(RNS) — The leader of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission said that church and state separation is a falsehood at the group’s final meeting, drawing criticism from an advocacy group that supports it.
At a Monday (April 13) hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and the chair of the commission, asked, “Would it not be a good recommendation that every school, every university, every business, has to have that one sheet on the bulletin board about protecting people’s religious liberty, and that the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding?”
His question was posed to Helen Alvaré, a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, as Patrick compared the notion of such a bulletin board announcement to the federal notices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that are posted in classrooms and other buildings that aim to promote safety and prevent hazards.
Alvaré, a onetime top staffer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representing the bishops’ anti-abortion stance and a witness at the hearing, agreed with Patrick’s suggestion.
“It would be an appropriate time to put up some information about these sorts of rights,” she said. “You’re responding to the signs of the times where this has been misunderstood, and like any other thing, where people are unclear about their rights, this might be a way to clarify them.”
Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of American …
