The Trump administration never misses an opportunity to tout its deep commitment to religious freedom.
Why, just look at the Religious Liberty Commission that President Donald Trump established in May. Or the White House Faith Office that he launched in February. Or his executive order eradicating anti-Christian bias.
So, given that the Trump team has such an excellent track record of protecting religious freedom, why is it that religious groups keep suing them?
Well, to start, the Religious Liberty Commission is stuffed with conservative Christians like Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who declared, “The Declaration of Independence is consistent with the Bible, and the Bible is consistent with the Declaration of Independence.”
Hmm, that sounds less like religious liberty and more like Christian nationalism.
And the White House Faith Office? It’s run by Paula White, a televangelist who believes that anyone who opposes Trump is part of a “demonic network.” She said that she took the gig because “to say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.”
Hmm, that sounds less like religious liberty and more like a cult.
Well, surely Trump’s efforts to eradicate anti-Christian bias are going swimmingly. In his executive order, Trump waxed rhapsodic about how his administration will protect peaceful Christian protesters after the Biden administration “engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”
To right Biden’s wrongs, Trump pardoned “nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities,” including a Catholic priest.
Things are no doubt much better now, what with all of this religious freedom floating around, right?
Not so much.
Instead, the administration’s wholesale commitment to violence against immigrants has resulted in a sustained attack on religious freedom—actual religious freedom, not the ginned-up culture war stuff that Trump loves.
What could be more of an attack against religious freedom than refusing to allow Catholic nuns and priests to administer communion to detainees at a detention facility?
This isn’t something that some rogue progressive Catholics whipped up as a way to try to get into an ICE detention center. Those nuns and priests had been visiting the facility every Friday for more than a decade, providing pastoral care, prayer services, and communion. But beginning in October, ICE started refusing to let them in.
After about two months of absolutely fruitless negotiations over this, an ecumenical group, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, along with several Catholic priests, sued the administration.
As the lawsuit explains, Catholics are literally compelled by scripture to minister to “the prisoner and foreigner.”
The complaint also references Pope Benedict’s biblical quote when ministering to detainees in Rome’s Rebibbia District Prison: “I was in prison, and you came to me.”
“Wherever there is someone hungry, a foreigner, a sick person, a prisoner, there is Christ himself, who is waiting for our visit and our help,” Benedict said.
Refusing to allow Catholic nuns and priests inside an ICE facility violates not just their religious freedom, but also that of the detainees who wish to receive communion, attend Mass, or pray with spiritual leaders.
This lawsuit is different from the October lawsuit brought by journalists and protesters, including David Black, a Presbyterian pastor who ICE shot in the head with pepper balls. A few minutes later, they blasted him with tear gas.
It isn’t just the brutality at this one ICE facility that has spurred lawsuits.
In July, a large coalition of faith groups sued over the removal of “sensitive locations” guidance, which had largely barred ICE from invading places such as hospitals, schools, and churches.
You’d think that the religious freedom administration would honor the fact that many churches and synagogues believe that providing sanctuary for immigrants is part of their religious mission, but you would be extremely wrong.
There’s also a lawsuit that was filed by more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups in February, saying that the threat of immigration officers entering churches is lowering attendance, which, you guessed it, infringes on their religious freedom.
Also in February, hundreds of Quaker congregations also sued over the removal of sensitive locations, explaining that they are spiritually called to minister to immigrants. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a network of more than 1,400 congregations, joined the suit.
“In the faces of immigrants and refugees who are fleeing political or religious persecution, or who are seeking sanctuary from tyrants, Baptists see nothing less than the face of Jesus,” the suit said.
Another plaintiff, Sikh Temple Sacramento, noted that communal in-person worship is critical to their religious practice.
Making houses of worship vulnerable to ICE raids burdens the religious practices of these groups, particularly because the entirely legitimate fear of ICE has led to a drop in attendance.
Somehow, the religious freedom organization didn’t really see that as a big deal and tried to handwave that away, saying that immigration authority rests with the Department of Homeland Security, which gets to do whatever it wants.
The administration even managed to get itself sued in February by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over cutting off refugee resettlement aid, which is quite a feat since those bishops have generally enthusiastically tilted right.
Vice President JD Vance, who never fails to tout his tradcath views and ostensible commitment to religious freedom, said that the bishops were just in it for the money.
The Trump team only cares about religious freedom when it’s used to force a very narrow, very conservative version of Christianity on everyone else. Actual religious freedom—the right to freely practice your faith, whether that may be—is utterly foreign to this administration.
