(RNS) — Surrounded by faith leaders singing praise songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Great Are You Lord,” President Donald Trump presided over a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on Thursday (May 1), which culminated with the president signing an executive order establishing a new national Religious Liberty Commission.
Led by Chairman Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, and Vice Chair Ben Carson, a popular author, surgeon and former Trump administration official, the 13-member commission is charged with creating a report on the “foundations of religious liberty in America” and the impact of religious liberty on American culture. It is also intended to detail “current threats to domestic religious liberty” and create programs to celebrate religious pluralism.
Among the commission’s members are Trump allies, including White House faith adviser Paula White, talk show host and author Eric Metaxas and evangelist Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan’s Purse, along with other faith leaders like Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron of the popular Word on Fire media ministry, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York and talk show host Phil McGraw.
“Mr. President, I can’t tell you, first off, how proud I am to see religion coming back to the White House. God bless you,” McGraw, better known as “Dr. Phil,” told Trump during the White House ceremony. “God bless you.”
According to the executive order, the commission is charged with considering for the report the First Amendment rights of religious leaders and houses of worship, religious rights and vaccine mandates, parental rights in education and “permitting time for voluntary prayer and religious instruction at public schools,” among other topics.
Along with speaking about faith in America on the National Day of Prayer, Trump also repeated his long-held, debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and told attendees, “We’re bringing religion back to America.”
Recent polling by Pew Research Center found among white evangelicals — a key voting bloc for Trump — almost three-quarters surveyed gave the president high approval ratings for his first 100 days in office. By contrast, 59% of Americans surveyed overall disapproved of his job performance, according to Pew.
Polling by the Public Religion Research Institute found two-thirds of white evangelicals feel that Christians in America face discrimination. Along with the religious liberty commission, the White House has ordered the Justice Department to start a task force on anti-Christian bias.
The Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, an online Christian social justice community, criticized the new commission, calling it an attempt to “tear down the wall between church and state.”
“Make no mistake,” Fleck said in a statement, “this new commission will do more to increase bullying in schools, workplace conflict and religious discrimination than it will to protect our constitutional rights or our churches.”
Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of Faith in Action, a network of progressive faith-based community organizations, also criticized the new commission, saying, “Religious freedom is not theirs to wield as a weapon of fear or domination.”
In a post on X, Barron said he was grateful to be appointed to the commission.
“Freedom of religion in our country has been a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for decades, and I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the Commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter,” he said on X.
The commission will expire on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, according to the executive order, unless extended by the president.
This story has been updated to correct the name of Word on Fire in the third paragraph.