(RNS) — The leader of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission said that church and state separation is a falsehood at the group’s final meeting, drawing criticism from an advocacy group that supports it.
At a Monday (April 13) hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and the chair of the commission, asked, “Would it not be a good recommendation that every school, every university, every business, has to have that one sheet on the bulletin board about protecting people’s religious liberty, and that the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding?”
His question was posed to Helen Alvaré, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, as Patrick compared the notion of such a bulletin board announcement to the federal notices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that are posted in classrooms and other buildings that aim to promote safety and prevent hazards.
Alvaré, a onetime top staffer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representing the bishops’ anti-abortion stance and a witness at the hearing, agreed with Patrick’s suggestion.
“It would be an appropriate time to put up some information about these sorts of rights,” she said. “You’re responding to the signs of the times where this has been misunderstood, and like any other thing, where people are unclear about their rights, this might be a way to clarify them.”
Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, rejected Patrick’s stance.
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“Church-state separation ensures we are all free to live as ourselves and believe as we choose, as long as we don’t harm others,” Laser said in a statement issued Monday. “It allows us all to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy. It is an American original, something we should be proud of, fight for, and cherish.”
Trump signed an executive order last May at a National Day of Prayer ceremony in the White House Rose Garden that created the commission, saying it would release a report on the “foundations of religious liberty in America,” “current threats to domestic religious liberty” and “programs to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism.”
The commission members have included some of Trump’s evangelical allies, Catholic bishops, a rabbi and TV host Phil McGraw.
In February, Americans United joined Democracy Forward in filing a lawsuit against the commission, challenging its composition that included one non-Christian and stating that its “Christian members do not represent the full diversity of the Christian faith.” The suit was filed on behalf of interfaith, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu organizations. Americans United and Democracy Forward have since sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the publication of a commission report while their case is considered by a federal district court.
Members of the commission include Pastor Paula White-Cain, senior adviser to the White House Faith Office; Dr. Ben Carson, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump; Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, leader of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, retired archbishop of New York; Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York; and Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The commission is set to expire on July 4, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, according to the executive order, unless the president extends it.
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