President Donald Trump has named 26 individuals to serve on advisory boards for his Religious Liberty Commission.
Trump on May 1 signed an executive order establishing the commission, which will be led by chair Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and vice chair Dr. Ben Carson. The president also said TV personality Phil McGraw and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, would be among 11 other commission members.
The commission was tasked with enforcing "the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in federal law."
"Americans need to be reacquainted with our nation's superb experiment in religious freedom in order to preserve it against emerging threats," Trump's executive order said. "Therefore, the federal government will promote citizens' pride in our foundational history, identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold federal laws that protect all citizens' full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion."
The White House announced Friday that Trump designated people to serve on the advisory boards comprised of religious leaders, legal experts, and lay advisers.
Named to the advisory board of religious leaders were: Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, archbishop of San Francisco; Pastor Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia; Archbishop Elpidophoros of America; Rev. Thomas Ferguson, pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Alexandria, Virginia; Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, chief education officer of Tikvah; Pastor Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values; Bishop Thomas Paprocki, bishop of Springfield, Illinois; Bishop Kevin Rhoades, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana; Rabbi Eitan Webb, co-founder of the Chabad House of Princeton in 2002; and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America.
Named to the advisory board of legal experts were: Francis Beckwith. professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University; Jason Bedrick, a research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation; Josh Blackman, a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court; Gerald Bradley, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame; Alyza Lewin, president of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; and Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom.
Named to the advisory board of lay advisers were Abigail Robertson Allen, co-host of Heaven Meets Earth podcast; Gene Bailey, host on The Victory Channel; Mark David Hall, a professor at Regent University’s Robertson School of Government; Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Christopher Levenick, director of the Program for Civic Renewal with the Connelly Foundation; Sameerah Munshi, who has spoken out against forcing children to learn radical gender ideology in schools; Ismail Royer, director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute; Ryan Tucker, senior counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries with Alliance Defending Freedom; and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, a leading proponent of classical learning in Islam.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.