President Donald Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission within the Justice Department in May of 2025 to examine the foundations of religious liberty in America; to identify current threats to that liberty, and to develop strategies to preserve and strengthen its protections for all Americans.
In a recent speech to the Commission, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Brian Christine explained that “religion and liberty are foundational to our beloved republic. They are not competing loyalties, but complimentary callings and have been since our republic's genesis.” He noted that Alexis de Tocqueville, during his 1831 trip to America, observed that Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.
“This unorthodox approach,” noted Assistant Secretary Christine, “has not only made us the most enlightened and free nation to ever exist, but acts as the unifying principle and steadfast idea that binds each element of the great American experiment into a single, sacred, and purposeful aim.”
“To recuse the benevolent hand of God from the American story is to deny our history, to abandon reality and reject the very heritage that our founding fathers so boldly forged,” said Assistant Secretary Christine. “For from the beginning, long before this republic found its footing, the conviction that God had a purpose for this new land burned in the hearts of those who crossed the Atlantic.”
On November 21, 1620, 102 pilgrims, while anchored in Provincetown Harbor, created the one of the first governing document of the New World, the Mayflower Compact. And in it, they declared their endeavor was undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.
A decade later, the Winthrop fleet embarked upon its own perilous voyage. Amid that journey, said Assistant Secretary Christine, John Winthrop articulated a set of standards each were to live by so that despite the immense difficulty and uncertainty before them they would remain “united in civility, steadfast in their mission, and favorable in the eyes of the Lord.”
“This aspiration was rooted in the fact that religious liberties are as essential as our civil and they always go together,” said Assistant Secretary Christine, “for if the foundation of one be sapped, then the other will surely fall.”
These rights are enduring, intrinsic, and natural and they are endowed by God. Because they are not born of man, they shall not be surrendered to man, for what God gives, no man can take away, said Assistant Secretary Christine.
So, Americans “carry a civic duty to preserve and pass down the gift that we have been gifted,” he added.
“May we continue to act as a beacon of salt and light and remain steadfast in our faith,” said Assistant Secretary Christine, “committed to our principles, generous in our service, and firm in moral certainty that America's exceptionalism flows from her virtuous people, her monumental history, and her marvelous God.”