Donald Trump’s new Religious Liberty Commission is filled with zealots who are primed to pursue an end to the constitutionally protected separation of church and state.
With Trump back in the White House, and with Republicans in control of various state legislatures and governorships, some far-right evangelicals have been licking their chops at the opportunity to tear down that separation. After Trump’s election win in November, I wrote about the various Christian extremists eager to make that happen. And Trump seemed to openly endorse the idea at his public announcement of the commission earlier this month.
“They say separation between church and state, they told me. I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time,’” Trump said at the White House event.
The commission is a hodgepodge of conservative influencers, activists and far-right faith leaders of various denominations. They’re spread across three advisory boards, which the White House said are for lay leaders, religious leaders and legal experts.
Baptist News Global recently published a detailed look at the board members — and it seems clear this commission has been designed more to enforce strict adherence to far-right religious doctrines than to protect religious liberty.
Needless to say, these don’t seem like people put in place to uphold religious liberty.
The advisory board with religious leaders, for example, includes Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who barred then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from communion over her support for abortion rights. It also includes Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who upheld a ban on Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., from receiving communion on similar grounds, and Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who chaired a committee that sought to deny communion for then-President Joe Biden over his support for reproductive rights, as well.
The other boards give off a similar vibe.
The board of legal advisers includes Kristen Waggoner, the CEO, president and general legal counsel of a right-wing organization called the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is behind the Supreme Court case set to determine whether religious charter schools can receive public funding. And the board of lay leaders includes evangelical activist Ryan Tucker, who is the ADF’s senior counsel, and pro-Trump activist Alveda King, who has downplayed the need for separation of church and state and suggested that religion-driven governance is justified because “America was built to be governed by a moral people.”
Needless to say, these don’t seem like people put in place to uphold religious liberty.
In fact, the Trump administration’s targeting of religious leaders and organizations who have shown sympathy toward immigrants — including many Christians — is a clear sign that this White House isn’t truly interested in upholding free religious expression across the board. Even leaders in the conservative Southern Baptist Convention have accused the administration of pushing policies that infringe on religious liberty.
So it seems that what Trump and company are primarily invested in protecting and promoting isn’t religious freedom, but rather religious expression that aligns with their right-wing worldview. And this commission is a weapon that can be used to that end.