We must change laws and policies, but more importantly, we must change hearts and minds.

Editor’s note: The following commentary is an excerpt from remarks presented before the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission on September 8, 2025, with minor edits made only for readability.

F or over 30 years, I have had the honor of standing with many brave families, from the Supreme Court all the way to local school boards — protecting what should be one of the most basic truths in America: that each of us is born with the God-given freedom to live, speak, and worship consistent with the teachings of our faith.

This isn’t a new idea or a partisan one. Our freedoms shouldn’t be up for negotiation. And our rights don’t come from the government — they come from God. Many believe it is the government’s role — and not parents’ — to raise our kids. This sentiment manifests itself in public schools across the country.

There are two main areas where I believe public schools are failing American parents and their children and trampling religious liberty.

First, rather than concentrating on teaching what we used to call the three “Rs” — reading, writing and arithmetic — now schools are pushing radical social agendas that often violate the religious beliefs of parents. Second, even though it has presented no real impediment to the practice of religion for the last ten to 15 years, the Establishment Clause is still often cited as an excuse to censor religion.

There are numerous examples of such religious hostility. I’ll cite just two of many that my firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, has litigated:

Lydia Booth’s school denied her Covid mask because it read, “Jesus Loves Me.” School officials cited a policy that didn’t even address religious speech — it prohibited inappropriate political and sexual speech. But it added religious speech to the policy after it denied Lydia her mask — blatantly trying to cover its tracks and just to make sure no religious speech would be allowed.

Brian Hickman was an elementary school student in California with cerebral palsy, facing more surgeries and physical struggles than most of us will in a lifetime. For an upcoming talent show at his school, he wanted to perform to a Christian song, “We Shine.” When he showed up at the auditions, school officials told Brian’s mother that the song was “too religious” and said “Jesus” too many times. I’m not sure what the school thought the right amount of Jesus was, but the school didn’t have a policy banning religious speech. Brian and his parents filed a lawsuit that not only led to a policy change that impacted more than half a million kids in the school district, but Brian also got to showcase his talent. After performing on stage that night, worshipping his Savior, he received a standing ovation that brought many in the audience to tears.

Perhaps the most chilling examples of threats to religious liberty and parental rights are schools’ indoctrinating students in current social issues — where school officials decide they know better than parents about how to raise a child.

This is not an isolated occurrence. Families in Michigan, Texas, and New York, for example, have discovered that their school districts claim that district policies allow them to socially transition students even over their parents’ objections.

Public schools are also threatening religious liberty and parental rights by adopting policies that force young girls to share restrooms, locker rooms, and even sleeping accommodations with boys on school trips. The Wailes family in Colorado sent their daughter on a school trip to Washington, D.C., only to find out that school officials assigned her to room with a boy — with whom she nearly ended up in the same bed — without so much as notifying her parents.

This is not education; it’s indoctrination, coercion, and deception cloaked in an arrogance that the government knows how to raise our children better than we do as parents. This is one of the most serious threats to religious liberty and parental rights of our day.

So how do we protect these vulnerable children, and their parents, from those who are supposed to protect and teach them?

A good way to begin is for the Trump administration and Congress to support the federal Families Rights and Responsibilities Act, which protects parents’ rights to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children. The government should also promote educational freedom and more opportunities for parents to choose how to educate their children, including voucher programs and released-time education, and it should continue to educate parents and students on what their rights are.

I read recently that only about one in three Americans know that freedom of religion is even in the First Amendment. One way to accomplish changing this is to create training for school officials on what the Constitution actually says: not the “separation of church and state” that has been weaponized to censor religion, but the robust freedom of religion for all, as intended by the Founders.

We must change laws and policies, but more importantly, we must change hearts and minds. That’s what will truly ensure that our God-given freedoms will long endure.