Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presided over a Texas Senate session Friday as lawmakers there attempted to ram through its racist redistricting plan, got angry with some observers gathered in the gallery who didn’t stand as Sen. Angela Paxton delivered an invocation “in the name of Jesus, who has saved us, who keeps us safe, and who is coming again.”
For those of you who didn’t stand, next time you come to the gallery, you stand for the invocation.
TEXAS LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK
“For those of you who didn’t stand, next time you come to the gallery, you stand for the invocation,” Patrick chastised. “It’s respecting the Senate. If you don’t stand for the invocation, I’ll have you removed. We asked you to stand. I’ve never seen a gallery ever have any members, in my 17 years, of people who refused to stand for the invocation. It will not be tolerated.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that legislative prayer is constitutional, but certainly it cannot be constitutional for the presiding officer of a legislative body to try to force people to stand for an exclusively Christian prayer delivered “in the name of Jesus.” Patrick’s religious chauvinism should not be tolerated.
It should be easy for all Americans, regardless of their ideological and political persuasions, to agree that the government should not be forcing people to stand for a prayer. In no way does the decision not to stand for a prayer warrant a person’s removal from an official government meeting.
It’s important to note that President Donald Trump picked Patrick to chair his Religious Liberty Commission, established in May. I attended its first hearing at the Museum of the Bible (yes, you read that correctly: a presidential commission held at the fundamentalist Museum of the Bible) and witnessed how Patrick and Phil McGraw (yes, that Dr. Phil is on the commission) are gaslighting America about religious liberty. That hearing also started with a prayer made “in Jesus’ name” and featured as a surprise guest U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who falsely accused President Joe Biden of turning Easter into Transgender Day of Visibility when the two just happened to coincide that year.
How can a person who tries to wield government power to force people to pray (or even respect that prayer by standing) teach us anything about religious liberty? The Trump-Patrick commission twisted history to promote Christian nationalism, which betrays our founding promise of religious liberty. I led a walkout from the hearing alongside other real advocates of religious freedom.
Patrick, Bondi and Trump continue to shroud their authoritarianism in religiosity.
Patrick, Bondi and Trump continue to shroud their authoritarianism in religiosity, and those of us who believe in religious liberty will continue to call them out. We must also let our faith inspire our resistance to the awful gerrymandering Texas is brazenly carrying out. The redrawn maps, which Republicans admit are meant to advantage their party, will harm Black and Latino voters. The Brennan Center says Texas is working to “produce five new sets for Republicans, mid-decade (long after the census), at the expense of Black and Latino voters, all on orders from a sitting president.”
I hosted a virtual Aug. 5 conversation at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, where I serve as a senior fellow, with Texas state Rep. James Talarico shortly after he and other Democrats left the state to deny their Republican colleagues the quorum they needed to carry out their plan.
“Donald Trump and (Texas Gov.) Greg Abbott and my Republican colleagues back in Texas are attempting to break that sacred promise with every suppressed vote, with every gerrymandered district,” Talarico told me. He also noted the diversity of the group of lawmakers who absented themselves to protest the Republicans’ awful plan: “We don’t just have Christians in our caucus,” he said. “We have Jews and Muslims, we have atheists and agnostics.” In contrast to Patrick compelling people to pray, Talarico said before the Texas lawmakers left for Illinois, he offered a personal prayer he meant to be inclusive and interfaith. “We joined together hand in hand and said a prayer to the power of love and its ability to give us strength and peace and comfort as we embark on this journey on behalf of our constituents and the people of Texas,” he said. Church-state separation isn’t about limiting prayer. It’s not even about limiting prayers by our elected leaders. It’s instead about keeping government leaders from picking which prayers we must all stand for and making assumptions about a shared religion. Elected leaders can be strong believers in prayer — the Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia is an example — and refuse to use prayer as a cudgel the way Patrick did. Patrick diminishes religion by attempting to force people to respect it. Religion flourishes when it’s free from government interference. Much more alarmingly, though, Patrick appeals to religion in the service of a racist gerrymandering project. Not only was he wrong to demand that people stand, but he was also wrong to seek God’s blessings on such an obvious offense. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presided over a Texas Senate session Friday as lawmakers there attempted to ram through its racist redistricting plan, got angry with some observers gathered in the gallery who didn’t stand as Sen. Angela Paxton delivered an invocation “in the name of Jesus, who has saved us, who keeps us safe, and who is coming again.”
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons is vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance and the author of "Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity." 
