On National Religious Freedom Day, Thursday, the Trump administration released what it calls an updated guidance laying out “constitutional protections for prayer and religious expression in public schools.” “You have the right to pray,” President Donald Trump declared during a ceremony in the Oval Office. “And that’s a very important and powerful right. There’s nothing more important than that.” Surrounded by students who administration officials contend have suffered discrimination for practicing religion at school, the president repeated his accusation that his Democratic opponents are waging a war against the faithful. “There is a growing totalitarian impulse on the far left that seeks to punish, restrict and even prohibit religious expression,” he said. FILE – President Donald Trump attends a U.N. event on religious freedom at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2019.Trump has made religious freedom a key issue in his domestic and foreign policy, helping to solidify his support among conservative evangelical Christians. The administration said the government guidelines remind public school administrators that federal funds can be withdrawn if they violate their students’ rights to religious expression, and will help improve individuals’ ability to file complaints if they are denied the ability to participate in protected religious expression. “It will empower students and others to know and exercise their rights,” said Joe Grogan, director of the U.S. Domestic Policy Council, in a briefing for reporters. No apparent changeAlthough the U.S. Education Department has not released details of the FILE – Faith leaders pray with President Donald Trump during a rally for evangelical supporters at the King Jesus International Ministry church, Jan. 3, 2020, in Miami.According to a FILE – In this Jan. 31, 2016, photo, Pastor Joshua Nink, right, prays for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trump launched a coalition of evangelicals early in his 2020 presidential campaign.Grogan said that nine federal agencies, including the Education Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department, will propose rules to ensure that federal grants and state grants with federal funding can be accessed by religious organizations in addition to secular groups, and that “organizations are not discriminated against simply because they are religious in nature.” “I support the fact that he is broadening the scope of religious freedoms,” said Driskell. “My concern is that this religious freedom extends only to Christians, and particularly the evangelical wing of Christianity.” Additionally, the rules would lift an Obama-era executive order that compelled religious organizations to inform the people they serve that they can receive the same service from a secular provider. VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
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