Trump in Washington, D.C., September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is condemning President Trump’s remarks today at the Museum of the Bible, where the second meeting of his “Religious Liberty Commission” turned into a Christian nationalist rally under the guise of safeguarding religious freedom.

In his nearly hour-long speech, Trump attacked the Johnson Amendment — the law that prevents churches and other tax-exempt nonprofits from becoming partisan political machines — and pushed school voucher schemes to siphon public money to schools engaging in religious indoctrination. He repeated the false and irrational claim that public schools are “attacking religion,” and announced a pending new Department of Education guidance, which appears to be aimed at expanding religious influence in public school classrooms.

Claimed Trump: “For most of our country’s history, the bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are punished for their religious beliefs. Very, very strongly punished.”

Trump piously declared, “To have a great nation, you have to have religion — I believe that so strongly. There has to be something after we go through all of this, and that something is God.” He alleged students are being “indoctrinated with antireligious propaganda” and touted his administration’s efforts to keep transgender students out of sports.

Without providing evidence, Trump expounded: “For most of our country’s history, the bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are punished for their religious beliefs. Very, very strongly punished.” He capped his speech with a prayer led by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and walked out to the strains of the Christian hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

“Today’s hearing looked more like a church service than a government meeting,” asserts FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “From the Christian prayers to the Christian nationalist lineup of speakers, this commission is not protecting religious liberty — it’s promoting Trump’s political agenda and a false narrative that America is a Christian nation.”

The commission, chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick with Dr. Ben Carson as vice chair, also heard from parents and students handpicked by First Liberty Institute, a Christian nationalist legal group whose CEO, Kelly Shackelford, sits on the panel. One student, Lydia Booth, described her lawsuit over being barred from wearing a “Jesus Loves Me” mask in school, framing it as proof of religious persecution. “God can use even something as small as this mask to help ensure our amazing country remains free,” Booth said. Trump used the hearing to highlight similar stories while announcing that his family bible would be permanently displayed at the Museum of the Bible.

Trump’s rhetoric was saturated with grievance politics — from railing against “wokeness” at the Smithsonian to vowing to end “anti-Christian bias.” His administration also rolled out an “America Prays” initiative, inviting Americans to “rededicate ourselves to one nation under God.”

“This is not religious freedom,” adds FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “It’s a political stunt run by Christian nationalist activists, twisting the concept of liberty to mean government promotion of their faith and privilege at the expense of equality and rights of conscience for everyone else.”

FFRF predicts that the upcoming commission hearings on Sept. 29 (focused once again on teachers, coaches and school funding) and on Nov. 17 (on religion in the military) will continue this pattern of grievance-mongering and historical revisionism.

Mandating religion in schools doesn’t protect faith, it weaponizes it, FFRF states. The real danger is when public officials use their power to impose religion on children. That’s why the separation of church and state matters: to keep our public classrooms welcoming to students of all faiths and none.

FFRF will continue to monitor the commission’s work, defend the separation between government and religion and oppose efforts to erode true religious liberty — which entails the right to believe or not believe, free from government interference or religious coercion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

The post Trump turns ‘Religious Liberty’ hearing into Christian nationalist rally appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.