The White House posted in September an article touting “President Trump’s Top 100 Victories for People of Faith,” claiming that he is “the most pro-faith and pro-religious liberty president in American history.”
While the president has, indeed, taken steps to buttress religious freedom, we believe that some of the former presidents the administration hints he’s surpassed might be quite alarmed at the impact his other consequential steps will likely have on the religious lives of millions of Americans.
In fairness, we, a committed conservative and a committed liberal — both experienced advocates of religious liberty — are encouraged that the Trump administration has maintained the White House Faith Office and the Centers for Faith in every department offering guidance on constitutionally valid forms of partnership between faith groups and the government.
Other steps the administration has taken, however — steps that should be encouraging — are being done in a way that raises concerns for many religious liberty advocates like us and may turn those “victories” to “defeats.”
Thus, we recognize the support for religious freedom in establishing a Religious Liberty Commission earlier this year, which can be positive if it offers constitutionally acceptable ways to enhance and promote religious liberty for Americans of all religions. We do share concerns about whether this new commission’s focus will remain primarily on Christian religious liberty in the most religiously diverse nation in the world.
We strongly support Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Mark Walker, R-North Carolina, as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, a position within the U.S. Department of State. But we fear little is being done to confirm him in this vital and urgently needed post.
Of course, all of this must be viewed in the context of Trump having named during his first term three justices who deeply value religious freedom to the Supreme Court: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. However, we do have concerns. First, we are watching whether they will give adequate weight to the establishment clause stipulating that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
And, second, we are watching closely how these justices will balance sincere religious freedom claims for exemptions from civil rights laws against the government’s compelling interest in protecting the civil rights of all Americans — an issue on which these justices’ views will be pivotal.
But we think that President Trump’s most serious impact on religious liberty is not to be found in particular programs, offices, or policies addressing religious freedom, but with his broader steps taken that impact the health of our American democracy as a whole.
Concurrent with his administration’s religious liberty “victories,” Trump has also been testing the broader framework of our nation’s constitutional order and the rule of law.
The Constitution and its full array of varied rights is more important than any of its parts. And President Trump has proudly taken steps to chill freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to protest and the protections of due process.
In our view, he has also done serious damage to our constitutional separation of powers ignoring congressional authority and federal court rulings. And he undercut our electoral system, so vital to our democracy, by subverting the electoral college clauses in his attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
In an ABC interview earlier this year, President Trump said he “didn’t know” when asked whether he is required to uphold the Constitution in the context of challenges to his immigration policies.
In the long run, no single freedom, including religious liberty, will long survive without the full panoply of fundamental rights and a robust commitment to the rule of law that protects those rights.
If there is no freedom of speech, there will be no guarantee of freedom of the pulpit. If freedom of the press withers, the right to publish our sacred texts, religious educational materials and share congregational communications is likewise imperiled.
If freedom of assembly gets limited, our freedom to gather in worship or publicly celebrate our holidays also becomes endangered. Without the right to protest the government for redress of grievances, the prophetic witness of our faith communities and their widely held obligation to preach truth can also be stilled.
We have already seen the government challenge the special status of houses of worship from ICE invasive searches without warrants, while also drastically reducing or cancelling support for Catholic Charities, Church World Service and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society programs which serve immigrant communities.
No matter the administration’s declarations of support for religious liberty, if we lose our other democratic freedoms and protections, there will be no guarantee of freedom of religion, just as without freedom of religion and its attendant freedom of conscience all other rights are greatly weakened.
That some of these impositions on our democratic freedoms are being done in the name of religious freedom or fighting persecution of religion, intensifies these concerns.
Some religious denominations and organizations that have spoken out about concern for a weakening of democracy see the administration’s favoring of religious freedom as an exception to this broader worrisome trend.
The President may be counting on religious liberty advocates to forget the forest (the Constitution) for the trees (free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment).
It is time for all who care about religious freedom, whether supporters of this administration or its critics, to stand up and ensure that America’s constitutional system, which integrates all fundamental rights and the rule of law that protects those rights, continues to flourish.
Only then will religious freedom for all be secured.