Surrounded by faith leaders singing praise songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Great Are You Lord,” President Donald Trump presided over a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on Thursday, which culminated with the president signing an executive order establishing a new national Religious Liberty Commission.
Led by Chairman Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, and Vice Chair Ben Carson, a popular author, surgeon and former Trump administration official, the 13-member commission is charged with creating a report on the “foundations of religious liberty in America” and the impact of religious liberty on American culture. It is also intended to detail “current threats to domestic religious liberty” and create programs to celebrate religious pluralism.
Among the commission’s members are Trump allies, including White House faith adviser Paula White, talk show host and author Eric Metaxas and evangelist Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan’s Purse, along with other faith leaders like Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron of the popular Word on Fire media ministry, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York and talk show host Phil McGraw.
“Mr. President, I can’t tell you, first off, how proud I am to see religion coming back to the White House. God bless you,” McGraw, better known as “Dr. Phil,” told Trump during the White House ceremony. “God bless you.”
According to the executive order, the commission is charged with considering for the report the First Amendment rights of religious leaders and houses of worship, religious rights and vaccine mandates, parental rights in education and “permitting time for voluntary prayer and religious instruction at public schools,” among other topics.
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Along with speaking about faith in America on the National Day of Prayer, Trump also repeated his long-held, debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and told attendees, “We’re bringing religion back to America.”
Recent polling by Pew Research Center found among white evangelicals — a key voting bloc for Trump — almost three-quarters surveyed gave the president high approval ratings for his first 100 days in office. By contrast, 59% of Americans surveyed overall disapproved of his job performance, according to Pew.
Polling by the Public Religion Research Institute fundar two-thirds of white evangelicals feel that Christians in America face discrimination. Along with the religious liberty commission, the White House has ordered the Justice Department to start a task force on anti-Christian bias.
The Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, an online Christian social justice community, criticized the new commission, calling it an attempt to “tear down the wall between church and state.”
“Make no mistake,” Fleck said in a statement, “this new commission will do more to increase bullying in schools, workplace conflict and religious discrimination than it will to protect our constitutional rights or our churches.”
Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of Faith in Action, a network of progressive faith-based community organizations, also criticized the new commission, saying, “Religious freedom is not theirs to wield as a weapon of fear or domination.”
En a post on X, Barron said he was grateful to be appointed to the commission.
“Freedom of religion in our country has been a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for decades, and I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the Commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter,” he said on X.
The commission will expire on July 4, 2026, the 250el anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, according to the executive order, unless extended by the president.
Bob Smietana es reportero nacional de Religion News Service.
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10 Responses
Each one of us 8 billion people on the earth today have been created by Alahim (Father YHWH Son Yahshua Ruach haQ’Dosh) in the Image of Alahim. His purpose: To have a people for Him Self. Each heart will beat 100,800 times in the next 24 hours unless YHWH says: STOP! It is the right of the poor of the earth to have the complete Gospel of the Kingdom of YHWH preached to them – each one of us on this earth is poor in spirit (though many as in Laodicea do not realize their poverty, Yahashua warns) and in need of our Messiah Yahshua’s Salvation.
May each Child in this nation and world have the freedom in our schools and homes to have this Gospel declared, and may prayer to Father YHWH in Yahshua’s Name be restored! AMEN
Rather may be as followers of Jesus of Nazareth recognize that His Kingdom is NOT of this world – and that we are called to humility, to live in peace among those not in His Kingdom – and to NOT oppress them by requiring them to conform to the Kingdom – including not listening to what they do not want to listen to.
God is VASTLY bigger than this.
The CONCEPT of religious liberty has always been a huge cornerstone of this country; yet when it comes to the PRACTICE of religious liberty, there has always been an underlying “you can be of whatever faith you want, BUT the majority of us are Christian and we expect you to take heed to OUR faith” tone to it. Growing up, I experienced a lot of cultural practices, celebrations, norms, and teachings anchored in Christianity that were woven into “day to day life” that would NEVER be tolerated if anchored in another faith. And as I watched friends of other faiths be overlooked (e.g., their holy days aren’t federal holidays) or belittled (e.g., public acknowledgement of THEIR religion is met with cries of “woke-ism”, “terrorism” and “whataboutisms”), I had doubts about how well our nation would live up to its proclamation of religious liberty should Christianity begin to decline in membership and influence.
Now we see it: We have a performative “religious liberty commission” with a membership OVER representative of protestant Christians (only one rabbi, two Catholics, and NO representation of other large faiths like Mormonism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc) who are trying to muscle their way back into being a dominant influence via political power rather than living out the very gospel they preach. (Has it occurred that Christianity would be more attractive if it were LIVED rather than ENFORCED?)
A true religious liberty commission would have a more balanced representation of ALL faiths and look into ALL matters of religious bias, favoritism, and bigotry. Yes, I say that as a Christian who sees it as MY responsibility to share the gospel NOT the government’s.
Amen Marin! All you said is true. Its for all the reasons you pointed out that I believe Trumps ultimate goal is to do away with the separation of Church and State. I’ve Been a born again believer for 45 yrs. I don’t need a law to worship the Lord.
That is a huge understatement.
This is simply Trump throwing a bone to his biggest and most fervent voting block – evangelical nationalists – riffing off their fears, their hate and their phony persecution complex with which they have been indoctrinated by the grifters from the evangelical pulpits and programs.
Marin, your comments are (as always) rather insightful. It’s refreshing to see that you clearly understand not only Christianity, but also, Americanism. Most importantly, you understand the differences between them. You obviously understand the inherent perils of establishing what would constitute a “State Religion” (which I would venture that at some point would end up being the “church” of MAGA). I agree with you: this is nothing but performative nonsense, with what I would consider rather quite dubious “authorities” on the subject matter.
I agree 100% with this Marin. Especially that Christianity would be more attractive if LIVED rather than ENFORCED. Absolutely Amen!! Public schools and institutions should be for all children of all faiths or no faiths. No child should be made to feel less than bc of Christianity. Christian parents should share their faith with their children and children should be free to share their faith at school if they want to but mandates of Christian faith in our public square or government should not be. There is a reason why our founding fathers put this “freedom” of separation of church and state so people could practice their faith without government interference. Nor enforcement.
Also, I love what Tony Campolo says…”mixing religion and politics is like mixing ice cream and manure. It doesn’t do much to the manure but it sure does ruin the ice cream.” Often times in our case as Christians, the ice cream has become a blugeoning tool that I don’t believe Christ ever intended for it to be.
Now does this mean religious liberty for everyone (All religions) or only those that align with Trump’s political and ideological agenda?
Trump surrounds himself with religious schills and sellouts. Just like the Democrats do. But I notice that our old Religion News Service buddy Bob never points it out when the Left does it. Why is that, Bob?
Eddie – This article is talking about the executive orders of the current POTUS, who is a Republican. That’s it.
And what do you hope to achieve with “whataboutism”?