May 1 (UPI) — A newly created Religious Liberty Commission is tasked with reporting on religious liberty in the United States, threats against it and how to preserve religious liberty for future generations.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the commission during a National Day of Prayer event on the White House lawn on Thursday.
“We’re bringing back religion, and we’re bringing it back quickly and strongly,” Trump told attendees at the National Day of Prayer event.
“For America to be a great nation, we must always be ‘one nation, under God,'” Trump said.
Parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech for religious entities and institutional autonomy are the commission’s key focus areas.
It will have a chair and a vice chair to ensure the commission fulfills its mission.
The executive order says it is necessary to “ensure Americans can freely practice their faith without government interference.”
According to the executive order, recent federal and state policies have undermined religious freedom by targeting conscientious objectors, stopping parents from enrolling their children in faith-based schools, threatening the funding and non-profit status of religious entities and excluding religious groups from government programs.
It says the Biden administration’s Justice Department “targeted peaceful Christians while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses.”
The Religious Liberty Commission will investigate such matters and recommend policies to “restore and safeguard religious liberty for all Americans,” the executive order reads.
The White House afterward named Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as the commission’s chairman and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson as its vice chairman.
Eleven others are appointed to the commission:
- Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
- Bishop Robert Barron, bishop of Minnesota’s Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
- Carrie Prejean Boller, a former Miss California USA and 2009 Miss USA first runner-up.
- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and a member of the Catholic University of America’s board of trustees.
- Pastor Franklin Graham, president and chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
- Allyson Ho, a partner and appellate attorney at the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm.
- Dr. Phil McGraw, host of the “Dr. Phil” television show.
- Eric Metaxas, a writer, speaker and radio host who has testified before Congress regarding anti-Semitism.
- Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive officer of First Liberty Institute.
- Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, which is the nation’s oldest Jewish congregation.
- Pastor Paula White, founder and president of Paula White Ministries and the National Faith Advisory Board.
Trump also briefly discussed his plans for “one big, beautiful bill” that would include tax cuts impacting working families, including an income tax deduction for interest paid on car loans when buying American-made vehicles.
He said the bill will support Medicaid for those who are in need and make America healthy and well again.