{"id":18241,"date":"2026-06-26T20:32:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18241"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:32:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:32:35","slug":"a-trump-commission-urges-bridges-between-church-and-state-in-sweeping-draft-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18241","title":{"rendered":"A Trump commission urges \u2018bridges\u2019 between church and state in sweeping draft report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By PETER SMITH<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new report by a Trump administration commission suggests replacing the idea of separating church and state with the idea of building bridges between them.<\/p>\n

Read more Greece is paying fishermen to catch toxic toadfish invading the warming Mediterranean<\/a><\/p>\n

The assertion \u2014 challenging a longstanding concept in American law \u2014 comes amid a raft of recommendations in a draft report of the Religious Liberty Commission, released Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The advisory body was created by President Donald Trump last year and filled almost entirely by conservative Christians. The 224-page draft report \u2014 part policy document, part philosophical argument \u2014 echoes members\u2019 support for a stronger role for religion and religious expression in government, schools and the public square.<\/p>\n

The report applauds recent Supreme Court decisions expanding rights to religious expression in public settings, such as creating opt-outs for religious objections to school lessons.<\/p>\n

The report recommends eliminating the \u201c Johnson Amendment \u201d that forbids political activities by tax-exempt religious groups \u2014 a longstanding goal of Trump. It calls for compensating military service members who were discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

It calls in general for allowing more religious expression in the public square, greater access to public money for faith-based agencies and broader exemptions for those claiming conscientious objections to policies ranging from vaccine mandates to pronoun usage to classroom lessons.<\/p>\n

It recommends that federal agencies publish \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d posters for various settings and establish hotlines to receive complaints about religious liberty violations.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The draft report also calls for the creation of new honors \u2014 a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty and First Freedom Hero Awards. And it calls for exhibits and markers at historic sites paying tribute to the role of religion in American history.<\/p>\n

The draft report is now available for public comment over the next 15 days. It is sure to draw opposition.<\/p>\n

Some other groups defend the separation of church and state<\/h4>\n

A coalition of groups \u2013 including one suing over the commission\u2019s lack of ideological diversity, as required of federal advisory panels \u2013 issued a preemptive report earlier in June defending the concept of church-state separation.<\/p>\n

\u201cReligious liberty belongs to all people, not to any single tradition, political party, or administration,\u201d said the report, published by the Center for American Progress and others.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Critics of the Religious Liberty Commission\u2019s work say its perspective is skewed toward by favored by Trump and his supporters and that it heard almost entirely from like-minded scholars and activists. They say the commission failed adequately to address such issues as anti-Muslim efforts in Texas and elsewhere, and also the rise of antisemitism on the right, not just the left.<\/p>\n

The report comes as conservative states such as Texas have worked to incorporate more religion into public spaces such as classrooms, including Bible lessons and Ten Commandments displays.<\/p>\n

Trump, speaking to supporters at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington on Friday, touted the newly released report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saved religion, it was going down,\u201d he boasted.<\/p>\n

Trump contended that the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, had carried out a \u201creign of persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the commission report downplays the separation of church and state, the commission didn\u2019t go so far as to call it a \u201clie,\u201d as the commission chairman, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, did in April.<\/p>\n

Read more Buttigieg was briefly separated from his children after police say he was target of false report<\/a><\/p>\n

But it largely took the stance that the idea is misapplied.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, this does not involve or require advocating \u2018theocracy\u2019 or even the total elimination of any separation between church and state,\u201d the report says. Rather, it calls for honoring a \u201ctension between the relevant clauses of the First Amendment\u201d that guarantee religious freedom but forbid any government-established church.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court rulings on church\/state issues have evolved<\/h4>\n

The phrase, \u201ca wall of separation between church and state\u201d does not appear in the Constitution, but it\u2019s embodied in Supreme Court precedent. Thomas Jefferson used that expression in a letter to Baptists, supporting them in opposing official churches in U.S. states, a practice that soon ended.<\/p>\n

Twentieth-century decisions by the high court invoked the \u201cseparation\u201d phrase to extend the First Amendment\u2019s prohibition on federal church establishment to state and local governments, citing the 14th Amendment\u2019s ban on states denying citizens\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

That led to bans on official prayers and Ten Commandments displays in public schools. The Supreme Court in recent years has steered a different course, permitting such things as a public school coach\u2019s on-field prayers and a religious opt-out for parents objecting to a lesson on transgender issues.<\/p>\n

The draft report contends that even Jefferson didn\u2019t believe in completely banishing religion from public life, but rather in keeping church and state in a kind of balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, the church and state strengthen and support one another,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The report touts the value of religion to society in terms of providing humanitarian work, anchoring families and acting as \u201cconscience\u201d monitoring government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases the law protects the religious expression of Americans, but government officials and employers often use fear tactics to silence individuals into believing that they don\u2019t have the right to publicly express their faith,\u201d it argues.<\/p>\n

It argues \u2014 citing one of its own members, Catholic media figure Bishop Robert Barron \u2014 that notions of strict church-state separation can be traced to a \u201cGod is dead\u201d ideology that originated in Europe and saw traditional religion as an opponent to individual autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way of thinking made its way \u2026 into the American culture and courtroom,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Little recognition for non-religious Americans<\/h4>\n

The report, while touting the value of religion, appears to give little emphasis on the large population of Americans with no religious affiliation. A key argument of many atheists and secular humanists is that one can be \u201cgood without God\u201d \u2014 that religion doesn\u2019t have a monopoly on virtue and can do harm as well as good.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit challenging the commission, filed by the Interfaith Alliance and other religious groups, says its lack of ideological range is shown in that commissioners have asserted that America is specifically a Judeo-Christian or Christian nation and that most commission meetings took place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, an institution with Christian leadership.<\/p>\n

The Republican administration is asking a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit. The government is citing legal technicalities and contending the law does not define how a commission should be fairly balanced or whose viewpoints should be represented.<\/p>\n

This draft report comes two months after another entity created by Trump \u2014 the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias \u2014 issued its own report. It claimed that Christians faced discrimination under the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden in areas such as education, tax law and prosecution of anti-abortion protesters.<\/p>\n

Progressive critics said that the report failed to prove its case and amounted to advocacy rather than an investigation.<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more A large, harmless asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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