Trump’s Religion Panel Wants to Erase Church-State Separation and Reward Anti-LGBTQ Defiance

President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission is doubling down on a radical agenda that rejects the long-standing constitutional principle of church-state separation. At a recent meeting, commission chair and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick declared flatly, “There is no separation of church and state,” calling it “a lie” and suggesting printing “a million bumper stickers” to spread this message. This incendiary claim flies in the face of Supreme Court precedents that protect religious freedom by preventing government endorsement of religion.

The panel, formed last year and packed with conservative Christian activists, has also pushed for expanding religious exemptions in public schools, healthcare, labor laws, and beyond. Among their wishlist items is awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, a stark symbol of the commission’s alignment with anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

Other members called for the Department of Justice to intervene in lawsuits supporting Amish parents opposing vaccine mandates and Catholic nuns resisting requirements to accommodate hospice patients’ gender identities. These efforts reflect a broader conservative Christian campaign to use government power to impose religious beliefs on others and chip away at civil rights protections.

Critics warn this commission embodies a dangerously narrow, partisan view of religious liberty. A progressive interfaith coalition has sued, alleging the panel violates federal law by lacking diverse representation and promoting a Christian nationalist agenda. The majority of commissioners are conservative Christian clerics, with only one Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and meetings have been held at the Museum of the Bible, a Christian-led institution.

The commission’s focus on conservative Christian grievances leaves out pressing issues like anti-Muslim discrimination and rising antisemitism from the right. Progressive leaders point out that the panel ignores the full spectrum of religious freedom challenges in America, instead weaponizing “religious liberty” to justify discrimination and authoritarian overreach.

This commission’s agenda is not just symbolic. It threatens to undermine decades of legal protections that maintain the delicate balance between religion and government. By rejecting church-state separation and pushing for broad religious exemptions, Trump’s panel is paving the way for state-sanctioned religious discrimination and a rollback of democratic norms.

As the commission finalizes its report, the stakes could not be higher. Their recommendations risk enshrining a theocratic vision that privileges one religious viewpoint over others and weakens the constitutional safeguards that protect all Americans’ rights. We will be watching closely — and holding them accountable.