(The Center Square) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday created a new state Senate Select Committee on Religious Liberty. The committee will hold hearings and propose legislation about religious liberty topics, which he says Americans and Texans “don’t understand.”
He launched the committee after a national Religious Liberty Commission he chairs is being sued, alleging bias, a lack of religious freedom for members, and multiple federal law violations.
After chairing the national commission for the past year, Patrick said, “I have learned that many Americans, and Texans alike, do not fully understand their God-given religious liberty rights secured under the First Amendment. Today, I am appointing the Senate Select Committee on Religious Liberty to find ways to educate Texans on their religious liberty rights and to make sure Texans do not have those rights infringed upon.”
All but one of the members he appointed to the state committee are Republican. All are Protestant Christians with the exception of two Roman Catholics.
Patrick nominated state Sens. Phil King, R-Weatherford, and Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, as chair and vice chair, respectively. Other Republican members are Sens. Brent Hagenbuch of Denton, Adam Hinojosa of Corpus Christi, Bryan Hughes of Tyler and Charles Perry of Lubbock. Only one Democrat is on the committee: César Blanco of El Paso.
Hagenbuch says he is “a committed Christian” and is a member of a nondenominational church, Crossridge Church, in Little Elm. Hughes, a Protestant Christian, is a member of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. The NACL is focused on proposing pro-Christian model legislation to be implemented in state legislatures nationwide. Perry is a member of Southcrest Baptist Church. Weatherford is member of Trinity Bible Church. Paxton was a founding member of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco. Patrick is a member of Second Baptist Church in Houston. Both Blanco and Hinojosa are practicing Roman Catholics.
Patrick launched the state commission after being accused of not protecting the religious liberty of the national commission’s members or freedom of conscious. He removed one member, a Roman Catholic, after she raised questions about the definition of antisemitism and foreign policy as it relates to Israel and Iran. After that, another member, a Muslim, resigned. They and others argue the commission does not allow members to disagree or hold different views than those of Patrick and another member of the commission, Paula White, The Center Square reported.
Both hold a Christian dispensational end times view taught by many evangelical seminaries and bible colleges in America. The view is not held by the Roman Catholic Church, most Protestant denominations, Mormons, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists among others. There are four established Christian views of the end times. Other views exist, including those of Shi’a Muslims, Jewish Talmudic followers, Buddhists, among others.
In February, the Interfaith Alliance and multiple faith groups sued the president, attorney general, Department of Justice and Religious Liberty Commission alleging the commission’s membership is unlawfully balanced. All members except for two are self-identifying Protestant Christians or Roman Catholics. One is a Jewish rabbi. One former member was a Muslim. No other faith groups are represented. The lawsuit also alleges the DOJ’s creation of the commission violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Administrative Procedures Act and the Mandamus Act.
“Religious freedom for some is religious freedom for none,” Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said when filling the lawsuit. “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.”
When asked to respond to criticisms by former members and allegations that the national commission does not represent religious liberty or all faiths, Patrick did not respond.
