BREAKING U.S. Religious Liberty Commission Delivers Final Report with 12 Recommendations to Strengthen Religious Liberty for All Americans
Last May, President Donald J. Trump establishedthe Religious Liberty Commission to advise and report to the President on opportunities to “identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold Federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion.”
On June 26, during an Oval Office presentation, Chairman Dan Patrick, Vice Chairman Ben Carson and the members of the Commission delivered the final draft report with recommendations to the President.
The report is based on findings from the seven hearings that the Religious Liberty Commission held over the last year, receiving input from more than 100 witnesses of diverse ages, religions, expertise, and backgrounds. Many experienced religious persecutions in the United States.
The hearings specifically covered religious liberty in the military, education, healthcare, the public and private sectors, as well as the importance of protecting parental rights and faith-based institutions, and combatting the rise of anti-Semitism and violence against houses of worship.
Powerful Testimonies Highlight Recent Threats to Religious Believers In recent years, Americans from all religious backgrounds have faced increasing persecution for their religious beliefs.
The Commission heard from mothers who were lied to by their children’s school administrators, children who were bullied because of their religious beliefs, healthcare workers who have risked losing their jobs due to religious objections to certain procedures, a grandson of Holocaust survivors who was restricted from public spaces because of his Jewish faith, nuns who were targeted by New York State, and workers—including military service members—who lost pensions and life savings when forced to choose between their faith and vaccine mandates, among many others
Executive Summary Excerpt:
The Commission’s work began with acknowledging a simple but profound truth: religious liberty is essential because religion itself is indispensable to a flourishing society.
12 Recommendations to Strengthen Religious Liberty for All Americans
1. Instruct the Department of Justice to issue guidance clarifying the proper
understanding of the Establishment Clause and separation of church and state.
2. The Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission shall issue “Know Your Rights” Posters and
FAQ for students, parents, public school teachers andadministrators,religious
leaders, religious institutions, healthcare workers, and militaryservice members.
7. Combat anti-Semitism through enforcement of civil rights laws, litigation of credible allegations of anti-Semitic discrimination and violence, andcivic education.
8. Protect religious Americans from government-led litigation targeting their free exercise.
9. Repeal the Johnson Amendment which purports to give the government authority to regulate religious leaders’ sermons and spiritual guidance to their communities.
10. Order the Department of War to streamline and improve the religious accommodation process.
11. Continue efforts to restore the retirement or re-enlistment eligibility of service members wholostemployment,health insurance,pensions, and other benefits because of their religious beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine.
12. Honor the courage of religious liberty heroes through creating a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty and First Freedom Hero Awards to recognize Americans who stand up for religious freedom and play an indispensable role in protecting citizens’ Constitutional rights.
The Founding Fathers recognized that religious liberty is not merely a private benefit for
believers, but a public good for the nation. By protecting individuals’ ability to fulfill their
duty to their Creator,the Founders established conditions that allow believers and religious
institutions to enrich every aspect of our civic life, including education, healthcare,
charitable service, civic engagement, and the moral formation essential to self government.
Because religion is so central to human identity,and family and communal life, the church
and state must have a rightly ordered relationship for individuals and societies to flourish.
Human history has shown how difficult it is to get this relationship right and how dangerous
it is to get it wrong.
When government authorities prevent religious individuals and perspectives from
contributing to public life, they diminish the quality of freedom for all citizens. Yet, even
today,some government authorities do just that. They wrongly claim that the
Establishment Clause or “separation of church and state” requires such erasure. Nothing
could be further from the truth—the Constitution neither requires nor permits religious
voices to be silenced.
In the course of the Commission’s work, we have seen that when religious liberty is
misunderstood, constitutional protections become easier to disregard. When religious
exercise is treated as an indulgence rather than a fundamental Constitutional right,
accommodations become harder to secure. When faith-based institutions are valued only
for the services they provide rather than the sincerely held religious convictions that
animate them, pressure grows to separate mission from identity. When citizens no longer
understand the role of faith in our public life, misunderstandings multiply and freedoms
erode.
But rather than being discouraged by these erosions, the Commission believes this is an
opportune moment to reaffirm the importance of religious liberty in America.We have
observed how citizens of every faith tradition continue to serve their communities with
courage, generosity, and conviction in many different fields of endeavor. Parents are
determined to guide the education of their children, teachers are committed to
empowering young people to reach their own conclusions, service members risk their lives
for this country, healthcare professionals devote their lives to caring for the most
vulnerable,and ordinary citizens seek nothing more than to the freedom to live according
to their consciences.
The Members of this Commission are united in the conviction that religious liberty remains
one of the greatest sources of American strength. It protects believers and nonbelievers
alike. It strengthens communities, enriches civic life, and lifts up individuals from every
background,color,and creed. Preserving it will require vigilance, education, and renewed
commitment from institutions and citizens alike.
During its seven hearings, the Commission received input from more than 100 witnesses—
many of whom had experienced firsthand threats to religious liberty in the United States.
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 resulting conflicts have compromised the religious liberty of students and teachers,
parents and children,service members and chaplains,healthcare professionals and
patients, employers and employees, and religious institutions and the communities they
serve. These witnesses showed great courage. Their commitment to stand by their beliefs
and “live not by lies” has played a consequential role in preserving religious liberty for all
Americans.
Among our conclusions, we believe that safeguarding religious liberty requires more
than defending legal rights after they have been violated. It requires cultivating a
culture that understands why those rights exist in the first place.It requires correcting
misconceptionsabouttheConstitution,strengtheningconscienceprotections,ensuring
equal treatment under the law, and fostering renewed appreciation forthemanifestly
positive role of religion in buildingup theinfiniterichnessofAmerican life.
Across the hearings, the Commission examined many different areas of American society
where religious liberty has been under threat in recent years. The highlights of each area
are outlined below.
Faith-Based Institutions
Faith-based institutions occupy a unique place in American life. Long before many
government programs existed, religious communities established schools, hospitals,
charities,orphanages,shelters, and countless other institutions dedicated to serving their
neighbors.
As consulting executive Oriel Ekşi, a human trafficking survivor,put it,“Faith-based
organizations are often among the first to showup, the last to leave, and the most trusted
by the people they serve.”
Yet, leaders of faith-based institutions testified that they increasingly face pressure to
modify their missions, alter religious practices, or redefine core beliefs in order to
participate fully in public life. For example, a women’s homeless shelter in Alaska was nearly forced to close when it refused to house a man dressed as a woman, a Vermont
couple was denied from foster care because they would not support harmful gender
transitions for children,and Christian and Jewish schools are being threatened by laws that
require them to compromise the mission of the schools.
No institution should be forced to surrender the convictions that animate its mission.
Faith-based institutions contribute precisely because they are faithful to their religious
convictions, not despite them.
Protecting these institutions, andthe individuals who work for them,strengthens civil
society and expands opportunities for Americans of every background to receive
education,healthcare,charitable assistance,and spiritual support.
Recommendations For Religious Leaders, Institutions, and Houses of Worship
1. Issue guidance to ensure the Johnson Amendment is not applied to chill religious
leaders’ First Amendment right to provide religious guidance to their communities.
2. Guarantee faith-based institutions an equal opportunity to participate on an
equal basis in funding opportunities without requiring them to renounce their
religious identity; issue guidance that religious discrimination in federal funding
programs is unconstitutional.
3. Clarify faith-based institutions’ freedom to operate in accordance with their
religious beliefs, including through litigation against state and local authorities that
discriminate on the basis of religion.
4. Require public officials who allege a person under their supervision has improperly
engaged in religious expression to provide a written explanation of the alleged
violation to the person accused within 30days,and explain that charge based upon
a specific constitutional provision or provision of law.
Report - https://www.justice.gov/religious-liberty-commission/media/1449896/
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