A lot of talk these days about religious freedom and religious persecution. Some history will help.
Wade Hampton was a wealthy planter and slave master in South Carolina before the Civil War. During the war, he served as Confederate calvary general under Robert E. Lee. After the war, he led campaigns to restrict new freedoms for freed slaves and served as governor and senator from South Carolina.
Today, among the many things named in his honor, is Wade Hampton Boulevard here in Greenville, SC, a mere 11 miles from my home; and on Wade Hampton Blvd sits Bob Jones University. It is a private, religious school and, at one time, prevented blacks from enrolling (until 1971) and later, from dating white students (until 2000). Because of that, the school lost its tax-exempt status in 1983 when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the national interest in overcoming racial discrimination outweighed the school’s claim to religious freedom.
That lone dissenter? William Renquist, who went on to serve as Chief Justice from 1986 – 2005, thus becoming an early leader in the legal revolution that has now transformed the Court from a protector of the rights of the black minority to a promoter of the rights of the white majority.
The federal courts, in DC and throughout the country, are slowly adopting a different understanding of religious freedom, pushed along by the culture war movement we now call MAGA.
This was evident last week when the Trump-appointed Religious Liberty Commission issued its first report. Actually, what we have is a preliminary report, but it is enough to let us know how MAGA thinks about religious freedom.
The chairman of this Commission is Dan Patrick, Lt Governor of Texas, and the members include 12 Christians and a single Jew. The Commission is scheduled to conclude its work on July 4, 2026.
“Religious Freedom” is now defined as the right to resist any public policy enacted for the general welfare of the population if that resistance can be connected to some “sincerely held religious conviction.” The best example in recent years was the pushback against public health protocols during the COVID pandemic. Public leaders prohibited many public gatherings as one way to slow the spread of the virus. People were encouraged to get vaccinated, and some (like military personnel) were required. More than one hundred million people were diagnosed with the virus in the United States and more than one million died (including the great John Prine!).
But alas, some religious people pushed back, claiming convictions against vaccines and commitments to public worship. “No governor or mayor is going to tell us we can’t gather for worship!” Thus, religion became a rationale for rejecting public health rules. Those who were cited or, in the case of the military, forced to resign, claimed religious persecution.
Another class of persecutions citied by the Commission and often in the news relates to the civil rights of people. Some religious people reject the civil rights of LGBTQ people, and these believers cite their religion when they refuse to provide professional services to gays or refuse to receive them as business customers. The rationale often reads very much like older white policies against blacks, refusing them seating or housing or employment, only with a heavier emphasis on the religious roots of their convictions.
Conservative Christians have long sustained convictions and practices that put them at odds with the general public. A good example is the pushback against science. First, it was Catholics refusing to adopt the Copernican view of astronomy; then it was Protestants refusing to embrace Darwinian understandings of geology. Psychiatry has displaced demons as a common cause of mental health issues, but this has not gone over well with some religious people.
In all of these examples, people have claimed “sincere religious beliefs” to justify their rejection of common policies regulating public health, education, and behavior. Religious people now want to be accepted into community life even while they push back against community practices. When they run into resistance, they claim persecution.
The irony is this: even while religious leaders are crying “persecution” when they flaunt public health protocols, they are in the vanguard of campaigns to resist the actual worship of their neighbors, especially their Muslim neighbors. And this has been especially egregious in the very state where Commission chairman Dan Patrick wields such power—Texas. There, state and community leaders are both denying building permits to Muslims wishing to build houses of worship and also leading public relations campaigns against Muslim communities.
I suspect every objection to any public or community policy can be contorted to connect to a religious rule or belief. Whether this constitutes “religious persecution” is another question altogether. But the President, the Supreme Court, and many state leaders have adopted this strategy to fuel their movement to make the United States a “Christian Nation.”
This, it seems, we must endure for a season.
A lot of talk these days about religious freedom and religious persecution. Some history will help.
Wade Hampton was a wealthy planter and slave master in South Carolina before the Civil War. During the war, he served as Confederate calvary general under Robert E. Lee. After the war, he led campaigns to restrict new freedoms for freed slaves and served as governor and senator from South Carolina.
Today, among the many things named in his honor, is Wade Hampton Boulevard here in Greenville, SC, a mere 11 miles from my home; and on Wade Hampton Blvd sits Bob Jones University. It is a private, religious school and, at one time, prevented blacks from enrolling (until 1971) and later, from dating white students (until 2000). Because of that, the school lost its tax-exempt status in 1983 when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the national interest in overcoming racial discrimination outweighed the school’s claim to religious freedom.
That lone dissenter? William Renquist, who went on to serve as Chief Justice from 1986 – 2005, thus becoming an early leader in the legal revolution that has now transformed the Court from a protector of the rights of the black minority to a promoter of the rights of the white majority.
The federal courts, in DC and throughout the country, are slowly adopting a different understanding of religious freedom, pushed along by the culture war movement we now call MAGA.
This was evident last week when the Trump-appointed Religious Liberty Commission issued its first report. Actually, what we have is a preliminary report, but it is enough to let us know how MAGA thinks about religious freedom.
The chairman of this Commission is Dan Patrick, Lt Governor of Texas, and the members include 12 Christians and a single Jew. The Commission is scheduled to conclude its work on July 4, 2026.
“Religious Freedom” is now defined as the right to resist any public policy enacted for the general welfare of the population if that resistance can be connected to some “sincerely held religious conviction.” The best example in recent years was the pushback against public health protocols during the COVID pandemic. Public leaders prohibited many public gatherings as one way to slow the spread of the virus. People were encouraged to get vaccinated, and some (like military personnel) were required. More than one hundred million people were diagnosed with the virus in the United States and more than one million died (including the great John Prine!).
But alas, some religious people pushed back, claiming convictions against vaccines and commitments to public worship. “No governor or mayor is going to tell us we can’t gather for worship!” Thus, religion became a rationale for rejecting public health rules. Those who were cited or, in the case of the military, forced to resign, claimed religious persecution.
Another class of persecutions citied by the Commission and often in the news relates to the civil rights of people. Some religious people reject the civil rights of LGBTQ people, and these believers cite their religion when they refuse to provide professional services to gays or refuse to receive them as business customers. The rationale often reads very much like older white policies against blacks, refusing them seating or housing or employment, only with a heavier emphasis on the religious roots of their convictions.
Conservative Christians have long sustained convictions and practices that put them at odds with the general public. A good example is the pushback against science. First, it was Catholics refusing to adopt the Copernican view of astronomy; then it was Protestants refusing to embrace Darwinian understandings of geology. Psychiatry has displaced demons as a common cause of mental health issues, but this has not gone over well with some religious people.
In all of these examples, people have claimed “sincere religious beliefs” to justify their rejection of common policies regulating public health, education, and behavior. Religious people now want to be accepted into community life even while they push back against community practices. When they run into resistance, they claim persecution.
The irony is this: even while religious leaders are crying “persecution” when they flaunt public health protocols, they are in the vanguard of campaigns to resist the actual worship of their neighbors, especially their Muslim neighbors. And this has been especially egregious in the very state where Commission chairman Dan Patrick wields such power—Texas. There, state and community leaders are both denying building permits to Muslims wishing to build houses of worship and also leading public relations campaigns against Muslim communities.
I suspect every objection to any public or community policy can be contorted to connect to a religious rule or belief. Whether this constitutes “religious persecution” is another question altogether. But the President, the Supreme Court, and many state leaders have adopted this strategy to fuel their movement to make the United States a “Christian Nation.”
This, it seems, we must endure for a season.
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