Patrick-led commission's report outlines ways to 'strengthen religious liberties' in America

The Department of Justice on Friday released the Religious Liberty Commission's draft report, which provides recommendations for the Trump administration to take a sweeping new federal role in protecting religious expression in schools, protecting faith-based institutions, parental rights and healthcare conscious objections, arguing that religion has been wrongly pushed out of American public life.

The commission is led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and held a series of hearings where members and the public raised concerns about antisemitism and the weaponization of the law against Christians under former administrations. Over the course of seven hearings, the committee heard from more than 100 witnesses, with many saying they experienced "firsthand threats to religious liberty."

What they're saying:

"Although their circumstances differed, their stories shared a common theme: far too often in our national life, religion is treated not as a protected and valued contribution to public life, but as a problem or annoyance to be managed, restricted, or sidelined," the report states.

The commission was established under an executive order to produce a report on the past, present and future of religious liberty in America.

The report outlined several ways to "strengthen religious liberties" such as creating a hotline or online portal for students, parents, teachers and healthcare workers to get support if they feel their religious liberty has been violated and for the Department of Justice to issue guidance on the "proper understanding" of the establishment clause and separation of church and state.

Other recommendations include:

• "Protect religious Americans from government-led litigation targeting their free exercise."
• "Guarantee faith-based institutions an equal opportunity to participate on anequal basis in funding opportunities without requiring them to renounce theirreligious identity; issue guidance that religious discrimination in federal fundingprograms is unconstitutional."
• "Ensure the constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and parental rights areenjoyed by families of all socioeconomic means by promoting a robust anduniversal system of school choice where funding follows the child."
• "Order the Department of War to update and disseminate religious liberty training for military leaders and JAG officers, maintain full applicability of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the military, reverse Obama and Biden-era restrictions on religious practice and expression, and elevate the importance of spiritual fitness in military readiness."
• "Protect religious healthcare workers from being coerced to participate in procedures that violate their religious beliefs by expanding the coverage of the Church Amendments and providing a private right of action for violations."

The report was presented to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office Friday.

Groups say report is about ‘politicizing faith’

The Interfaith Alliance said the commission's report was "biased" and "politicized" and reflects a "narrow, Christian nationalist worldview" while ignoring a "growing threat of Islamophobia."

The other side:

"This draft report – buried on a Friday afternoon, and released too late to be finalized by the White House’s own July 4 deadline – reflects the narrow, Christian nationalist worldview of the illegitimate commission, made up entirely of ideologically aligned Christians and one Orthodox Jew. A betrayal of the original intention of the promise of religious freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment, the report and the commission behind it fail to represent and uplift the importance of religious diversity and tolerance for all faiths in our country - not just a special, chosen few," Rev. Paul Branseis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said. "The report is a wishlist of divisive, unpopular ideas far-right religious groups have pushed for years like allowing tax-exempt houses of worship to engage in partisan politicking and gutting our public education system through expanded private school vouchers. This partisan report is unbefitting of marking a milestone of American democracy."

Interfaith Alliance filed a lawsuit against the commission alleging it held a bias towards Christianity. The commission has 15 Christian members and one Jewish member. The suit says the RLC is unable to be effective in its directive without including members of a more diverse selection of faiths.

As a result of its alleged Christian-centric leanings, the commission is accused of violating a law called the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which is intended to prevent the government from creating one-sided advisory groups that under-represent differing sides of the groups' goals. FACA requires committees to be fair, balanced and transparent, which the lawsuit alleges the RLC is not.

The American Humanist Association, a group that advocates for non-religious Americans, also came out against the report's findings.

"This report is appalling and un-American to its core. The Trump Administration is no longer being coy about its plan to do away with the Establishment Clause and remake the U.S. Government in its Christian Nationalist image. This is a direct escalation in the series of attacks this administration has made against our nation’s foundational values of religious freedom and church-state separation," Rachel Deitch, the group's policy and political director, said.

Patrick says 'separation of church and state' is not in Constitution

During the Religious Liberty Commission's final hearing, Patrick said the Constitution does not mandate a separation of church and state.

According to the lieutenant governor, who presides over both the Texas Senate and the recently established RLC, every witness the commission has called in their seven hearings to discuss the matter had related stories of having their religious liberty suppressed by the "so-called" separation of church and state.

Patrick said religious people in the U.S. are "under assault by the secular left." He went on to say that it's time to set the record straight on the Constitution, claiming that the founding document has nothing to say about separating religion and government. 

"For too long, the anti-God left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country," Patrick said in his statement.

What is the separation of church and state?

Big picture view:

The First Amendment to the Constitution contains the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, which together define how the government can be involved in religion, and how freely religion can be practiced by citizens. 

The Establishment Clause prevents the government from establishing a religion, meaning the U.S. government cannot start a national sect like "The Church of America." It also keeps the government from assisting a church in all but very specific circumstances.

The Free Exercise Clause affirms an individual's right to practice their religion as they want, as long as they don't hurt other people's rights by doing so. It ultimately keeps the government from stopping any religious practice that doesn't actively harm the public. 

Together, these have long been considered a separation of church and state, with the consensus being that the Constitution prevents the government from interacting with religion except in secular cases.

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