Project 2025 is a death sentence for religious freedom

(RNS) — Far-right groups are chomping at the bit for an election that will return Donald Trump to the White House, giving them a chance to achieve their dilapidated vision for America. That vision is contained in what its authors call “a menu of solutions” for the country’s problems, titled Project 2025.

The 900-plus page document, written by conservatives and allies of former President Donald Trump at the Heritage Foundation, is loaded with radical policies aimed at dismantling individual freedoms while gutting the federal government’s ability to operate. One of the gravest dangers isn’t spelled out, but can be discerned by reading between the lines: A dream to turn the United States into a religious monolith, where far-right interpretations of the Bible dictate every aspect of our lives. 

This isn’t surprising if you take a look at the more than 100 organizations that had a hand in crafting Project 2025’s recommendations. Many have explicit missions to promote a particular fundamentalist Christian worldview, such as the Family Research Council, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Alliance. Many of them also have ties to proponents or policies that favor fundamentalist Christian nationalism. 

The document tries to be subtle, speaking in terms of “religious liberties,” but its religious supremacist vision is apparent. Some of the groups involved in its creation have supported policies that intentionally discriminate against and persecute religious minorities, and the rights of religious minorities are barely mentioned.

One of the core promises of Project 2025 is to “secure our God-given individual rights to live freely — what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty.’” This sounds innocent enough, but the more one reads, the more it becomes obvious that it assumes our foundational constitutional rights come from a particular religious belief, not our basic humanity.

Under the Project 2025 regime, for instance, businesses would be forced to align with biblical values. The document states, “The Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family,” and goes on to criticize the erosion of a communal day of rest. 

But it specifically proposes that workers be paid time and a half for any hours worked on the Sabbath, which by default is the Christian Sabbath of Sunday. The clear intention is to get employers to close their businesses on Sundays, ensuring that the only place people can go is church. (Houses of worship, unsurprisingly, would be exempt from the overtime obligation.) 

Our education system would also become a platform for a far-right understanding of Christianity. Project 2025 proposes eliminating the Department of Education, but it has some more carefully constructed proposals that would also dismantle the public education system, for instance its plan to funnel taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private religious schools, the vast majority of which are Christian in the United States. 

The anti-constitutional proposals don’t stop there. Churches would be able to retain their tax-exempt status, even if they engage in racial discrimination or partisan political activity. Health officials would be prohibited from shutting down churches in the midst of a public health emergency. Patients could be deprived of necessary medical care if it didn’t align with their doctor’s religious beliefs. Religious organizations would get greater access to small business loans. Higher educational institutions could dodge accreditation standards that they claim conflict with their religious beliefs. 

Importantly, the document consistently refers to Christian communities and to Judeo-Christian values, but doesn’t devote a moment of attention to other religious communities or nonreligious communities. Even when discussing the need to protect religious minorities overseas, the only group explicitly named is Middle Eastern Christians. 

Former President Trump and other far-right candidates have tried to distance themselves from the plan, but their attempts are a farce. They are closely aligned with the architects of Project 2025, and have consistently created policy proposals in lockstep with those in the document. There’s no question that, given the opportunity, these candidates would move full steam ahead with the Project 2025 blueprint. 

We need to do everything in our power to stop it. At Emgage Action, we’re educating thousands of voters on the devastating threats posed by Project 2025 and providing them with the tools to mobilize against it. 

Other similarly minded organizations should do the same. Additionally, faith leaders of all religious traditions should come together and speak out against Project 2025. And voters should turn out at the polls to combat this vision in November. 

The architects of Project 2025 can use the term “religious liberty” all they want, but the reality is, the plan would spell disaster for our pluralistic democracy and protection for all religious communities or those who do not follow a faith tradition. We can’t let our nation go down that path. 

(Wa’el Alzayat is CEO of Emgage Action, which supports and advocates for just policies that strengthen America’s pluralistic democracy and protect human rights. Alzayat previously served as a Middle East policy expert for the U.S. Department of State for 10 years. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)