President Donald Trump announced upcoming guidance from the Department of Education protecting prayer in public schools during a speech at his Religious Liberty Commission’s Sept. 8 hearing.

The hearing, held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, marked the commission’s second public meeting and had a theme of “Religious Liberty in Public Education.”

Trump has long vowed to bring religion back to the nation, both on the campaign trail and so far during his second term. He walked out to the crowd at the Museum of the Bible shortly after 10:30 a.m., thanking the commission for doing an “amazing job.”

He said his administration would “protect the Judeo-Christian values of our founding.” Later in the day, the White House published an article listing Trump's "Top 100 Victories for People of Faith."

“To have a great nation, you have to have religion – I believe that so strongly,” Trump said at the hearing. “There has to be something after we go through all of this, and that something is God.”

He went on to allege that students are “indoctrinated with antireligious propaganda” in public schools before announcing the new Department of Education guidance. It was not immediately clear what the guidance would entail.

Students have long had the right to pray in public schools as individuals.

The Department of Justice website said the goal of the meeting was to “understand the historic landscape of religious liberty in the educational setting, recognize present threats to religious liberty in education and identify opportunities to secure religious liberty in this context for the future.”

In his nearly hour-long speech, Trump listed numerous initiatives including using the National Guard to crack down on crime in Washington, DC, ending "anti-Christian bias" and his efforts to end perceived "wokeness" at the Smithsonian Institution.

“Honestly they’re making changes, you know," Trump said of the institution. "They were also told what to do by people that came before me, in all fairness, but they’re making changes. Big changes are being made at the Smithsonian.”

He also said U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, should be "ashamed of himself" for comments he made during a Sept. 3 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Kaine said he found Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks about God-given rights "troubling."

"The notion that rights don't come from laws and don't come from the government, but come from the Creator − that's what the Iranian government believes," Kaine said, while noting that he also has religious faith.

Trump called Kaine "ineffectual" and said "it is tyrants who are denying our rights and the rights that come from God."

USA TODAY reached out to Kaine's office for comment.

Following a prayer by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, Trump ended his remarks by saying the United States has "always been a nation that believes in the power of prayer" and will "defend our liberties, our values, our sovereignty, and we will defend our freedom."

"We're at the very beginning of a golden age," he said, before walking out to a rendition of "Amazing Grace."

Hearing was 'more like a church service,' advocacy group says

Trump's statements represented "a lot of theater without a lot of substance," said Chris Line, legal counsel for the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

He said Trump conflates religious neutrality with discrimination against Christians and said the commission is "more about advancing religious privilege" and promoting Christian nationalism than protecting religious freedom across the board.

Line pointed out that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened to eject members of the public who didn't stand for the Christian invocation at a Texas State Senate session in August but boycotted a Muslim prayer in 2007.

He said as much in an Aug. 18 letter to Patrick that described the ejection threat as "unconstitutional and discriminatory."

USA TODAY reached out to Patrick's office for comment.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser said the commission hearing was "more like a church service" and promoted the "lie that America is a Christian nation and that religion is under attack."

In a news release, Laser said the hearing ignored what she viewed as the bigger issues when it comes to religious liberty, such as laws requiring public schools in several states to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Laser later told USA TODAY the hearing highlighted Trump's "transactional relationship with the religious extremist community."

She referenced the "America Prays" initiative Trump mentioned at the hearing, calling it "a very dangerous undermining of the separation of church and state."

The White House website describes it as an "invitation to prayer (and) rededication of the United States as one nation under God." It goes on to ask individuals to consider praying for the country and the American people for one hour each week.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State's website notes that students have the right to pray in public schools. Though guidance saying as much wouldn't mark a change in policy, Laser was still concerned.

"While a lot of these policies are smoke and mirrors in terms of change, there are elements that do pave a path for dangerous changes in the law, and they certainly embolden religious extremists to thwart the law," she said.

She described the notion of widespread discrimination against Christians as "preposterous" and called it "curious" that there was no discussion of the Ten Commandments laws, especially given that Patrick, who serves as the commission's chair, is from a state in which such legislation has been passed.

A federal judge in August temporarily blocked certain Texas school districts from implementing the law as litigation continues.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State also sent a letter to the commission in late August that outlined what it perceives as the "true threats to religious freedom in this country," which it said are "Christian Nationalists and their extremist allies that are working to erode the separation of church and state and impose their specific set of values on all Americans."

'No one should come between God and believer,' panel chair says

Patrick said the commission's goal is to boost Americans’ understanding of their religious rights and operates under the premise that “no one should come between God and a believer.”

“We are primarily a Christian nation, but this committee represents all faiths because that’s what our founders intended, people of all faiths,” he said.

The commission includes Protestant, Catholic and Jewish people, but no Muslims or members of other minority religious groups. There is Muslim representation on the advisory board of lay leaders.

Patrick later said Trump’s White House Faith Office is “the first faith office ever established by a president in the White House.”

However, Trump's office replaced former President Joe Biden's White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which also existed under former President Barack Obama's presidency. Former President George W. Bush established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within days of taking office in 2001.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York expressed his appreciation for Trump at the hearing, whom he said "takes religious freedom seriously and realistically recognizes that it’s under threat today.”

He also referenced the “biblical virtue of patriotism,” which he said fuels his passion for the commission’s work.

Three young people addressed the commission with their testimonies about how they said they faced censorship in public schools for their Christian beliefs.

They included Lydia Booth, who described being told she couldn’t wear a “Jesus Loves Me” mask at her Mississippi school. Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on Booth’s behalf, which the district ultimately settled.

“God can use even something as small as this mask to help ensure our amazing country remains free,” Booth said.

Condemnation of teachers' unions, talk of 'religious and cultural war'

The hearing's afternoon session included panels that discussed topics including antisemitism in schools following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and what numerous speakers described as public education's intolerance for conservative or religious values.

Sameerah Munshi, an activist who serves on one of the commission's advisory boards, said laws pertaining to religious liberty should be "implemented with transparency and consistency" and called for widespread religious exemptions.

She was among those who advocated for the right of religious parents at Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools to opt their students out from reading books with LGBTQ+ themes. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the parents in June.

Munshi described the backlash against religious families for such stances, particularly noting that Muslims are "not only marginalized religiously, but in every move we make we are treated as outsiders whose rights are conditional or an afterthought."

People of faith are united by a common value of "speak(ing) up for humanity and morality, no matter who it is for or against," she said.

"Whether a student says 'I believe there are only two genders' or 'I believe Palestinians are undergoing a genocide,' they should not be silenced or punished for expressing their beliefs," Munshi said.

The Rev. Franklin Graham condemned teachers’ unions, which he said are promoting a “very subtle, demonic-type takeover of our children.”

Phil McGraw referenced a "religious and cultural war" happening in the country.

"Every single one of us is a combatant," McGraw said. "Nobody can afford to sit on the sidelines, not one of us can afford to sit on the sidelines.”

Vows to protect religious liberty and walkouts at first hearing

At the commission's first hearing, also held at the Bible museum, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said religious liberty has “come under attack” and vowed that the Trump administration would protect religious liberty against “emerging threats.”

“The federal government became complicit in sheltering these threats, becoming the greatest threat itself,” Bondi said before listing events under Biden's administration.

Several people walked out during Bondi’s speech, with Interfaith Alliance’s Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons telling USA TODAY the meeting had “very little diversity of thought.”

“I think most Americans believe separation of church and state is good for both, and their voices aren’t being heard at all by this commission,” he said.

Trump’s actions on religious liberty

Trump created the commission in a May 1 executive order that followed the establishment of the White House Faith Office in February.

The administration also issued a memo outlining federal workers’ rights to religious expression in the workplace in August. The memo largely reiterates existing policy dating back at least to former President Bill Clinton’s administration, though some experts told USA TODAY the recent memo is more centered on Christian and Jewish religious expression and is less attentive to the potential risks of such expression, such as religious coercion.

The commission’s next hearing, which also will center on “Religious Liberty in Education,” will take place on Sept. 29.

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This story was updated to add additional information from the commission's Sept. 8 hearing.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump vows to protect prayer in public schools with new Department of Education guidance

Reporting by BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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