Draft Report Urges Scrapping Johnson Amendment and Building Church-State Bridges

A draft final report from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission calls for building bridges between church and state and urges scrapping the Johnson Amendment. The 224-page document states that the church and state strengthen and support one another in reality.

The Johnson Amendment prohibits nonprofit groups, including religious organizations, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

The report commends recent Supreme Court rulings that have expanded rights for religious expression in public settings, including provisions allowing religious objections to be accommodated in school lessons. It recommends that federal agencies publish Know Your Rights posters for various settings and establish hotlines to receive complaints about religious liberty violations.

Additional proposals include compensating military service members discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines, creating a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty and First Freedom Hero Awards, and installing exhibits and markers at historic sites that pay tribute to the role of religion in American history.

The report states that the proposals do not involve advocating theocracy or the total elimination of any separation between church and state. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a vice chair on the commission, stated on Friday that the political left has used the phrase separation of church and state to batter and hammer people of faith for the last 70 to 80 years.

He added that the report will speak very clearly that Americans understand they can not be attacked by that phrase any longer. President Trump created the commission last year and appointed Patrick and Dr. Ben Carson as vice chairs along with Phil McGraw.