Members include religious leaders, legal experts and public figures, including Dr. Ben Carson.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to establish the Religious Freedom Committee to “protect and promote the establishment of the American Religious Freedom Principles,” according to the White House.
“Americans need to be reunited with our country’s wonderful experiment in religious freedom to maintain it against new threats,” Trump’s executive order reads.
The May 1 order directed the committee to prepare a comprehensive report on the country’s history of religious freedom. The group also outlines the threat to that freedom and develops recommendations on how to protect religious freedom.
“We are bringing religion back to our country,” Trump said during the event. “That’s a big deal.”
Texas Lt. Colonel Dan Patrick issued a statement saying he was respected for being appointed chairman of the committee on May 1.
“We carry out the President’s important mission to maintain and strengthen the religious freedom of our country,” Patrick said. “We thank President Trump for his unwavering commitment to ensuring our country returns to the founding principles of faith and religious freedom.”
Members of the committee include public figures including Ben Carson, including religious leaders, legal experts and vice-chairman. Carson was a secretary of housing and urban development during Trump’s first term.
The order fact sheet states that key areas of focus include religious education, school choice, protection of conscience, attacks on places of worship, freedom of speech for religious groups, and parental rights in institutional autonomy.
The committee is also asked to consider specific topics such as vaccine obligations in public schools and voluntary prayer.
Previous efforts
An executive order in February established a task force to eradicate the anti-Christian bias that was formed to end the suspected government weaponization and illegal activities targeting Christians.
The task force held its first meeting on April 22nd, hosted by Attorney General Pam Bondy. The group includes many cabinet members, each speaker highlighted within their institutions that the Biden administration believes it targeted Christians because of their religious beliefs.
During his first administration, Trump was established in 2018 under the leadership of then-power of Attorney Jeff Sessions, and established the Judicial and Religious Freedom Task Force, which addressed religious freedom litigation and policy.
One of the earliest examples of administrative sectors that ordered the creation of religious positions came in the 1940s when President Franklin Roosevelt expanded the role of military pastors, allowing clergy to serve from a wide range of faith.
In a February 1934 letter, Roosevelt emphasized the importance of spiritual leadership in the military, saying, “Admiral and naval service and clergy pastors do a commendable job of advancing idealism and true religion causes through words and life.
Then, in a Fireside Chat in October 1942, the president publicly confirmed his commitment to the spiritual welfare of military personnel, saying that “it will never fail to provide the spiritual needs of officers and men under a pastor of armed service.”
Decades later, the establishment of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom under the Clinton administration in 1998 led to one of the following major administrative division religious movements:
The group is an independent, bipartisan legislative branch institution that oversees religious freedom overseas and makes recommendations to the president, secretary of state and parliament.
The next administration, under President George W. Bush, established the White House office for faith-based neighbourhood partnerships in 2001, welcomed the partnership with faith-based community organizations, calling it “essential to meet the needs of poor Americans and suffering communities.”
The executive order said the goal of the partnership is “a private and charitable community group that includes compassionate outcomes and religious ones.”
Partnership groups were expanded by the Obama administration in 2009 and are no longer limited to faith-based groups, including broader community organizations. Obama’s executive order called on the council to ensure that federally funded services are provided in a manner that includes equal protection, regardless of religious expression.
