President Trump said Monday his administration will take steps imminently to protect the right to prayer in public schools.
“I’m pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in public school,” Mr. Trump said during remarks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington.
Mr. Trump’s remarks came during a high-profile hearing on religious liberty in education. The speech coincides with the second meeting of the Religious Liberty Commission, which Mr. Trump created earlier this year to protect Americans’ freedom to practice their faith in schools.
Mr. Trump told the crowd that his administration will protect Americans’ right to religious freedom “with vigor.”
“America was founded on faith … and when faith gets weaker, our country seems to get weaker. When faith gets stronger, as it is right now, we are having a very good period of time after some rough years,” Mr. Trump said.
The commission is also tasked with identifying “emerging threats” to the First Amendment’s protections of religious freedom. It was created through an executive order as part of Mr. Trump’s new White House faith office.
Members of the commission include television’s Dr. Phil McGraw, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
Students who said they were unfairly discriminated against by their school for their religious views spoke at the event, including a girl who was banned from organizing a prayer group for an injured classmate and a fifth grader who was forced to read a book about gender ideology to a kindergarten student. Attorney General Pam Bondi also spoke.
The Supreme Court has ruled against state-sponsored prayer in public schools, while ruling that school employees and students have a right to personal prayer.
Mr. Trump also announced that he is donating his family’s Bible, which was used in both his inaugurations, to the Museum of the Bible.
Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January, he has sharply focused on religious freedom. In addition to creating the Religious Liberty Commission, he also created an anti-Christian bias task force targeting practices that stymie Christian beliefs.
Mr. Trump also issued an executive order in July that permits federal employees to discuss religion at work, display religious items and artwork, and loosens other restrictions on faith in the workplace.
The president has increasingly talked about faith and religion. In a Fox News interview last month, he said one of the reasons he wants to end the war between Russia and Ukraine was so he could “get to heaven.”
“I want to try to get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I really am at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons,” he said.
Mr. Trump has also declared his surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year as divine intervention.
“I was saved by God to make America great again,” he has said on multiple occasions.