Many of the witnesses had experienced religious persecution in the United States, the Department of Justice said.
The Commission Argues for Culture Change
The report states that a common theme raised by the witness testimonies was that frequently in America, religion is treated “not as a protected and valued contribution to public life, but as a problem or annoyance to be managed, restricted, or sidelined”.
As such, it argues that what is required to defend religious freedom is not simply defending legal rights after they have been violated but rather that a culture must be “cultivated” that appreciates the origin and necessity of religious rights in the first place.
Constructed around the accounts given by witnesses, the report suggests that, in recent years, religious rights have been infringed upon across a number of different fields in American life, including in faith-based institutions themselves, education, parental rights, the military, healthcare and, more broadly, the public square and private sector.
The Commission also dedicates a section to what it describes as rising anti-Semitism both online and in public life.
Witnesses Detail Violations in Education
Abuses against religious liberty in each of these areas were detailed by the witnesses, including high-profile cases that gained prominence in both national and international media over the past five years.
Under the policy area of education, which receives extensive focus in the report, a number of individual students are referenced who experienced various challenges to their faith life during their time at school or university.
Elementary school student Shea Encinas was bullied for adhering to his Christian faith, the report says, when he was forced to read another student a book that told him he could choose his gender.
Another child, nine-year-old Lydia Booth, was forced during the Covid-19 pandemic by school officials to remove a facemask that read “Jesus Loves Me”, while students across the district were allowed to maintain masks with different political, ideological and cultural expressions.
The case of Yitzchok Frankel, a Jewish law student and father of four, is also discussed by the report. Frankel was forced to abandon his regular route through the University of California, Los Angeles campus because of the establishment of what was described as a “Jewish Exclusion Zone” in the wake of the October 7 attacks in Israel in 2023.
Conscience Rights in Healthcare and Military
Healthcare is another policy area that the Commission dwelled on in compiling the report, describing it as presenting some of the most “sensitive and consequential religious liberty questions confronting our nation”.
Interviews with healthcare workers raised conscience conflicts over the issues of abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide, gender-related interventions and vaccine mandates, among other issues, the report reads.
“Many described difficult situations in which they [healthcare professionals] were pressured or coerced to participate in actions they believed to be morally wrong or professionally inappropriate”, it says.
As elsewhere, the report contains extensive examples of individuals placed in uncomfortable situations by private or federal employers because of their religious convictions.
Physician Assistant Valerie Kloosterman was fired without warning as a result of her refusal to adopt her university’s new policy of using preferred pronouns. A Diversity, Equity and, Inclusion (DEI) official is noted as having told Kloosterman that she “could not take the Bible or [her] religious beliefs to work”.
Similarly, Jewish surgeon Dr Eithan Haim had armed Department of Justice agents deployed to his home after speaking out about Texas Children's Hospital's decision to deviate from state guidance and its own stated policy by expanding its gender program into “a multi-million-dollar multidisciplinary clinic”.
The consideration of religious liberty and the American military is centered on policies and practices that created “unnecessary tension” between military requirements and religious convictions, such as the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
The mandate resulted in service members losing access to entitlements such as pension and healthcare when they refused to take the vaccine. One such case included by the Commission is that of Navy Seal Blake Martin, who faced coercion and isolation over his request for a religious exemption from the mandate.
While the report provided area-specific recommendations to shore up religious liberty in each field, it also made 12 overarching recommendations to improve religious rights across America in general.
The Commission's Central Constitutional Concern
Foremost among them is that the Department of Justice be instructed to issue guidance clarifying “the proper understanding of the Establishment Clause and separation of church and state” because, according to the Commission’s understanding, it should not require that religion be excluded from public institutions or civic life.
The Establishment Clause is derived from the first segment of the religion provision in the First Amendment of the American Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”.
It was often interpreted as meaning that a high degree of separation between church and state must be maintained by federal and state governments – an interpretation that has lost popularity in recent years. This shift is picked up on by the Commission.
The body also recommended such measures as repealing the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations, such as churches, from weighing in on particular political candidates.
“Repeal the Johnson Amendment which purports to give the government authority to regulate religious leaders’ sermons and spiritual guidance to their communities”, the Commission’s recommendation reads.
It also recommends public awareness campaigns intended to foster knowledge of religious rights in public spaces and the creation of a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty to recognize Americans “who stand up for religious freedom and play an indispensable role in protecting citizens’ Constitutional rights”.
The report justifies these measures by arguing that religion is beneficial not only for democracy and civic participation but also for families, individual well-being and charity. Therefore, the Commission’s argumentation runs, its flourishing in society is to be encouraged, primarily through the protection of religious liberty.
