The Freedom From Religion Foundation warns that the latest meeting of President Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission” featured a lopsided agenda promoting Christian nationalism.
The hearing, billed as the second in an exploration of “religious liberty in education,” was dominated by panels advocating for even more religious privilege rather than protecting true freedom of conscience. It also elevated individuals who have misused their public roles to advance personal religious beliefs.
“This hearing was not about protecting religious liberty,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It was about promoting the Christian nationalist agenda, privileging Christianity in public schools, funneling taxpayer money to religious institutions, and weaponing ‘religious liberty’ to undermine equality.”
The hearing included testimony from Hutz Hertzberg, chief education officer of Turning Point USA’s education arm, who urged teaching young children biblical values to counter what he called “anti-American, woke ideology.” He urged people not to trust the public education system to train children in truth and morals, and advocated for indoctrinating children into the “absolute authority” of the bible.
Commissioner Carrie Prejean Boller urged the commission to take advantage of the current Christian nationalist moment, remarking that “now is the time to build, to put those crosses and nativity scenes back up. We have more rights as Christians than we’ve ever had.”
Former high school coach Joe Kennedy, who turned his government position into a platform for public prayer and was at the center of a Supreme Court case that dangerously eroded the separation of state and church, claimed he was “prosecuted and persecuted” for his religious expression. Kennedy also alleged that peoples’ lives are being overturned by a backlash to faith practices.
Without naming FFRF, Kennedy called out secular groups: “I don’t know a lot about law and liberty, but I know that you’re supposed to advise people on the truth and the facts, and they’re not. They have an agenda, and their agenda is well set and in place, working very well at keeping prayer out of the public square. They’re still doing it. So, that needs to be exposed. And, those lawyers need to be held accountable.”
Virginia teacher Monica Gill described defying a district policy requiring teachers to use students’ preferred names and pronouns, framing her refusal as an act of religious obedience. “God’s truth is more important than my job,” Gill said. “My employer gave teachers a choice: deny truth or risk everything. … I knew that I could not stand in front of my Father in heaven one day and say: ‘My pension plan was more important than your truth.’ I also knew that if I say that I love my students, the only right choice would be to stand in love and truth for them.”
Connecticut teacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro recounted suing her school after administrators ordered her to remove a crucifix she had prominently displayed in front of the students in her classroom.
Commissioner and Christian nationalist Eric Metaxas turned the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment on its head: “The Establishment Clause means that secular religion cannot be established. If your view is opposing or pushing against a biblical or a Christian worldview, if you’re pushing against what you call a religious worldview, you are yourself taking a religious position. And that’s not neutral.”
“Dr. Phil” McGraw, also a commissioner, encouraged using government authority to advance what FFRF considers to be a Christian nationalist agenda: “There has to be a call to action. The most common way to lose power is to think you don’t have it to begin with. We do have power, and we need to rally with that power.”
Other participants represented Hillsdale College (a small, doctrinaire Michigan Christian institution with an outsized influence), the Becket Fund (a far-right Catholic legal outfit) and faith-based schools seeking public funding while demanding the right to discriminate.
All speakers represented only conservative evangelical, Catholic or Jewish perspectives. No nonreligious voices were included despite nearly a third of Americans identifying as nonreligious, many of whom are harmed by government entanglement with religion. Students and families experiencing coercive prayer, favoritism or discrimination were also not invited to participate.
“The First Amendment is supposed to ensure government neutrality — protecting the right to practice religion or no religion at all,” comments FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “This commission already has a foregone agenda to promote conservative Christian faith and encourage its further encroachment into our public institutions.”
FFRF will continue defending the rights of nonreligious Americans and upholding the constitutional wall separating church and state.
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.
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