Texas’ Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been named chair of a newly formed national commission on religious liberty, launched last Thursday by former President Donald Trump during a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House.
The commission, according to an executive order signed by Trump, will focus on identifying threats to religious freedom and proposing strategies to strengthen and protect religious expression across the United States.
Members are expected to produce a detailed report addressing current challenges, constitutional protections and proposals for safeguarding religious pluralism in the years ahead.
“I’m honored to lead this important initiative,” Patrick said in a statement. “We have a magnificent inheritance of religious liberty, and every believer, regardless of their faith, has a rightful claim to that legacy.”
Patrick joined Trump and other commission members at the White House on May 1 for the announcement, where he delivered a speech praising the country’s founding principles and accusing the Biden administration of undermining the rights of religious Americans.
“The United States was birthed by prayer and built on a Judeo-Christian ethic that guarantees people can worship freely, without government interference,” Patrick said. “This commission will help restore what’s been eroded.”
Trump, who previously signed a religious liberty order during his presidency in 2017, said the new panel is part of a broader effort to reintroduce religion into public life.
He cited a series of recent actions as evidence of his commitment, including pardons for anti-abortion activists, a new Department of Justice task force aimed at combating what he called anti- Christian bias, and the reinstatement of service members who were discharged over COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
The commission will include up to 14 presidential appointees representing a range of sectors, including education, religion, law, and business.
Members will serve without pay through July 4, 2026, which marks the 250th anniversary of American independence. Dr. Ben Carson, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will serve as vice chair.
Other members of the commission include Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Rev. Franklin Graham, Dr. Phil McGraw, Kelly Shackelford, Eric Metaxas, Pastor Paula White-Cain, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Imam Mohamed Magid, Dr. Alveda King, Tony Perkins, Bishop Vincent Mathews Jr., Sister Deirdre Byrne, Dr. Jim Garlow and Rabbi Tuly Weisz.
Trump said the idea for the commission came from Patrick, who has long championed policies that insert religious principles into public institutions.
Patrick has supported legislation requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms and efforts to permit voluntary prayer in schools. He has described the United States as a “Christian nation” and in 2013, speaking to a church in Conroe, said the separation of church and state “was not in the constitution.”
The executive order establishing the commission emphasizes the historical roots of religious liberty in America, referencing early settlers fleeing persecution and the First Amendment’s enshrinement of the free exercise of religion. The order also criticizes modern federal and state policies that it says infringe on conscience protections, limit access to religious education,andmarginalizefaithbased organizations.
Quoting President Ronald Reagan, the order warns that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” and argues that Americans must be reintroduced to the nation’s tradition of religious freedom in order to protect it for future generations.
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