The idea of separating Church and State often seemed the norm in the United States, but a new report by an administration commission during the Donald Trump presidency suggests replacing it with a focus on building bridges between them.

The assertion challenging a longstanding concept in American law comes amid a raft of recommendations in a draft report of the Religious Liberty Commission, released June 26, PBS reports.

In the executive summary, the report says, "Because religion is so central to human identity, and family and communal life, the church and state must have a rightly ordered relationship for individuals and societies to flourish. Human history has shown how difficult it is to get this relationship right and how dangerous it is to get it wrong."

According to CNN, the report by the Religious Liberty Commission suggests effectively tearing down the wall between church and state in the United States by providing more public money to religious organisations, giving churches a more direct role in politics.

The advisory body was created by President Trump in 2025 and filled almost entirely by conservative Christians.

The 224-page draft report, which is partly a policy document and also a philosophical argument according to PBS, reiterates members' support for a stronger role for religion and religious expression in government, schools, and the public square.

The report applauds recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court expanding rights to religious expression in public settings, such as the creation of opt-outs for religious objections to school lessons.

The report generally calls for allowing more religious expression, with a strong emphasis on Christianity, in the public square, with greater access to public funds for faith-based agencies and broader exemptions for those claiming conscientious objections to policies, including vaccine mandates, pronoun use, and classroom lessons.

A coalition of groups – including one suing over the commission's lack of ideological diversity, as required of federal advisory panels – issued a proactive report earlier in June defending the concept of church-state separation.

"Religious liberty belongs to all people, not to any single tradition, political party, or administration," said the report, published by the Center for American Progress and others.

The draft report contends that even U.S. founding father Thomas Jefferson didn't believe in completely banishing religion from public life, but rather in keeping church and state in a kind of balance.

          - SUPPORTING ONE ANOTHER

"In reality, the church and state strengthen and support one another," it says.

PBS says the report touts the value of religion to society in terms of providing humanitarian work, anchoring families and acting as "conscience" monitoring government.

"In many cases the law protects the religious expression of Americans, but government officials and employers often use fear tactics to silence individuals into believing that they don't have the right to publicly express their faith," it argues.

According to CNN, critics of the commission's work say its perspective is skewed toward that favoured by Trump and his supporters and that it heard almost entirely from like-minded scholars and activists.

They say the commission failed adequately to address such issues as anti-Muslim efforts in Texas and elsewhere, and also the rise of antisemitism on the right, not just the left.

The report comes as conservative states such as Texas have worked to incorporate more religion into public spaces such as classrooms, including Bible lessons and Ten Commandments displays.

Trump, speaking to supporters at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington on Friday, touted the newly released report.

"We saved religion, it was going down," Trump claimed.

Trump argued that the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden, had carried out a "reign of persecution."

Some of those on the commission included: Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor of Texas – Chair; Dr. Ben Carson – Vice Chair; Dr. Ryan Anderson; Bishop Robert Barron; Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Rev. Franklin Graham; Mrs. Allyson Ho; Phil McGraw; Eric Metaxas; Kelly Shackelford; Rabbi Meir Soloveichik; Pastor Paula White-Cain; Vince Haley, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Ex-Officio Member; Todd Blanche, Acting Attorney General, Ex-Officio Member. Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,Ex-Officio Member.