Trump is Wielding “Religious Liberty” As A Weapon
Religious Americans Must Have the Courage to Push Back
By Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
In a speech delivered before a meeting of his White House’s “Religious Liberty Commission” this month, President Trump made clear that he views religion primarily as a tool to advance his own political power, and as a weapon with which to attack his opponents and enemies.
Speaking at the Museum of the Bible to his hand-picked commission of political allies, Trump reiterated the claim that “God wants [him] to win” his elections and incorrectly insisted that his administration “got rid of… the Johnson Amendment,” a longstanding federal law that prohibits houses of worship and other nonprofits from endorsing candidates. He once again pushed the dangerous false notion that “anti-Christian bias” pervades the United States. He promised to issue new guidance protecting “the right to prayer” in schools—part of an ongoing crusade to push the Bible, the Ten Commandments, Christian prayer and Christian chaplains into public education.
To anyone listening to his speech, or watching the actions of his administration, it should be clear that Trump does not care about religious liberty for all Americans. He cares only about the liberty of his own Christian nationalist allies to impose their beliefs on others, and to use those beliefs to discriminate against a wide range of vulnerable communities. The chair of Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission” is Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a vocal Christian nationalist, while commissioner Eric Metaxas has called President Trump’s political opponents “demonic” and the Democratic party “an instrument of wicked spirits." Another commissioner, Ryan T. Anderson, has argued that the Dobbs decision did not go far enough in undercutting women’s access to abortion.
Religious Americans don’t need these people to protect us. We need to protect ourselves, and our fellow Americans, from their attacks. As our country heads toward its 250th anniversary at a moment of great peril for democracy, we need to recognize that organized religion is facing a pivotal moment of choice.
For people of faith like myself, the question is: will we allow our beliefs and institutions to be distorted and weaponized—becoming pawns in an authoritarian mission to suppress civil rights and enforce one narrow ideological worldview? Or will we, and our peers across all faiths, show courage and embrace religion as a moral force for social justice and progress in the United States?
Religion, and particularly some strains of Christianity, has been leveraged to legitimize injustice in America before, from the horrors of slavery, to the oppression of women and LGBTQ+ people, to the Jim Crow era. Yet we also have so many counter-examples of people accessing the courage of their faiths to speak out, organize, and move our country forward, ever closer towards the promise of liberty and justice for all.
Unlike Trump’s new commission, pro-democracy faith movements have long celebrated and drawn upon America’s religious pluralism. During the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. invited diverse multi-faith coalitions of people to work and march together for freedom. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said as he marched alongside King, “I felt like my feet were praying.” One of King’s own mentors, Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, born in 1899 and raised by his formerly enslaved grandmother, was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, particularly his embrace of the Hindu principle of “ahimsa,” a Sanskrit term for non-violence.
Today, while Trump and his cronies talk about “religious liberty”, they put faith leaders and communities that disagree with them in their crosshairs. But even as some law firms, universities, media companies and corporations have capitulated to intimidation from the administration, religious leaders have shown their moral courage in the face of attack.
When Episcopal Bishop Mariane Budde asked for mercy for immigrants and gay and trans youth during Trump’s inaugural prayer service, she faced demands for an apology and resolutions for censure introduced in Congress—yet she never backed down. When the White House revoked the Sensitive Location Policy that had protected houses of worship from being targeted by ICE, the Cooperative Baptists, Sikhs and Quakers filed a joint lawsuit to restrain the government from invading their sacred spaces. When Elon Musk attacked Lutheran Child and Family Services, who provide assistance to rural communities and the elderly, accusing them on social media of money laundering, the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s presiding bishop responded by explicitly naming the toxic Christian nationalism pervasive in the administration.
After Target, Walmart and other companies capitulated under threat from Trump and abandoned their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Black church congregations and other groups have led an effective boycott effort. During the occupations of Los Angeles and DC, faith leaders have shown up on the front lines to offer spiritual support and act as a shield for vulnerable communities.
Much more of this courage will be needed on the road ahead. All of us must refuse to allow Trump and his Christian nationalist backers to claim the mantle of “religious liberty” or define the role of belief in public life. We cannot allow religion to serve as a handmaiden to dictatorship and oppression, as it has in our own past.
On October 18th, No Kings rallies across the country will again bring millions of Americans into the streets to protest the Trump Administration’s abuses of power. Faith communities and congregations across the country can and must be among those proudly on the front lines.
The essence of American multi-faith democracy is the freedom to hold our own beliefs and practice our own traditions without government infringement and harassment. We have the power to inspire resistance, to defend the vulnerable, and to safeguard the promise of our country as a place where all communities can safely flourish.
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is the president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance.
Religious Freedom is the anchor that every free country in the world allows. If that is taken away by Trump and his obviously extremist ties to White Nationalism, that is plaguing our country at the moment, we have lost our freedom. We are careening towards the type of government that decides what religion is ok, and what is now banned. It is all based on hate, racial and gender prejudice, extremist views that deem certain groups as inferior, and control. We know the countries that use these methods. If we go down that path, then our government is effectively a dictatorship. Our constitution once protected this premise, but the daily shredding of our democracy, shows how little that matters to the party in power. We have one chance to fix this by voting in 2026. Either we live in a functioning democracy, or we adhere to an Authoritarian madman who destroys everything he touches.
trump is about as religious as a POS