed Arkansas’ recent distinction to multiple legislative accomplishments, which she described as a “collective” agenda to promote religious liberty.

She highlighted last year’s enactment of Act 677, which prohibits state and local governments from penalizing anyone for operating according to their sincerely held beliefs about biological sex and marriage. She also pinpointed the Conscience Protection Act she signed in 2023, which expanded the protections of Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act by prohibiting the state government from discriminating against religious organizations because of their religious identity.

Sanders, who has served as governor of Arkansas since 2023, expressed pride that her state has been distinguished for “something that is very foundational to our country.”

“What makes America so special and unique is that we are the greatest country because we’re the freest country, and our first and most fundamental right to freedom is our religious freedom and religious liberty,” she said.

Despite the work she and lawmakers in her state have done to ensure religious liberty for Arkansans, Sanders expressed concern that anti-Christian sentiment is rising in the U.S. overall, which she attributed in part to “the overall lack of community that we see in a world that talks so much about connection and using technology to connect with one another.”

“I think more and more people are getting further and further isolated,” she said. “They’re losing that sense of fellowship and community that I think is so critical, so important; frankly, what we were designed to be part of.”

Noting that Americans have traditionally found a sense of community in their places of worship, Sanders thinks its decline “is one of the biggest threats for so many people” and contributes to the idea “that people shouldn’t be outspoken about their faith and it should be a private thing.”

“And with all the chaos and the noise out there, I think it’s more important than ever that we lean into and speak out boldly and clearly about what we believe and why we believe it, versus trying to kind of shy away,” she said. She added that people should be “really looking for those points of connection and community.”

Sanders went on to warn that as Americans become increasingly isolated, their attempts to find community online could be contributing to increased hostility against Christianity and the proliferation of other radical ideas.

“I think while social media can be a great tool, I think that’s one of the reasons,” she said. “You see people’s ideas and [anti-Christian] belief pushed further and further online, and ideas that people 15 years ago would have thought crazy are now reinforced online. Everybody can find and connect to a community that may want to push those similar kinds of anti-faith and anti-Christian feelings.”

“I certainly think that there has been a greater sense of hostility, and it’s easier for people who feel that way to find each other through the online community. I think that’s one of the things that is driving it,” she continued, though she remains hopeful that people of faith can also use technology to find like-minded people.

Sanders, who served as White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019, also touched on the drift toward what President Donald Trump has lately described as “godless” communist ideology, especially among young people in states such as New York, which ranked last this year in First Liberty’s index.

During an address to the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C., last month, the president warned that communist elements of the political left and the Democratic Party are radicalizing in their antipathy toward God and “want to restart the war on Christians and churches” if they regain power. He noted that communism is often riddled with political violence and repeatedly fails.

Echoing Trump’s assertion that communist ideals seem promising until they ultimately reduce nations to “a disaster area,” Sanders suggested that young people who are swept up by the empty promises of communism are being deceived.

“The president always makes the argument that it’s hard to fight against free, and so when the other side is telling you can have free healthcare, free cars, free housing, free college, it can be really hard to compete against,” she said. “But ultimately, somebody has to pick up the tab. Somebody’s got to pay for it.”

She expressed hope that the communist tide might turn back as young people come to experience its negative consequences.

“I think you’re seeing that in New York right now. [Mayor Zohran Mamdani] promised and campaigned on making everything free, and forgot to tell everybody that eventually someone would have to pay for it, because there’s no such thing as free. If the government is paying for it, then taxpayers are on the hook for it.”

“And so, ultimately, I think you see a shift when people start to realize that’s the case.”

Sanders, who stressed the importance of providing education that trains a productive citizenry instead of indoctrinating them, said telling the truth about communism is “one of the big fights, and I think the president’s right to take it on and call it out.”

Sanders hopes Arkansas will continue to “lead the way” by setting an example for other states in protecting religious liberty, which she said is “such a key piece to protecting all of our other freedoms.”

“I hope that other states, other leaders, will join with Arkansas, pass similar legislation, support similar initiatives, and that we will continue to protect the freedoms — not just for Arkansans, but for every American — that really set our country apart and make us special, unique and free,” she said.

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