The Religious Liberty Commission met for the first time last week. Established by the President with an executive order, the Commission is technically an arm of the Department of Justice but the hearing was held at the Museum of the Bible here in DC. That tells you all you really need to know about the Commission’s neutrality on favoring any particular religious group.
The Commission’s overall goal is to make recommendations to the President on addressing the “threats” to religious liberty. You can of course get the outcome you want by whom you pick for a commission like this. It’s chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, from the state that has recently approved chaplains replacing school counselors, putting the Ten Commandments in every classroom, and other egregious religion-related laws.
On the Commission you also have a Catholic cardinal, a Catholic bishop, a rabbi, the head of the White House Faith Office, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, an attorney, an author, and pastor Franklin Graham. Not the worst type of people for this project. You also have Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of the First Liberty Institute which has represented numerous people and faith-based organizations in court like the football coach who was told he couldn’t pray with players on the field after games. I think Mr. Shackelford’s mind is made up on religious liberty issues.
The rest of the commission members fall in the “Why?” category. Former neurosurgeon and Department of Housing Secretary Ben Carson, former beauty pageant winner and author Carrie Prejean-Boller, and doctor/talk show host Dr. Phil. (With two doctors on the Commission I hope there’s some discussion about religious exemptions for vaccines at some point.) It’s safe to say that the group has all been prescreened for the desired outlook on the separation of church and state. In the hearing there was a lot of discussion about court cases and about the beliefs of the founders regarding religious freedom. This included an attack on Thomas Jefferson and his coining the phrase “a wall of separation between church and state,” and what he really meant to say. You can find links to watch the hearing here.
One interesting moment came when one of the “expert witnesses” said he thinks “religion is a common good” like education because it promotes good behavior, and therefore the government should do more to promote religion. Only one commission member pushed back on that idea and it was…Dr. Phil! He said the government promoting religion “gets a little scary” and “Are we talking about promoting religion or are we talking about promoting liberty?” So, Dr. Phil, the voice of reason on the Commission.
There will be several more hearings before the Commission submits its final report on July 4, 2026 (not a symbolic date at all). Chairman Patrick said the agenda for each hearing wasn’t public yet but that there would be “one hearing, or half a hearing,” on the Johnson Amendment after someone had totally misrepresented its effect on church officials talking about politics and candidates.
SCA submitted questions in advance of this initial hearing, in which we weren’t sure what the topics would be. We will be back at the next hearing September 8th, whatever that one is about, with a better idea of how we can try to get the views of the nonreligious at least a little consideration. Paging Dr. Phil?
