{"id":18528,"date":"2026-02-11T09:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18528"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:03:14","slug":"interfaith-group-sues-religious-liberty-commission-alleges-christian-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18528","title":{"rendered":"Interfaith Group Sues Religious Liberty Commission, Alleges Christian Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An interfaith coalition has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its Religious Liberty Commission, an entity within the U.S. Department of Justice, it contends, is unlawfully biased toward Christianity.\n<\/p>\n

This content is supported by your donations.
Give today.<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0complaint\u00a0was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of The Interfaith Alliance, the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Muslims for Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Hindus for Human Rights.\n<\/p>\n

Defendants named in the case include President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Religious Liberty Commission, and Mary Margaret Bush, the commission\u2019s designated federal officer.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case challenges the composition and secrecy of the Religious Liberty Commission,\u201d the lawsuit reads. \u201cWhile this body is ostensibly designed to defend \u2018religious liberty for all Americans\u2019 and celebrate \u2018religious pluralism\u2019 it actually represents only a single \u2018Judeo-Christian\u2019 viewpoint.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission\u2019s members have promoted the primacy of a Judeo-Christian world view in the public sphere, advocated for discrimination against minority groups under the guise of \u2018religious liberty,\u2019 and otherwise supported policies that threaten religious freedom for all those who do not conform to their particular worldview.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission has also disregarded basic transparency requirements, including by failing to disclose transcripts, agendas, and other materials that would allow Plaintiffs and the public to follow and understand the Commission\u2019s work,\u201d the complaint alleged.\n<\/p>\n

The groups maintain that the commission violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a 1972 law that curbs the Executive Branch\u2019s reliance on advisory committees deemed \u201csuperfluous, secretive, and biased.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In response to the lawsuit, a Justice Department spokesperson defended the commission, stating that it provides \u201copportunities for Americans from all walks of life to share their testimonies, concerns, and recommendations to better support Civil Rights and religious freedom in the United States.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Justice\u2019s mission is to uphold the rule of law and ensure fair and impartial justice for all Americans, which is an endeavor every American should support regardless of their political beliefs,\u201d the DOJ statement reads, according to\u00a0Courthouse News Service.\n<\/p>\n

The lawsuit states that the commission membership consists \u201cof almost exclusively Christians with one Orthodox Jewish Rabbi,\u201d all of whom believe \u201cthat America was founded as a \u201cJudeo-Christian\u201d nation and must be guided by Biblical principles.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are being represented by the progressive advocacy groups Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Democracy Forward Foundation.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission\u2019s true purpose and operations can\u2019t be squared with America\u2019s constitutional promise of church-state separation,\u201d said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, in a\u00a0statement\u00a0released Monday.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission\u2019s public meetings \u2014 most of which have been held at the Museum of the Bible and have been dominated by a very specific brand of Christian faith, Christian prayers, and predominantly Christian speakers \u2014 are a vivid example of this favoritism.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Trump launched the commission via an\u00a0executive order\u00a0in May, noting that it would have 14 members chosen by the president who \u201cserve as educated representatives of various sectors of society, including the private sector, employers, educational institutions, religious communities, and States, to offer diverse perspectives on how the Federal Government can defend religious liberty for all Americans.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission shall advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies of the United States,\u201d the order continued.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecific activities of the Commission shall include, to the extent permitted by law, recommending steps to secure domestic religious liberty by executive or legislative actions as well as identifying opportunities for the White House Faith Office to partner with the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom to further the cause of religious liberty around the world.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The commission held its\u00a0inaugural meeting\u00a0last June at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and was chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Those involved in the meeting included Dr. Ben Carson, Bondi, Notre Dame law professor Gerald Bradleyand Mark Rienzi, a professor at The Catholic University of America.\n<\/p>\n

During his remarks at last year\u2019s meeting, Rienzi alleged that attacks on religious freedom have changed over the generations from internal Christian disputes to attacks on religion itself from secular groups.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days, frankly, I don\u2019t think it so much comes from religious people trying to use government to stamp out people with unpopular views,\u201d he told the commission.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s now more often anti or irreligious folks who want to wield the government to stamp out views that are wrong. And I think the truth is, whether it\u2019s the religious people or the opponents of religion, it\u2019s wrong.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

On Monday,\u00a0 the commission held its fifth hearing to discuss antisemitism and religious liberty issues in the private sector.\n<\/p>\n

Share your prayers for the Religious Liberty Commission below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Molly Riley.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 4 minutes An interfaith coalition has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its Religious Liberty Commission, an entity within the U.S. Department of Justice, it contends, is unlawfully biased toward Christianity. This content is supported by your donations.Give today. \u00a0 The\u00a0complaint\u00a0was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[6010,369,72,1814,177,6009,3247,91,1624],"class_list":["post-18528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-alleges","tag-bias","tag-christian","tag-commission","tag-group","tag-interfaith","tag-liberty","tag-religious","tag-sues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}