(The Center Square) – The Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission doesn’t promote or protect religious liberty, including of its own members, two former members argue. A group of diverse faith leaders have also sued the commission arguing its creation was illegal and its membership is unlawfully biased.
The commission is chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the head of President Donald Trump’s White House Faith Office, Paula White. The president established the commission by executive order to address religious freedom issues and appointed its members. Its current members are all Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians with one Orthodox Jewish Rabbi.
Both former members are women: Roman Catholic Carrie Prejean Boller and Muslim Sameer Ahmunshi.
After the commission held its recent hearing on Monday, Prejean Boller said she was supposed to have been there but wasn’t because she was removed because of her religious beliefs. At a hearing held last month, she questioned the Christian Zionist view held by Patrick and White and said Christians should have the freedom to criticize foreign policy, including opposing the U.S.-Israel undeclared war against Iran. Patrick then removed her, saying he did so because of her own “political agenda” and Trump “respects all faiths.”
“My own religious freedom was denied while I was appointed to defend yours. Serving on that commission meant something deeply personal to me,” she said. “I believed in the mission to defend the religious freedom of every American. While I may not be in that hearing room today, my voice and my conviction have not disappeared.”
On Monday, she again said the commission is “a fake commission [that] pretends to care about religious liberty. It should be shut down.” She also told Piers Morgan that Trump has betrayed Americans by starting a war with Iran on behalf of Israel.
Prejean has taken issue with Patrick’s and White’s view on the end times, which they argue is linked to modern day Israel. They and others have presented this view as the only Christian view when there are four key Christian views of the end times. Other views exist, including a Shi’a Muslim view, a Jewish Talmudic view, a Buddhist view, among others.
Patrick has no theological background, training or degrees, and was a sports radio host prior to being elected to the Texas legislature. Multiple evangelical pastors and Christian leaders have raised concerns about White. They argue she “preys” on her followers to donate money to her organizations with the promise that they will financially prosper. White is the leader of Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries, which were investigated by Congress.
When asked to respond to criticisms made by Prejean Boller and Munshi and allegations that the commission does not represent religious liberty or all faiths, Patrick did not respond.
In 2007, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance launched a multi-year investigation into her organizations as well as other self-described Christian organizations’ tax-exempt status. Her ministries did not provide the complete information requested, the committee said. The investigation was ultimately dropped because the committee said witnesses were afraid to come forward and the committee didn’t have the time or resources to enforce subpoenas, NBC News reported.
Munshi resigned from the commission ahead of its Monday meeting saying she did so in protest of Prejean Boller’s removal and “because of the federal government’s illegal war against Iran.”
“While members of this Religious Liberty Commission have mocked my faith and treated my community with hostility, I hesitantly accepted my appointment last year with the intention of remaining a voice of reason and standing for the religious freedom of ordinary Americans whose voices are not often heard at the highest levels of government. This includes American Muslims whose rights are sidelined and whose existence is met with hateful rhetoric aimed at advancing particular political agendas,” she said. Her family includes Christians and Muslims who came to the U.S. fleeing religious discrimination and persecution, she said.
She also asked, “If we are not free in America to abide by our religious beliefs and hold fast to them despite others’ disagreement, then in what country are we free to do so?”
The Interfaith Alliance agrees and has sued the commission along with other organizations.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and names Trump, the attorney general, DOJ and the commission as defendants. It argues the commission violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Mandamus Act, and its membership is unlawfully imbalanced. It asks the court to declare that the commission was illegally created and is being administered in violation of federal law and that any reports it issues be required to state as such.
“Religious freedom for some is religious freedom for none,” Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said. “The government has no right to pick and choose which religious beliefs to promote, and which to marginalize. The Trump administration has failed to uphold our country’s proud religious freedom tradition, and we will hold them accountable. Today’s lawsuit is our recommitment to fight for religious liberty for all with every tool available to us.”
