With members of his Religious Liberty Commission sitting to his right and left, President Donald Trump announced on Monday that new guidelines would be forthcoming to protect a student’s right to pray in school.
“Our nation was founded on the recognition that moral virtue and a steadfast faith in God are necessary preconditions of freedom,” said President Trump. He then lamented previous administration’s efforts to both belittle and weaponize government towards people of faith.
“That era has ended,” he declared.
To illustrate the hostility our nation’s schoolchildren have been navigating the last few years, Trump highlighted the plights of two students who were joining them at the Museum of the Bible gathering.
Hannah Allen from Honey Grove, Texas, had pulled together a group of students to pray for a former fellow classmate during their lunch break. The individual had been injured in an accident.
“Y’all don’t do that again,” warned the principal, Lee Frost. After Hannah and her friends pushed back, they were told they could only pray where nobody could see them. Our friends at First Liberty stepped in and were able to protect the students’ right to pray out in the open.
President Trump invited 12-year-old Shea Encinas to the podium to share how his school forced him to read “transgender” propaganda to a kindergartener in his school.
“The book said you can choose your gender based on feelings, instead of how God made us,” the now 6th grader explained. “I knew this was not right, but I was afraid of getting in trouble.”
When the Encinas family pushed back, other students and administrators began bullying Shea and his parents.
“It hurt a lot, but I kept trusting God,” confided the youngster. “I believe kids like me should be able to live our faith at school without being forced to go against what we believe. I hope no other family has to go through what we did.”
President Trump and millions of Americans agree.
In addition to protecting prayer in schools, since January, President Trump has signed a series of executive orders designed to reinstate sanity and common sense. This includes cutting federal funding for any school that shills sexual confusion nonsense. He’s also banned the sexual mutilation of children, affirmed the existence of only two genders, and banned boys from competing in girls’ sports.
“All of the different things we talk about, it’s insane,” reflected the president. “If you were here 15, 20 years ago, and if somebody had made a speech about ‘transgender’ for everyone … People would look at the person and say, ‘What’s he talking about? Is he crazy?’”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also joined the meeting and affirmed the government’s commitment to the First Amendment.
“Our founders believed every individual has the right to worship freely without fear of their own government,” she told those gathered. “No one knows this better than President Trump. Under his leadership, we dropped cases against pro-life Christians, stopped the FBI from spying on Catholics, launched multiple investigations into ant-Semitism in schools, and we are aggressively prosecuting vicious crimes against Jewish Americans.”
President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission is being led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Vice Chair Dr. Ben Carson. Other members include Franklin Graham, First Liberty’s Kelly Shackelford, Gary Bauer, Ryan Anderson, Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron.
These individuals and others are ensuring a student’s right to pray in school. We should return the generous gesture and pray for them and President Trump.
