Religious favoritism in policy
Religious favoritism in policy is government establishing, endorsing, promoting, or burdening a specific religion or religious viewpoint through official action, position, or communications, or acting to narrow the Establishment Clause protections that guard against this. Concrete forms include taxpayer-funded religious observances, official communications that proselytize to a captive audience such as government employees, conditioning a public benefit or career advancement on adherence to a particular faith tradition, and withdrawing recognition or accommodation from minority faiths while retaining it for majority ones. Even-handed accommodation of religious practice across traditions is not favoritism; favoritism is what happens when government picks which faiths receive its preference.
2026 Events (12)
Texas State Board of Education adopted high school standards linking Islam to 9/11, jihad, and conquest of Christian lands
On September 4, 2026, the Texas State Board of Education gave final approval to new high school social studies standards, to be phased in beginning the 2030-31 school year, that require students be taught that "radical Islam" motivated the September 11 attacks and that frame early Islamic history around the Prophet Muhammad's "brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes" and "the taking of female captives as harem slaves." The board's own appointed content advisors warned the language was inconsistent with "the neutral, descriptive standard applied to other religious and cultural traditions," and the board separately declined to revive a previously deleted standard on Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened DFW and Houston airport funding over Islamic ablution facilities, forcing DFW to cancel its planned station
On August 14, 2026, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent letters threatening to withdraw state and federal grant funding from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport over facilities used for Islamic ritual washing before prayer, calling the accommodations illegal religious favoritism, and referred both airports to the U.S. Transportation Secretary for a federal investigation. DFW canceled its planned ablution station the same day the threat became public.
Pete Hegseth conditioned military chaplain promotions on Christian ideology adherence
The Independent reported on July 22, 2026, citing current and former military chaplains, that promotions within the military chaplain corps were being conditioned on chaplains' willingness to align with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's push to instill a Christian ideology framework within the armed forces. Chaplains who did not conform to the ideological direction faced career consequences, creating a coercive religious environment in which advancement in a nominally nondenominational service was tied to adherence to a specific faith tradition. The Daily Beast had earlier published a chaplain's account of the religious pressure campaign.
Trump's Religious Liberty Commission released draft report urging DOJ to narrow Establishment Clause protections
On June 26, 2026, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Religious Liberty — a federal advisory body established by Trump executive order — released a 12-point draft report calling for a stronger government role in promoting religion and recommending that the Department of Justice issue guidance to narrow First Amendment Establishment Clause doctrine. The report proposes replacing the concept of church-state separation with government "bridges" to religion and additionally recommends eliminating the Johnson Amendment, which bars tax-exempt religious organizations from endorsing political candidates. President Trump personally met with the commission and publicly stated, "We're going to bring religion back."
Texas State Board of Education voted to mandate Bible passages as required K–12 reading for 5 million public school students
The Texas State Board of Education voted on June 26, 2026 to adopt a mandatory K–12 reading list that includes Bible passages—including New Testament stories about Jesus—alongside secular literary works, applying to roughly 5 million Texas public school students. The list is the first of its kind in the United States; no other state has a mandatory reading list that includes religious texts. Implementation is staggered, beginning with elementary students in 2030.
Pentagon cuts recognized military faith codes from ~211 to 31, dropping minority faiths
A May 20, 2026 Defense Department memorandum signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata cut the military's list of officially recognized religious affiliation codes from roughly 211 to 31, dropping an estimated 180 minority faiths and worldviews — including atheists, humanists, pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens/Asatru, deists, Unitarian Universalists, and spiritualists. The reduction, directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, preserves majority faiths while removing the de-recognized groups' access to formal chaplain support.
Trump White House backed taxpayer-funded 'Rededicate 250' worship service on National Mall
On May 17, 2026, the Trump White House backed an all-day evangelical worship service — "Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving" — on the National Mall, funded through a mix of taxpayer dollars and private donations. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared by video, and House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the crowd in person alongside religious leaders. Church-state separation advocates and constitutional-law scholars said the federal government's endorsement and partial funding of an explicitly Christian worship service on federal land raised First Amendment Establishment Clause concerns.
Texas AG Paxton opened investigations into roughly two dozen school districts to enforce Ten Commandments and prayer laws
On May 7, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced investigations into roughly two dozen public school districts to enforce state laws requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms and school-board votes on designated prayer time. The districts were ordered to produce records showing compliance with Senate Bills 10 and 11, both enacted in 2025. Paxton, then a U.S. Senate candidate, framed the effort as protecting students' right to pray and to learn from the Ten Commandments daily.
DOJ anti-Christian bias task force published report urging federal realignment toward Christian religious-liberty claims
On April 30, 2026, the Presidential Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, created by Executive Order 14202 and chaired by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, published its report asserting that the prior administration's prosecutions, policies, and practices were pervasively anti-Christian. The report documents claimed bias across seventeen federal agencies and endorses realigning federal enforcement, hiring, and civil-rights priorities toward claims framed as Christian religious liberty. It cites steps already taken, including rescinding a Biden-era school-board memo and withdrawing prior interpretations of employment-discrimination law.
USDA Secretary Rollins sent proselytizing Christian Easter message to 100,000 federal employees, declaring sin destroyed and Jesus risen
On April 5, 2026 — Easter Sunday — USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins sent an agency-wide email to all 100,000 USDA employees declaring that "sin has been destroyed" and "Jesus has been raised from the dead," using phrases like "we celebrate" and "our faith," and quoting multiple Bible verses. The message was part of a pattern of Christian-infused agency communications spanning Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, and Independence Day, while Rollins sent no message acknowledging any other religion's holidays. Federal employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees union subsequently filed suit alleging Establishment Clause violations, and plaintiffs filed for a preliminary injunction on July 23, 2026, after Rollins continued the practice despite the pending lawsuit.
Texas AG Paxton issued opinion enabling exclusion of Islamic schools from voucher program over unsubstantiated terrorism claims
On January 24, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion authorizing the state comptroller to exclude private schools from the state's new voucher program over alleged ties to terrorism or foreign governments. The opinion followed a request from Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock after researcher Sam Westrop — previously found liable in the U.K. for over $173,000 in libel damages for a false terrorism claim — alleged that nearly 50 Texas Islamic and Chinese-linked private schools had extremist or foreign-government ties. The comptroller's office used taxpayer funds to investigate the schools and delayed their admittance to the voucher program before four Islamic schools sued and were subsequently admitted.
Institute of Museum and Library Services funded 'Freedom Trucks' museums that presented fabricated and AI-generated history to the public
The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded a $14 million grant to Freedom 250 to fund a fleet of six "Freedom Trucks" mobile museums, which launched January 21, 2026 and toured schools and communities nationwide with content produced by PragerU and Hillsdale College. Reporting by The Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed, and independent journalist Jonathan Larsen documented that the exhibits presented fabricated and AI-generated historical claims, including an invented George Washington quotation, a false statement that Muhammad Ali had "disavowed" Islam, and a long-debunked myth that Congress authorized an official "Aitken Bible." Historians said the government-funded exhibits advanced a sanitized, Christian-nationalist account of American history.