How to Undermine Religious Freedom While Singing Its Praises

A new report purports to celebrate religious liberty for all; in reality it disparages orthodox Christianity and undercuts the freedoms of all morally traditional people of faith.

Responding to:

“Religious Liberty for All: Celebrating This Founding Freedom at America 250”

Published by the Center for American Progress and allied organizations on June 15, 2026

The core disagreement: To claim patriotic devotion to religious liberty as the “founding freedom at America 250,”—while denigrating an important good-faith effort to safeguard that very freedom—is unconvincing at best, despotic at worst.

WHAT THEY GOT RIGHT

Made up of contributions by five Democratic politicians and fifteen leaders of progressive religious organizations, "Religious Liberty for All" directs all of its misplaced hostility at President Trump's Religious Liberty Commission. Nevertheless, the authors' apparent vision of "religious freedom rooted in the First Amendment, built on the separation of church and state, and grounded in…[human dignity and] the realities of a multireligious nation" is laudable. They are right to affirm religious liberty as "one of the cornerstones of our nation."

WHERE THEY GO WRONG

Despite their sincerity, the authors’ calls to “embrace diversity,” “perform radical love,” and “honor free expression” fit poorly with their consistent smearing of the Religious Liberty Commission’s work. After all, the RLC has done exactly what these detractors claim to support: promoted religious liberty for all. Ultimately, their objection is that the RLC understands religious freedom for all to include morally traditional Christians. peaking in broad generalities while avoiding specifics that can be verified or falsified, the report claims that the RLC, in supporting conservative Christianity, weaponizes religious freedom as “a privilege reserved for the majority,” that determines “who belongs, whose rights are protected, and who has power.” Ultimately, their objection is that the RLC understands religious freedom for all to include morally traditional Christians.

The tired trope of “Christian nationalism” is central to the authors’ thinking. RLC members are “Christian nationalists,” they say. Therefore, they seek to “use the power of the state….to impose a narrow version of Christianity on the rest of the country.” What is most frightening is that the authors really appear to believe this. Their devotion to the Left’s new human rights, such as abortion and unfettered sexual autonomy, seems great enough to justify, in their eyes, the vilification of faith-based belief in traditional morality. Nor are they alone: the Biden Administration’s many religious freedom violations and the narrowing of religious freedom in Europe leave no doubt that traditional religious faith is in real danger in the West.

"The Trump administration's sham Religious Liberty Commission…seeks to replace religious liberty with a fake Christian nationalist narrative…" Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), in "Religious Liberty For All."

THE REAL STORY

Reality gives the lie to the “Religious Liberty for All” report’s mischaracterization of the RLC. In seven hearings since its establishment in 2025, the RLC has heard hundreds of witnesses of widely varying perspectives speak about the state of religious liberty in many different sectors. Witnesses included Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical Christians, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist representatives. The RLC has identified “12 opportunities to strengthen religious liberty” that apply to Americans of all faiths. It’s hard not to conclude that the authors’ animus toward traditional morality leads them to opposing religious freedom—the very opposite of what they think they are doing.

WHY THIS MATTERS

"Religious Liberty for All" illustrates the prejudice against traditional faith that often results from placing human choice above divine authority. This is fed by the demonization of religious people. Without a shred of evidence, Christians are denigrated as narrow ideologues intent on forcing their religion on everyone else. Such blind rage against traditional morality, especially that of Christians, is far too widespread among secularists. This report demonstrates how poisonous that hostility is to social peace and religious freedom.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Don’t let anti-religious progressives hide their illiberalism behind phony paeans to “liberty for all.” Religious Freedom Institute founder Tom Farr said it well: the genius of America is its reverence for “religious liberty as…the freedom on whose shoulders all other freedoms stand.” If progressives succeed in silencing traditional believers by branding them as hateful, then “America will no longer be America.”