Religious Liberty Commission Discusses Faith at Schools

Religious Freedom, ,

On Monday, our friends from Alliance Defending Freedom testified at the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission.

In May, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the commission. The commission is responsible for “producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

The primary purpose of Monday’s commission meeting was to discuss religious liberty in education.

During his testimony before the commission, ADF Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch said:

“Religious liberty in education should not be a partisan issue. It is a matter of human dignity, family rights, and national flourishing. Our nation will continue to benefit from generations of young people formed in both knowledge and virtue if faith-based schools are free to live out their missions and families are free to choose them.”

In recent years, news outlets and congressional testimony have alleged that government policies and government agencies have been weaponized against people of faith — especially conservative and Christian organizations.

More broadly, wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, and florist shops all have been taken to court or targeted by government officials because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions.

In March, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 400, the Religious Rights at Public Schools Act of 2025.

This good law by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) affirms public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties.

Act 400 identifies and upholds religious freedoms that are already protected by state and federal law — such as the right to pray, discuss religion, or read the Bible during free time at school.

The measure also helps make sure that religious expression is treated equally to other types of speech at school.

This will help prevent schools from squelching anyone’s religious liberties.

People should be free to live and operate according to their deeply held religious convictions, and we must protect religious freedom at school. That is why it is so important for our laws — and the government agencies that enforce those laws — to protect religious liberty as much as possible.

When it comes to religious liberty, public schools have been a battleground for more than 60 years.

We appreciate our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom standing up for the free exercise of religion in America.

The Religious Liberty Commission says it will hold another hearing to discuss religious liberty issues in the military on November 17.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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President Trump Addresses Federal Religious Liberty Commission

Religious Freedom,

On September 8, the federal Religious Liberty Commission hosted a gathering with U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, President Donald Trump, and American students and parents.

During the gathering, students and parents shared about challenges to religious liberty in the public school system.

Protecting the free exercise of religion has been a high priority this year. In February the president signed an executive order establishing the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. The task force’s purpose is to “protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.”

The Religious Liberty Commission that met earlier this month was established through a second executive order President Trump signed in May.

The commission is responsible for producing “a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

In recent years news outlets and congressional testimony have alleged that government policies and departments have been weaponized against people of faith — especially conservative and Christian organizations.

Federal workers and military personnel have also come under fire for living out their faith.

In 2013, Family Research Council compiled examples of attacks against religious liberty in the military. In 2014, news broke about the federal government making Veterans Affairs hospital chapels “religiously neutral.” And in 2015 a Navy chaplain was relieved of his duties for holding biblical views on homosexuality.

In August the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a new memo to help prevent this type of religious discrimination in federal workplaces.

We applaud the federal government for taking steps to prevent anti-Christian bias in the federal government and preserve the free exercise of religion for all Americans. No one should face discrimination for their faith.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Small Business Administration to Lenders: Stop Debanking

Religious Freedom, ,

The Small Business Administration recently sent a letter to 5,000 lenders instructing them to end politicized debanking. Lenders who fail to do so will “lose their good standing” with the SBA and will be subject to additional punitive measures.

Since 2021, congressional testimony and news stories have highlighted how federal officials and financial institutions targeted conservative organizations through “reputational risk” policies. Conservatives deemed “high risk” could have their bank accounts closed without warning and without explanation.

During the Biden Administration, the federal Treasury Department gave banks and financial institutions an analysis titled “Bankrolling Bigotry” that listed legitimate, conservative groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, American Family Association, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, National Organization for Marriage, and the Ruth Institute as “Hate Groups” alongside the KKK and the American Nazi Party.

The “Bankrolling Bigotry” analysis also outlines ideas on policies and laws aimed at preventing these groups from fundraising. Officials from the Treasury Department distributed this document to banks and financial institutions in January of 2021, calling it an “overview on the funding of American hate groups.”

We also now know the U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns they could use to identify suspicious people or activities — the included search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”

The department encouraged financial institutions to comb through transactions for terms like, “Bass Pro Shops,” “Cabela’s,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods” when looking for “Homegrown Violent Extremism.”

These problems went largely unreported until congress began asking serious questions about debanking.

In recent years, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, federal investigators, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly debanked.

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor terminated our account after designating our organization as “high risk.”

At 10:29 AM on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, our office received a terse email from our credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — saying, “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. We wish you all the luck in the future, and hope that you find a processor that better fits your payment processing needs.”

Within sixty seconds, our account was terminated and Family Council could no longer accept donations online. The company never explained why we were labeled “high risk.” All we could do was speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision.

In 2022, Chase abruptly closed Ambassador Sam Brownback’s bank account for the National Committee for Religious Freedom with little warning or explanation, and PayPal similarly disabled the account of a group called the Free Speech Union.

Stories like these are part of the reason President Trump recently signed an executive order against debanking. The purpose of the order is to guarantee fair banking for all Americans. The Small Business Administration’s new directive tracks with that executive order.

To their credit, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking, and Bank of America has finally done the same. That’s a good thing, but more still needs to be done to prevent debanking in the future.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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