Federal officials are zeroing in on a troubling reality facing millions of religious Americans: practicing your faith on the job could cost you.
That warning emerged from President Donald Trump’s White House Religious Liberty Commission, a panel bringing together cultural and political voices to examine how Christian Americans are treated in professional settings.
Television personality Dr. Phil McGraw sits among the commission’s appointees, and his recent comments have drawn attention to what he characterized as a widespread problem.
Last month, the commission released a draft report cataloguing specific threats to religious liberty nationwide. The document doesn’t stop at identifying problems — it lays out a roadmap of policy changes for the Trump administration to potentially adopt.
Inside the Oval Office, McGraw addressed reporters and offered his own read on testimony gathered by the commission. He zeroed in on one detail that struck him most: the sheer breadth of industries where believers reported facing backlash.
“What stuck out for me is how many Americans showed up saying that they were persecuted in health care, military, education — different walks of life — for living their faith and standing up for their faith,” McGraw said, according to NewsNation.
McGraw pushed back on the notion that religious liberty simply means picking a church, synagogue, or mosque to attend. He framed the issue instead as something following believers into their careers and daily routines.
“It’s not just the liberty to choose which house of worship they want, it’s actually getting into their daily life, and they’re being persecuted in their jobs,” McGraw said.
In recent years, McGraw has grown increasingly open about his own Christian faith, a shift that has coincided with his role advising the commission.
Joining McGraw in the spotlight was Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the Republican who leads the commission as its chairman. Patrick used his remarks to take direct aim at a phrase he says has been twisted to silence religious expression in public.
According to Patrick, the term “separation of church and state” carries no constitutional basis, despite how frequently it gets invoked. “Again, the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution,” Patrick said.
He then issued a pointed declaration about how the phrase should be treated going forward, insisting its influence over religious Americans has run its course.
“And from this day forward, that phrase should have no power over people of all faiths ever again in America,” Patrick said.
The commission’s draft report backs up these public statements with concrete proposals.
Chief among them is a call for the Department of Justice to issue formal guidance clarifying the Establishment Clause and correcting what commissioners view as widespread misunderstanding of church-state separation.
A second major proposal targets public officials directly.
Under this recommendation, any supervisor who determines an employee improperly engaged in religious expression would be required to submit written justification explaining exactly how that conduct broke constitutional or legal rules.
Workplace education factors heavily into the plan as well. The commission wants “Know Your Rights” posters covering religious freedom protections posted in workplaces across the country, giving employees clear information about their legal standing.
Judicial appointments made the list too, with the commission pushing for the confirmation of judges specifically willing to hear and rule on religious liberty disputes.
Perhaps the most symbolic proposal involves the creation of new federal honors: a “Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty” alongside “First Freedom Hero Awards.”
Commission members say these accolades would spotlight Americans who defend religious freedom and safeguard constitutional protections within their communities.
Taken together, the recommendations paint a picture of a commission determined to convert firsthand accounts of workplace discrimination into lasting federal policy.
McGraw and Patrick’s Oval Office remarks served as a public face for testimony collected from believers across numerous professions.
For now, the draft report remains under review, with its full slate of recommendations awaiting further action from the Trump administration before any become official policy.
